All right, so, for those who don’t know, I have four pets in the house. We have two dogs named Star and Chase, and two cats named Gus and Ringo. They have their own territories, so to speak; the dogs rule the downstairs, while the cats lord over the upstairs. The stairs are more the cats’ territory, as there is a child’s gate at the foot of the steps preventing the dogs from coming upstairs. The reason this layout is the way it is is because while Chase has no problems with the cats, Star is not cat-friendly and as such we worry about her hurting or killing the cats. (We’ve seen her kill a squirrel in the backyard before, for example.) The cats make infrequent forays into the downstairs area when they’re sure the dogs aren’t around; it happens more often at Christmas, though, as Gus likes to sit under the tree. Then again, one could argue the cats have that right, as they were here first.
Well, this morning, the dogs decided to strike back. :-)
Mom came out of the bathroom this morning and made her way to the guest bedroom (which doubles as her office). The guest bedroom is also where the cats’ food dishes and one of their litterboxes are located. Well, she walked in there… to see Chase in there eating out of Ringo’s food dish. Mom took him by the collar and led him downstairs, where she saw he had managed to open the gate. So, she closed it, and went into the office to tell Dad what happened…
… and she heard a crash. When she came out, both Star and Chase were at the top of the stairs.
Mom and Dad managed to get both dogs and drag them downstairs, to find they had managed to knock the gate off its hinges. Once they were secure in the kitchen, Dad proceeded to repair and secure the gate, while both dogs looked on as if to say, “Hey, let us back up there!”
So, now the gate is more secure and less likely to be opened by the dogs. The cats have also come out of hiding and have resumed lounging around the upstairs. The dogs, meanwhile, are quietly laying on the beds in the kitchen. The excitement, as it were, is over for the day.
I don’t think we’ve heard the end of this, though.