Quite a handful...

I'll be surprised if I come home from work and not find at least some damage around my house. Last night was "the great experiment": Introducing AL's dogs to my cats. Interestingly, it could have gone worse than it did. Although it wasn't smooth as butter. I didn't expect it to be.

It started with AL showing up at my house with her dogs in tow. It was raining outside, and in such weather my cats tend to want to be inside. But tonight was going to be a big surprise for them, as they were going to have some additional guests in the house. The first thing we did was unload their gear into my house. We brought in their dog beds, kennels and a gate to help separate them from another part of the house for the cats to be able to safely go into.

After the gear was into the house, we decided it'd be best to take the dogs to the park that was close and run them until they were tired out. While we were at the park, I got to observe how she handles her dogs and she got to observe the difference on how I would handle them. I compare pets to children, it's definitely tell-tale of mannerisms on how to discipline and praise. What I learned about her though was more that she is a bit overwhelmed by them. She loves them to no end, but since their energy is high, it runs her ragged. Also, since she doesn't have a partner around often to help her with them, she more tends to keep them home instead of getting them out of the house and socializing, which would help them leaps and bounds in their home life and how they respond to her. At one point during our walk, she had tears in her eyes and I asked her about them. She was worried that I would not want to deal with them, to not be with her because of her dogs. She's wrong about that, I told her so.

Sure, her dogs are difficult, but they're correctable, trainable and loving. It would just take time to help them settle down to a point where they would be find around my cats unattended. But for that night, we were set to try it out. Have a sleep over, and hope that all hell didn't break loose.

Once we arrived back home, we brought the dogs into the house and put them into their Kennels as we unloaded the rest of AL's stuff from her car. At this point, Hudson wanted to come into the house and get out of the rain. Funny, the kennels were right next to the front door, so when he ran inside he was greeted by the sight of AL's two dogs in their boxes. Surprisingly, the dogs didn't bark at Hudson, but Hudson did raise his hackles a bit and kept an eye on them while backing away. He didn't run out of the house, however since he knew that it was his place and not theirs. Packet on the other hand, was no where to be found. He had already the joy of meeting them outside of the house, hissed at them and decided that it'd be for the best for him to stay outside for awhile.

Once AL was unloaded, we let the dogs out and the proceeded to run around the house sniffing and exploring, pouring and tripping over each other. Hudson intelligently decided to head down stairs away from the commotion. Packet had also come inside since dinner and proceeded to head downstairs.

During the night, we kept the dogs in my room on their dog beds on the floor to help limit their pacing around the house while they explored and to allow my cats to have some allotted freedom to get used to this idea.

AL left the kennels at my house, as at her home they have their own dog run, and have the freedom to roam her house when she's at home. I think this was a good decision because it will also allow their smell to get into my house and the cats to hopefully become more comfortable with it. We'll see, time will tell.