Thread:SOLONM/@comment-27108414-20160225151948/@comment-27108414-20160226035010

Sweet story :)

My feral cat was very protective over my stray cat... the stray was 7 years older and took to the feral kitten immediately... when my stray, O2 (Ozzy the 2nd) was 1, my brother had a golden lab, Duke, puppy... Duke had to stay with us for a year because he couldn't have a dog in the place he rented, so O2 and Duke grew up together.... Later, when Duke moved out, he would visit often... O2 would put up with Duke slobbering on him for a few minutes, the growl-meow for Duke to stop...

Well the feral, Rat (short for Ratsputin) grew up protective of his foster parent, and when O2 gave his growl-meow, Rat started to go to his defense... One day, Duke, who was a very, very large lab with the friendly temperament to match, slobbered over O2, and Rat completely puffed up and chased the poor dog into a corner... Duke needed to be rescued... Rat was not declawed and knew how to be a cat...

O2 was a black/white tuxedo... Black tail... My mom used to step on O2's tail because she did not see it and O2 would hiss... Rat started to not like my mom as much as she often stepped on O2's tail (you'd think the cat would learn to keep his tail out of harm's way...)  Rat even started to puff up and spit at my mom when she stepped on O2's tail...

Rat also used to go running to where ever he heard a household cat meow in distress, like when I picked the cat up... and cat did not want to be picked up... He never got as protective over another cat as O2, but he did keep an eye out on the new cat to make sure she was alright...

ZZ's story (Maine Coon, took the ZZ out of Ozzy... she was a b/w tux) was that she loved her name... I would go "ZZZZZZZ" and she would arch up and rub up against whatever she was next to and meow in response...

And ZZ, being a Coon (and Coons get along very well with dogs), did not mind when I brought my dog into the house... Odie, the Brittany/German Shorthair, would go up to ZZ and sniff/lick her... She did not mind one bit... Rat, on the other hand, thought that was just plain wrong of a cat to act that way... So, after she walked away from Odie, he would caterwaul at her and you could actually hear the thwump of his paw on the top of her head for letting the dog sniff her... After a week of that, ZZ started to growl at Odie if he came near her...

I should add, Rat averaged 8#, ZZ around 16-18#.... Odie is 60#