Toby the Puppy’s adaptability surely has become a sight to behold.
He now shares his North Texas house with two cats, Marlowe and Macy, who moved in with my son about three weeks ago.
While I am boasting about Toby the Puppy’s adaptability, I need to offer a word about the kitties’ own ability to adapt to a new environment. In a word, they have done just fine.
Indeed, Marlowe and I have become BFFs. If I am lying on the living coach watching TV, Marlowe will jump up, purr loudly in my ear, nuzzle my face and lick my nose. He’s a good boy.
Macy, too, is acclimating herself to her new digs.
As for Toby the Puppy, he stares them down. He rarely these days runs after them. I say “rarely,” but I cannot yet say “never.” He will give chase if the kitties are scampering down the hall and into my son’s bedroom or into our guest bathroom. Truth be told, he rarely even barks at them any longer; any noise he makes is a sort of grumble.
The kitties have made themselves at home, which is what cats do. Toby the Puppy has made it clear to them, though, that they are in his house and that they are — to underscore a point — “unwelcome residents.”
Marlowe even has decided to climb into bed with Toby and me. I have sought to shoo him away at, say, 1 in the morning. No can do. The kitty ain’t about to move. Toby the Puppy, therefore, will stay in bed for a little while, but will relocate to his nearby kennel, where he often likes to sleep anyway.
The mayhem that could have developed when they got here has not occurred. For that I am grateful for the manners that Toby the Puppy has shown.
And … I do enjoy being Marlowe’s newest BFF.