The Cat's Meow

For many years, I firmly believed that most dogs get along well with cats.  I actually once ventured the opinion, in a conversation with a friend, that most of the time, the cats were the ones with the problem, not the dogs.  Having owned both cats and dogs for many years, I knew that not all dogs get along with cats to the same extent, but I had never really had much of a difficulty with any of my dogs, except for an occasional growl and some excessive nipping (which my toy poodle, Charla, was guilty of).  I really thought that if dogs grow up with cats, they rarely have difficulties getting along with them.

This opinion changed when I got Prince.

As a puppy, Prince really didn't seem to be too excited by most of my cats, but one of my cats took an instant dislike to Prince the moment he saw him.  As soon as I put Prince down in front of him, Remy arched his back, hissed, and tried to scratch him.  Because I grabbed Prince before Remy touched him, I thought that Prince had barely noticed.

I was wrong.

For several months afterwards, I tried to keep Remy out of Prince's way, but one day he escaped into the part of the house where Prince was.  Prince instantly went after him, and I snatched up the cat to protect him, only to have him climb me like a tree.  After a lot of shouting and a great deal of pain, I managed to deescalate the situation, and decided the two of them would never meet again.  Unfortunately, Remy was less than cooperative in this regard.

Every night, when I took Prince into the bedroom, Remy would come to the bedroom door and howl.  Why he did this, knowing his arch enemy was in the room, I couldn't say, but he did it continually...for months.  Every night, usually around 4 am, I would awaken to the sound of his mournful meows, and see Prince lying in front of the door, eyeing the crack beneath it in an exasperated fashion.

I tried ignoring Remy...to no avail.  Spraying an aerosol can in the air also accomplished nothing after I did it the third time.  Night after night, I would lie in bed, grinding my teeth, as the wailing continued, until one night, befuddled by a lack of sleep, I decided to open the door a mere crack and scare Remy away by showing him Prince.

I had failed to take into account Prince's frustration about the situation.

Prince and Little Kitty

As soon as I opened the door, Prince bulldozed past me, causing the cat to jump at least 6 feet in the air and land on top of a dresser, from which he promptly dislodged everything on top of it.  He then jumped down and, after a spirited romp through the house, ran back into the bedroom and disappeared under the bed.

This meant, of course, that I had to confine Prince to another portion of the house while I spent 15 minutes coaxing the cat out from his hiding place.  The only positive thing was that for several weeks after that, Remy refrained from meowing at the bedroom door.

I don't know whether Remy was the catalyst or not, but Prince doesn't like most cats.  He kind of likes the first cat he met as a puppy, Little Kitty, and every day when she runs into his part of the house, he says hello to her, and sometimes even gives her a lick.  She's the only cat he'll tolerate now.  In fact,  she's the only cat he's ever tolerated...except for Cookie and  Cream.