Before you begin wondering what the heck this headline means, I’ll tell you right now: We’ve had two rescue dogs, Zoe and Buddy, for nearly two years, but yesterday we added another pet when Ann came home with a tiny kitten named Ineus.

Ineus, whom I also call Paco(easier for me to remember) is only a couple of months old but is taking to Ann, Eric and I quite nicely. Due to the sometimes unpredictable behavior of the dogs-especially Buddy- we’ve set him up in Eric’s room. Doing that was kind of the point: Eric had been asking Ann for a cat for quite a while so Ann finally hooked him up with one. So far, so good but I’m really feeling the pressure to keep Ineus safe from the dogs when Eric’s at school and Ann is working. Normally, I’ll tempt the dogs with a treat and, so far, it’s worked every time. They’ve always been suckers for a treat.

Yesterday, as Buddy recovered ,after another walk around the block,atop the couch in front of our front window and Zoe rested comfortably on the other couch, I took a chance and went to visit Ineus in Eric’s room. Most of the time that I open the door, he is over on Eric’s bed, resting comfortably either on one of Eric’s pillows or a comforter. Due to the fact that its not a given that he’ll be resting on the bed, I open the door to his room very, very slowly, partly expecting him to make a getaway attempt. When I do see Paco peering at me, eager to get free, I pick him up, go into the room, close the door and then close the door behind us.

Visiting the cat a few times when no one else is home, I feel, eliminates, or at least lessens the feeling of loneliness the cat may be feeling while I’m doing other things throughout the day.

In fact, I even let him come out and roam the house for a little while. I figured that is how it is bound to be as he grows older, so why not give both the cat and dogs a little time to get used to one another This was done mainly so the dogs- OK, Buddy- could get used to having him around so there wouldn’t be any turf wars between once he began roaming the house full-time.

This blog’s subject is an admittedly corny subject, but for myself, a long-time dog lover it was worth me, this one time, trying to make the cat feel as comfortable as possible. Plus, I’ve had fun observing the silly little things  that Paco spends more than a few minutes playing with, things like a tiny wiffle golf ball with string running through it and hanging from a chair.  He’ll whack it around with his paw, scamper to where he thinks its going only to have it swing back in the opposite direction.

Much like a toddler, Paco has found the simplest of toys, like the one I just described above, totally entertaining. For reasons like that, I may be breaking my long time ‘cats aren’t good pets’ view. I guess time will tell.