Relative Something

We are in the middle of a multi-day excessive heat advisory and that high dewpoint temperature is making quite an impression. It is hard to drink enough water to offset the amount lost to sweat. My belly gets so full from drinking water that it gurgles when I walk, and I’m still thirsty!

I took Monday off from work and lounged around for some extra hours in the morning, just because I could. Since it was so hot outside, I decided to let Delilah stay inside and nap on the cool tile floor. She was asleep when I stepped out to take on a couple of outdoor projects. Later, when I stopped back to check, I found her gnawing on the wood of our sunroom walls. She hadn’t done that again since the first time we caught her, so I was hoping we were beyond it.

Regardless the heat, I banished her to the outdoor kennel. It is covered, and in the shade, so I wasn’t worried that she would over-heat, but I knew it wasn’t going to be as nice as being inside the air-conditioned house.

When Cyndie arrived home from work, she had some fresh ideas for how we might advance our progress on normalizing the relationship between Delilah and our cats. Up to now, we have been keeping Delilah confined to a small space near the front door, and the cats have had free access to the whole house. The cats seem to have gotten used to the presence of a dog, but Delilah continues to over-react to most sightings of the cats. Our plan has been to keep her restrained until she proves she can remain calm when the cats appear.

Cyndie’s new idea involved confining the cats to one room, and giving Delilah a chance to roam free throughout the rest of the house. I thought it was such a great idea, I wanted to try it right away. Delilah was very keen about diving into the cat food that we left out. We corrected that quickly enough. Then it was a game of following her nose to every nook and cranny where those cats have left their scent.

While we were in the mode of allowing Delilah to exercise some new freedom, Cyndie decided to try letting her go outside the front door all by herself. From my perch on the couch in the main room, I asked what the dog was doing.

“She walked out into the yard. Oh, now she is headed around the garage.”

One second later, Delilah was at the back door, on the deck, peering in at us. Cyndie let her back in.

I think it was a brilliant change of routine to give her some free access to the rest of the house. We are intent on not rushing the cats into making contact with the dog, but my patience is being tested waiting for the dog to relax around the cats. This is a helpful exercise for me, because it provides a new way to advance toward our goal, and gives me a sense of making progress in that direction.