Nova plays with the kitties

Who says that cats and dogs can't get along.

The cats have been very curious about Nova since she came into the house. I don't restrict her from the cats too often because I feel that they need to get a good scratch into her while she is small so that she will respect them.

Very quickly, Nadia developed a lot of confidence around the dog because she is so agile and can jump over the pen we are using to keep the dog contained. Not only does she jump over it, but she also likes to walk along the edge of it for a few steps before jumping down on the other side.

Georgia doesn't have the confidence because she is not as great an athlete, but she is just so curious that she is always the one who sneaks up to sniff the dog when she is sleeping on my lap.

After about two days, the cats were settled. I rarely see any raised fur or hissing anymore. And they never scratched Nova. So I decided that I could give more reign to her. Yesterday, I gave her run of most of the house. We have had her for two weeks and she has never peed on a carpet. So I decided to test my theory that while she is not free of puddles altogether, she will seek out a hard surface to puddle on.

She was so happy to explore the house and see what her friends the kitties were up to. She trotted around the house, picking up shoes and carrying them to other rooms and picking up the cats' toy mice. At one point, she laid down for a rest, and Georgia jumped on her and ran out of the room. A chase ensued and the two of them were cavorting around the house for a good 10 minutes before I decided to get the camera and see if I could capture this fun. The amazing part, was that both Georgia and Nadia looked like they were having nearly as much fun as Nova.

The set up for this video:

They had been playing for about 10 minutes. Nova would collapse and rest every few minutes (usually when the cats jumped onto some surface she couldn't reach). Right before I turned on the camera, Georgia had jumped on Nova and run to another room again. It starts with nova in a full run after her, and then she forgets what she was doing.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4838892239607044463&hl=en

And then I ran out of memory before you see the cats chase her into the office. Notice how Georgia goes into the library and lies down just a few feet from Nova. And the shock is that Nadia then joins them. She is such a skittish cat. I never thought she would be comfortable around a dog.