The Art of Living with Two Fussy Cats and a Fussy Dog

My family has three pets, who are a bit of handful, but in a good way. (Mostly) The first pet we got is a British Shorthair called Sloan in 2016ish.

He’s very chilled and meows a lot, and takes me and my sister to bed. (Which is adorable) He has a dietary thing that I don’t really understand and therefore has to have special food which needs to be kept away from Bart. (the other cat) He and Bart are both inside cats. Sloan likes to sit on (or lie on) the table when he thinks nobody’s looking. Yes, Sloan is a veeerrry stealthy cat (not). He likes music (especially piano) and sometimes meows along to it. He’s pretty relaxed with both Tango (the dog) and Bart (sometimes fighting/playing (no-one really knows)). Unfortunately, Tango tries to sniff Sloan’s behind forcibly. Unsurprisingly, Sloan does not enjoy this.

We also got another British shorthair in the same year who’s named Bart.

He also has a dietary thing and has to have special food which, apart from the crunchies (dry food). He’s quite anxious and is a bit smaller than Sloan (Less Chunky), likely from stress. He’s calmed down a bit, but is still a little volatile. He likes to jump up on the table/bench/our laps/wherever to get food, so we have to be carefull not to leave any food lying around (especially tuna or cheese (cats are dairy intolerant FYI)) He’s quite relaxed with Sloan, but is a lot less tolerant of Tango. Bart often tries to eat Tango’s food, and has occasionally air-smacked Tango (rarely hitting his mark though). Tango learnt pretty quickly that the cream-coloured cat is friendly, but not to go near the tuxedo one.

Lastly, Tango, who we got late last year. (2022)

He’s a papillon, which is a breed of small dogs with big ears that often win agility races in dog competitions (Tango’s zoomies are quite impressive) Tango is anxious, even more so than Bart. He has separation anxiety, and he freaks if we leave him home alone. He’s particularly attached to my mum. Also, Tango is what one might call a barky stressed dog. We a few days ago we took him to a puppy school for dogs who aren’t puppies anymore. His favourite foods are cheese and apple. He also likes chicken, but I refuse to give it to him. He also eats anything that is on the floor. When he isn’t stressing, he’s really chilled and sweet. He usually stays clear of Bart and barks when Bart walks past his crate.

So, in summary, living with three pets is a LOT, and can be stressful, and is a bit financially burdening. It’s also really nice to have multiple animals though. I feel like animals are better than humans. For example, they haven’t messed up the planet significantly, which is a pretty big point in animals’ favour. Animals only kill other animals for food. Some crappy humans do it for fun and take more than they need. Therefore, animals are really nice and sweet, and having multiple in one house is a privilege.