At our peak, we had two cats and two dogs, and the first set of twin girls was born too. The cats had been first, and were antagonistic to the first dog, and downright nasty basement-hiding funk when we got the second dog as a companion to the first.
When the girls were only 3 months old, the first dog died of auto-immune hemolytic anemia.
When the two sets of twins were aged 1 and 2, the first cat died at age seven, reasons unknown, just curled up on a chair in the finished basement.
Reached out to pet him and "thunk" cold roast beef. (he was never quite right though, dumb, and had forever-wet stools that three different vets could never diagnose even with labs.)
Back in Christmas of '07, the second dog started having seizures, then never came out of it despite meds, all he could do was pant and drool. Had to put him down.
Then in '09 the last cat died (the girls barely knew we had him because he still wanted nothing to do with the kids) accidentaly ran into a loop of cell phone charger between the bed and Mrs. Dual's night stand. Fought and rolled, tightening it, and strangled himself. I actually heard him struggle, but thought it was the girls just being naughty and yelled down the hall for them to go to bed.
A good scream from Mrs. Dual alerted me to that one.
Hopefully the kitten, six/seven weeks and just weaned, will bond with the dog. She had one litter in rescue before we'd gotten her, so maybe she'll take to the kitten. I'll do a complete 180 and be happy if the cat and dog play and cuddle, and the cat's outgoing with everyone in the house.
A long experience with stubborn cranky cats that just hide from everyone under furniture and in the basement, and don't accept new kids, and provide nothing but litter box contents, vet bills, and consume food, are why I'm not really a fan. The only upside was that when the girls did see the cats, it was so rarely, they were as excited as if some unusual animal like a fox, bear, or deer were in the suburban backyard.So when they died, they didn't even notice.
Crossing my fingers for the outgoing/fun "thinks it's a dog" kind of cat here.
