We adopted a puppy, Chester, two months ago. I have wanted a dog (not a puppy!) for many years, but for a variety of reasons the time wasn’t right. Sadly, Puss had to be put to sleep this summer, and that finally opened the door for us to get a dog.

Rather than a dog, we ended up with a puppy. We did, in fact, adopt a dog on a trial basis for about half a week. It didn’t work out. Now, the interesting thing is that the boys did fairly well with Chekhov, the dog, except for one incident the first day. He showed almost no interest in them at all, and spent most of his time in my office with me — blocked off with a baby gate.

The boys were constantly jumping the baby gate to be in the office with me. It’s odd, too, because normally they don’t spend much time in here. This was Puss’s room.

But a puppy is a different experience. A puppy is right there in-your-face (or butt, as it may be), jumping on your for attention. And the interesting thing is that Simba mostly tolerates Chester. In fact, at times it actually seems as though he’s playing with Chester. Of course, at other times, it’s clear that he’s asserting his role as alpha cat.

Gizmo is a different story. Gizmo is not at all happy with Chester. After two months, he still swats at him every chance he gets. However, he’s begun to relax just a little bit. He’ll lay in his normal places — some of them right at puppy level — whereas at first he made sure wherever he was was out of puppy-reach.

It’s sad, though, because it looks like Gizmo will always be low man on the totem pole. Don’t get me wrong, we make sure that Chester knows his position in the house is below the boys’. However, Gizmo could use a friend. And it looks like that friend won’t be Chester.

On the other hand, the boys have been curling up together much, much more since Chester arrived. It’s so nice to see. I’m not sure why, since Simba isn’t much bothered by Chester, but I’m glad for Gizmo’s sake.

It’s interesting, too, that generally the biggest scaredy cat (Gizmo) is usually the one that’s most curious. I think that definitely does describe Gizmo.

Thank God for training. If the boys weren’t already clicker trained, I think Gizmo would have had a horrible time accepting Chester. The truth is that all of them will do almost anything for a treat — and that includes being near Chester.

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