The pet gate is down - and this time it wasn't knocked down by accident.

My pet gate had a smaller gate door at the bottom that could be opened for cats to use while the dog, Honey, would have to jump the gate if she didn't want to wait for it to be opened. When I was home for the weekend, I would leave the gate open for hours and things went well, but I didn't want to leave all day for work with it open until I had a good deal of experience seeing their interactions. Well, Honey now acts much like my other dogs always did around the cats -- sneaks bites of yummy noms from their bowls and runs to check on them when she hears yowling/squalling/hissing, and so I unscrewed the fasteners, took the gate down and put it away in a bedroom. I now have one less thing to trip over, and the cats and dog officially live together... except for the closed, locked door that helps retain some of my sanity at night when they willingly traipse into the bedrooms to enjoy their bowls filled with canned food, and I run out and shut the door before they can escape, er.. follow me to the rest of the house. I have to lock the door because Buddy can open any door with a handle-type door opener, and all of mine have handles. (If anyone wants to adopt Buddy, this is "just a joke" -- he's not really a super elusive feline who can open any door, any cabinet...).

Which leads me to my next topic -- it's time to get some of these cats adopted into new homes. Taffy and Dilly are the two outdoor semi-feral kittens (born last July), and even they show a lot more confidence. Of course, when I bring out the vacuum, that confidence runs out the door into another room, but all my own cats always did that too. My brother's senior cats, however, were used to Dick's frequent cleaning and hang around while I have to vacuum around them. They aren't ready to have their fur vaccumed while they are wearing it, but they point out the hairbunnies if I miss them. The saying should specify that "Dogs have masters; cats have maids"...