For 73 years I have been a cat person. This year my daughter and son-in-law moved in with me and my two cats, bringing with them their cat (nice!) and their dog (horrors!).
I never had a dog and never wanted a dog. Now suddenly this strange creature was hanging out in my house and running around in my yard. With this new arrangement, initial rules were made that my part of the house was off-limits to their animals. That worked for a few weeks. Slowly the dog started nosing into my room, causing my cats to run for the hills (or at least the safety of the shrubs in the backyard). Eventually it just became easier to not forbid Neva (funny name for a dog) to enter my space.
Slowly my cats adjusted to the strange creature in their home, although that involved moving their food dishes up on the counter where Neva could not partake.
Now, here it is several months later and for some reason Neva has adopted me, giving her owners a royal snub. She follows me around minute-by-minute. She spends her nights sleeping at the foot of my bed. Her food and water dishes somehow ended up in my room. She whines every morning until she sees me putting on my walking duds and knows she is going out for a walk around town or a run in the country.
How did all this happen? Why did she ditch the owners who have loved and cared for her for eight years for an old lady who prefers cats? I don’t know. But I do know that I have been adopted by a beautiful herding dog. And I do believe I even may love her!
– Polly Weinheimer
