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Monday, May 30, 2011

One In, One Out

Our new dog, Lily, is fitting in quite nicely. In her own unique way, she is cute as a bug. She gets along great with Jaz and Dylan. She is a bit of a comedian with some funny attributes (like the way she burrows under the covers or tries to use my socks as nesting material). Everything is going swimmingly well with one glaring exception: Sami the cat.

Sami, a stray we adopted about 2 months ago, gets along well with the human population, but she does not get along well at all with other four-legged domestic creatures She terrorizes our 11 year old cat and our big dog, Jaz, is absolutely terrified of her. Even though Jaz outweighs Sami by about 50 pounds, she is constantly being bullied by the little kitty.

We had hoped that all Sami needed was some time to feel more at home after having been a stray for a month or more, but she seems to be getting along less well now than when she first arrived!

The final straw was broken today. She attacked Lily and scratched her nose enough to draw blood. Since Lily is a hairless dog, cuts and abrasions can be more serious for her than for other pooches. Since we can't watch Sami 24/7 and there are situations in which we leave and the doggies can't come with us, we don't want to take the chance that Sami will injure Lily severely.

So, as much as we hate to do this, we have decided to take Sami to the humane society and surrender her. It really is a shame because Sami is very sweet with Della and I. She has loads of personality and is a very affectionate feline. Her chief problem is that she is too possessive of her humans and feels the need to drive off any other animals in the house.

I plan to write up a short narrative about her to give to the staff at the shelter. Both Della and I recommend that she be adopted as the sole animal for an individual or family. With no other pets to compete with, I am very confident she will brighten the life of another family.

As Della noted this evening, with our laid back lifestyle and non-aggressive pets, we simply don't need the stress and worry of dealing with an alpha cat. I can guarantee that Dylan, Jaz and Lily will sleep easier once Sami is no longer around looking to pounce on them.

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