Success Story: Tucker (#1191)

Adopted March 23, 2005

Upon arrival home, I first put my cats in the guest room, because Fishie, my 13 year old Maine Coon attack cat, would immediately pounce on Tucker — and not playfully. Casey, my 8 year old Golden whom I had received from Golden Rescue 4 years ago, immediately fell in love with this big, handsome male, and Tucker responded by taking his playtoy which his previous owner had given him, and laid it down on Casey's feet! I let them play outside for a few minutes (my Golden mentor, Jude, had advised me to let the two dogs meet on neutral ground) and then brought them into the house.

The first obstacle over, I set about making Tucker a member of the family — cats included. Fishie and Smitty (my other three year old male cat adopted from an animal shelter), were in the guestroom. I introduced Tucker to them by sniffing first, putting a baby gate between them. Tucker took no notice of them, but Fishie took notice of Tucker! She squeezed under the baby gate and attacked. Tucker took it like the gentle golden he was, head down and whining, and I whisked Fishie away. All of this while Casey is playing with Tucker's toy!

We all slept peacefully that night, with Fishie in the guest room and Casey and Tucker vying for sleeping positions by my bed. (Smitty hid under the bed). In the morning, taking care not to trip over the two 90+ dogs, I let Fishie out. I'm not sure what metamorphosis took place overnight, but I had a changed cat on my hands. She no longer attacked Tucker, just stayed clear of him for the next two days.

A week and a half after the homecoming, Tucker and Fishie touch noses when they come together. Smitty has come out from under the bed. As for Casey, she now knows she has two masters in the house — me and Tucker — and she is fine with that! I take the dogs for a walk on a tandem leash with Tucker in the lead, and they move along like a precision drill team — until someone sees a squirrel!!

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