I’ll bet you didn’t know the second thing I ever wanted to be when I grew up, after Miss Kitty on Gunsmoke! was a psychobiologist.

Yes, I wanted to study animal behavior.

So when we added a kitten to our household this week, with a well established puppy named Rasta, it only took us a day or two to realize that neither one of us had ever had a cat AND a dog at the same time in the same house. We kept looking at each other as if one of us would know how this works.

Well, this is how it works from my perspective. The dog keeps expecting the cat to act more like a dog, and the cat keeps expecting the dog to act like a cat.

For example, they play in very different ways. The cat loves to chase everything around, although he hasn’t killed our car motor rat just yet as far as we can tell. The dog only wants to fetch his toys for us.

I will say our dog seems more territorial and loyal. He keeps trying to defend me against the cat!

They observe each other more with curiosity than disdain, and I can tell they basically enjoy each other, although Rasta has his moments:

They are both equally “lap happy.” Both love a good lap, and even more so as the weather gets colder. Rasta is only eleven pounds, so I’m curious which one will end up weighing more.

All in all we are quite pleased with our new addition and we’re hoping Rasta will feel the same soon.

Now if Charlie would just kill that nasty rat!