bunn

My Mum's dog Smudge has lived with cats all her life but frankly, would never pass a rescue cat test. She thinks cats are weird and creepy. She gives them the 'collie eye'. She stalks after them. If she thinks she can get away with it, she lunges and then if the cat runs, she chases.

Five of our six cats consider this rude and inappropriate behaviour, so we've been doing lots of supervising, interrupting and rewarding for incompatible behaviours. Perl cat has also been doing a fair bit of sitting stoutly in the middle of the floor, staring at Smudge. Smudge soon worked out that Perl is just one of those personalities you have to work around, but she still tried to chase the others.

The Sixth Cat is Suma Bungle. Suma thinks that Smudge is the bestest dog ever. He whirls around the house with his tail like a bottlebrush, inviting her to chase him. He throws her toys. He marches up to her and gives her little kisses. She was a bit taken aback by this and tried giving him the eye. He gave her a smooch in return.

It's taken some time, but I think Smudge has decided that Suma, too, is just one of those people that the normal rules don't apply to.