Hissy Fit

Maya may finally be learning not to play with stray cats.  A friend has two cats that play with Maya as if they were dogs.  I think this is really cute, except that now Maya thinks she supposed to play with cats, not chase them.  And the stray cats around here haven't gotten that memo.

Whenever Maya sees a cat now, she gets real excited and starts pulling me towards it.  Of course, the cat thinks it's about to become dinner, so it takes off running.  Maya's actually been able to get close to a couple of the cats, mainly because they were frozen in place, too terrified to take off running.  I don't let her get close enough to touch them, or to where they could get at her, but she has gotten within a couple of feet.  And then I pull her away and she whines. 

Yesterday, we were coming back from our walk when she spotted a cat in the bushes.  I didn't see it immediately, and that meant she was able to get a little closer than normal.  This cat didn't take off running like the others had.  Instead, it stood its ground, arched its back, and hissed at Maya.  Maya's tail immediately stopped wagging and she slowly backed away.  Then she grabbed her leash in her mouth and pulled me in the other direction, all the while keeping an eye on the cat, just in case it decided to make a run for us. 

I'm not sure how she's going to react the next time we come across a cat, whether she'll try to play with it again or not.  We didn't see any cats while on our walk today, so we'll have to wait until next time.  And I'm also wondering whether this cat passed out a memo to the other cats as to how to keep Maya away from them...... 

New Friends

This is actually a story from a couple of weeks ago, but it's cute so I thought I would share it. 

Maya's best friend is Lizzy, a little yorkie who lives a few doors down.  Lizzy has a couple of roommates, George and Gypsy, two cats.  George is actually bigger than Maya, and I've seen the two of them play together before.  Gypsy is pretty small and very shy.  Her mom told me that she found Gypsy when she was about 6 - 8 months old.  Her previous owners had declawed her, and then threw her out. 

Gypsy is literally scared of everything. While Maya, Lizzy, and George play, Gypsy hides somewhere out of reach.  Her mom tells me that she's ok with her, her boyfriend, and Lizzy and George, but doesn't like new people or animals.  She also shared that it took over a year of her boyfriend living with her before Gypsy would come near him.

The day I picked Maya up from the vet after getting spayed, I had a class that I absolutely couldn't miss.  I didn't want to leave her alone (just in case), so their mom offered to keep Maya at their place.  I knew Maya wouldn't be as active as usual and assumed that she would mostly want to hang out or sleep, but I didn't expect what I saw when I picked her up later that day.  Maya was fast asleep in the cats' bed, curled up with Gypsy!!  It was the cutest thing ever.  Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera, and they woke up right about that time.  But I'm happy to report that since that day, Maya and Gypsy are buddies too.  :)

Cats!!

Maya has discovered cats.  She's seen plenty of cats before, but she's pretty much ignored them up until now.  For some reason, she decided that today would be the perfect day to start chasing them....while on a leash.....with me on the other end....  What this basically means is that she was pulling on her leash like crazy and kind of choking herself on it.  I never let her off the leash (or let go of the other end), so she never actually caught any of the cats, but she tried.  I have a feeling this morning was just the beginning....