Re: Dogs' spirits

Augie was completely bonded to me as his mom, but was friendly with others. He did not like going outside very often and would get anxious. When my fiance tripped up the stairs and fell over Augie (did not hurt him), Augie became very anxious and nervous around Chuck. It soon turned into a full blown phobia. He would literally run in fear from Chuck and quite frequently (all the time actually) loose control of his bowels and bladder. We tried working with a behaviorist or two, but Chuck at that time was working a very stressful job and just didn't have the patience or energy to commit to doing consistently what the behaviorist suggested. There was, also, quite a bit of anger from him towards the cat. Towards the end, I just put my foot down and told him to stay away from my side of the bed and let the poor animal alone. He stayed huddled under the bed on my side whenever Chuck was upstairs. The last 3 years of Augie's life, I was home with my daughter. That helped that he was with me during the day and my husband was at work. But Augie was a sweet cat and loved cuddles.

Bounder is a cat's cat. He loves to be outside. He is the terror of all chipmunks, moles, squirrels and careless birds. (The only things Augie ever caught were toy mice and crickets.) He can be a bit of a bully to the other cats, Max and Salem. They won't play with him and usually hiss or growl if he comes near them in any kind of aggressive manner. Patches, on the other hand adores him. She was a rescue feral kitten and we've had her since she was about 5 weeks old. She follows him around and plays just as rough with him as he does with her. But she's a perfect little lady to Max and Salem. Bounder gets so much cuddling from my daughter that it seems to fill up his cuddle quota. He will occasionally come to Chuck or me for quick cuddles and even decide that he must sleep with me sometimes. Salem is usually the cat that sleeps with me every night.

Bounder seems to be more grounded, calmer and more adventurous. Tweet