
He’s not scared in this picture, but it’s darn cute (the kitten, not Evil Genius. Then again I guess he’s cute too…)
So we had this bright idea that we’d get a kitten.
Now before you start lecturing me about how the world is full of older cats that need a good home, keep in mind that I would LOVE to adopt another older kitty. However, we have a large dog that really wants a fellow animal that might tolerate him. Not to mention that we already own one adult antisocial female kitty.
We’d been going to animal shelters for months trying to find a boy kitty that would coexist semi-peacefully with our pooch. We sure didn’t have much luck. Every time we went all of the young kitties were already gone, leaving us with a selection of very beautiful older female kitties. Yes I wanted to take all of them home, but sadly I wasn’t allowed. It was for their own safety-there was no way Rogue would let them live.
Recently we just happened to stop at the shelter at the right time. They had many kittens to choose from, two whole litters as a matter of fact! There was one kitten in particular that was quite a bit smaller then the rest. Being one that watched Charlotte’s Web over and over again as a kid, I’m kind of partial to the runt of the litter. His name was Percival, but of course since we are complete geeks we had to choose some sort of science fiction/superhero/fantasy name to go along with our cat Rogue and our dog Neo.
So that day he left the shelter as Percival, but he came home as James Tiberius Kat. If you get the joke, then you are totally cool. The jokes are pretty much endless with this one.
For example:
The cat catches and kills a mouse, “He’s dead Jim.”
Obviously we won’t be calling him Jim, we’ll be calling him Tiberius. This little guy was 6 weeks old the day we brought him home. He’s cute, he’s ornery, but is also a great cuddler, as you can see from the above picture. What he lacks in size he certainly makes up for in determination. His favorite spot is on your lap or on your shoulder, because for some reason he thinks he’s a parrot. He goes and goes like the Energizer bunny, until he drops right where he stops. He just can’t keep his eyes open and has to take a literal cat nap.
So how is it going between the canine and the feline? I believe the following quote from Evil Genius pretty much sums it up: “You’d think a 75 pound dog would be tougher than a 12 ounce cat.”
If nothing else, we are fully entertained.
Neo wants to play with Tiberius. However he is fifty times bigger than the kitten is. Therefore the wee one doesn’t want a whole lot to do with him yet. There is a lot of sniffing from the dog and lots of hissing from the cat. The cat puts the dog in his place, the dog slinks off with his tail between his legs and those big sad eyes that seem to say “Nobody loves me.”
And there is fighting over me. They both want to sit with me, which apparently is against some sort of law in the pet book. At one point Tiberius sat next to me, looked at the dog who was across the room, and firmly planted one foot on top of my foot as if to say “Look, I’m touching her and you’re not…”
Neo being stubborn and jealous of the cat will wedge himself in alongside me on the couch, with his back to Tiberius and his tail is literally smacking the crap out of him. Tiberius thinks it’s a toy, but he’s not quite sure he’s ready to touch that dog. While it is getting better, as in they can almost sit on the same piece of furniture, they’re not exactly buddies.
So instead of getting along as we had hoped, the dog eats the kitten food and the kitten’s poop. Now the kitty is taking matters into his own hands and is trying to eat the dog’s food. This was quite amusing, considering the dog food bowl is bigger than he is!
It’s seriously almost as funny as the time I caught Rogue playing with a mouse under the bed. Normally she does not play. As a matter of fact, she does not even want us to THINK that she plays. One day I walked into the bedroom and caught her, paw out to bat at a catnip mousie. She saw me, froze, and very slowly pulled her paw back. “You never saw that.”
Speaking of, what does the antisocial kitty think of the kitten?
Do you have members of both species at your house? Do they get along or do they want to kill each other in the middle of the night? I’d love to hear all about it. I’d also love to think that there is hope that these two might actually like each other someday!
I wrote about dogs and cats for Theme Thursday back at the beginning of the year, chronicling the whole phenomenon in our house… The link to that is HERE.
I get it! May James Tiberius Kat live long and prosper 😀
I can’t have fluffy pets where I live, but he looks like a sweet bundle of fun and chaos 🙂 Enjoy.
This will make me think twice about letting a dog lick my face! I mean a dog eating cat food? gross!
Saw the ISU shirt and had to stop by.
OMG Sarah! EEEP to the adorable Tiberius and love that he’s already drinking from a straw. Obviously more dignified than the dog. I’m really allergic to cats so I’ve never had the pleasure…but yours is adorable. And I LOVE his name. “He’s dead Jim” HAHAHAH. You’re awesome. I’m stumbling this page.
That cat is so cute!! Anyway, we just have a dog and a fish and that is plenty of pets for me.
The picture of the dog trying to make friends is so cute! I think they will soon be fast friends.
We had a 106# Lab once that was terrified of the cats. Of course, the cats made sure of it! Smart little devils!!!! She is ADORABLE!!!!!!
I’d have to get an update from my family on that. They had a 4 year old, “I am THE king of you all” cat named Murphy since he was 8 weeks old but recently added a lab puppy named Izzy to the mix. Izzy loves Murphy, and he will put up with her when she is calm. He smacks her – no claws – if she gets too close and hisses a little, but he has gone from “I don’t associate with you humans except for food” mentality to “I may cuddle with you now so the dog doesn’t win.” This is shown by the cat jumping on the table when my dad comes home from work. The puppy runs to meet him, but the cat takes the higher ground so he can be petted first. It is quite funny.
Good luck with your two. I do remember our old dog Ooga and our cat Jesse eventually getting along rather well so there is hope. 🙂
The cat can drink out of a straw? That’s better than a lot of humans on a drunk night at the local bar. Your cat has magical powers. The dog eats the cat tootsie rolls out of the own? Maybe they (the poops) have magical powers, too. At least your dog is getting his alotted amount of protein for the day..for free….
Gorgeous animals! We have four cats and one big dog, the dog is intrigued by all the cats and would like them to play, however she is well aware that out of the four, two cats hate her guts and won’t have anything to do with her, one just usually ignores her completely, and the fourth cat absolutely adores the dog and spends all his time trying to rub his ass in the dog’s face. The dog is surprisingly okay with this, and the two of them get along really well.
Aww, your new little family member is adorable. 🙂 We have two male cats and one female dog. The cats loooove the dog and try to cuddle with her. And the dog, the *female* dog–a chocolate lab, mostly ignores the cats except when she’s trying to hump them, which is beyond ridiculous for lots of reasons–wrong size, wrong genders, wrong species… She’s so much bigger than the (male) cats that she’s just hovering over them as she humps them, not really touching them. The cats don’t mind at all.and will sometimes rub up on her legs. Ridiculous animals. It’s sort of embarassing when this scene goes down in front of company, but usually people think it’s pretty funny.
Awww all the animals are so sweet 🙂 We have 7 cats and one little pooch. The way it has gone with us seems to be personal preference. Some cats hate the dog and run away from him hissing, others ignore him fully but one of them likes to sleep with him. They all eat together but the cats take advantage of the dog and steal his food. (Although he has a taste for cat poop too!) There is a lot of jealousy too! They all try and get the prime spot on your knee, or next to the heater in winter!
I love the picture of the cat drinking out of the straw and the caption! We just got a fish tank yesterday and 8 fish. One of them already died. Does that tell you how much pets like it at our house?
I love your animal names. We have a dog named Bones (“Damnit Jim, I’m a dog, not a doctor!) and two cats, Arwen (the nice social one) and Eowyn (the crazy anti-social one). We’d had the cats for almost 10 years when we got the dog. Eowyn doesn’t even like our kids, so there was no hope there. But I thought he and Arwen would get along. It’s been 5 months and they can finally happily coexist, although they have the occasional harmless spat, and they aren’t exactly cuddling each other but we can sit on the sofa all together and that’s great.
what a great post…poor doggie wanted to be friends. Dino seems to be quite unaware of Nemo, so that is good I guess.
I’d love to have a cat. One of my dogs would eat the cat, for sure. 😦 Your crew is adorable and love the name!!
I love the description of the feline/canine dynamics and you’re the BEST captionist, you always make me laugh. Yes, I did for a while have one of each and like I said the poop eating/hissing dynamic sounds very familiar. They never became best friends but they did occasionally play for two minutes or agreed to share a nap on the same couch. You’ll have so much fun watching them bond!
Has he lifted his paws in the air and yelled “RRRROOOOUUUGGGGGEEEE!” yet? Also – did you see we got a kitten too? That’s weird and I think it makes us a tad psychically connected.
We have a lab and a cat (who looks much like your Rogue). They get along great, however, Mr. Big (the cat) refuses to play nice with other cats, which is a real bummer for me because I am a cat lady wannabe. Mr. Big will start peeing everywhere if I even suggest bringing another cat into the house. It’s really depressing to be a cat lady and not be able to collect cats willy nilly.
Congrats on your sweet Tiberius! Great name, too.
we had dogs and birds…it was fine because the birds were here first and they were respected as the alpha animals….
I’m so not a pet person but you made me smile with your descriptions of them. We have a cat who has been pissed off at us for 3.5 years now…since we brought our son home from the hospital.
When my husband and I were first married we combined our families, including his dog and my cat. His dog was blind, but he could smell my cat. The cat would be sitting on a chair and the dog would smell her then move closer to sniff and the cat would start batting the dog on the nose. The dog would freak out and start nipping then the cat would run off and the dog was confused. Sometimes the dog would chase the cat and the cat would turn into a room from the hallway and the dog would run straight into the wall. Poor thing. They’re both gone now – that was 11 years ago. The dog was diabetic and died before we even had our kids, the cat was hauled off by a coyote two years ago – at least we assume that’s what happened.
Wow, this was very amusing lol! We had the same exact situation when my family dopted a second dog, Brownie. To this day, the two still fight for dominance, but then kiss each other and go away to nap at different parts of the house!
Awww your kitten is so gosh darn cute…he’s adorable. Just seeing the pictures, and reading what you wrote, makes me want another kitten/cat…and I would love one that drank Mountain Dew.
I would love to get a kitten, so would my son but my hubs keeps saying the 2 100 lb berners we have might not be too happy. He really is adorable, all of your pets are 🙂
Love James Tiberius! True story: a friend once told me her husband had suggested that as a name for their son, but she rejected it….. because James is too common of a name. (I came from the Hump Day Hook UP.)
I miss having pets and horses. We’re hoping to buy a house and then open the flood gates for 2 of E V E R Y T H I N G! 😉
It’s going to be an ark?
While I don’t subscribe to the cat thing, yours is pretty cute.
Thanks for hooking up to the Hump Day Hook Up
He is certainly unlike any cat I’ve owned, that’s for sure!
We had one cat, and two dogs. My older dog Roscoe wanted to eat the cat, and tried on several occasions but got wapped! The younger dog, Daisy, wanted to play, but since all dogs look alike, Levon that cat would have none of it!
I’ve always had cats so this is so new to me. I just think it’s all pretty darn funny. And I’m the one at the center of their universe!
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