No way....!

Many people informed me that if I was taking on a second hand terrier there is no way I could have a cat. No way. Terriers are notorious for chasing cats after all - everyone knows that - or so I was confidently told by my friends, who were suddenly terrier experts. Apparently I might have a chance if I'd had one from a puppy and the cat was already 'in situ', so that the cat could teach the dog respect, before it grew big enough to argue back. Taking a terrier on at 17 months - no way, they  predicted.

 Trouble is, someone forgot to tell Winnie. When I asked her previous owner if she was cat friendly ( the dog, not the owner), she said that as far as she was aware she'd never met a cat, so she didn't know. She agreed to take her over to a friend who had a bouncy kitten to see how she reacted. I was a little concerned for the kitten given all my friends predictions, but I needn't have worried. I was told a couple of days later that she'd just brought all the toys over to the very non-plussed kitten and tried  to get it to play. It all sounded a little bizarre to me, but at least she hadn't acted agressively, so Winnie came on a two week trial.

When Winnie arrived at my home I waited for  the third world war to erupt. Ernie, my beautiful PBGV x JR lad, decided the best thing was to ignore her and hope that she went away. Winnie bounced round the house making herself at home when she suddenly came face to face with Dillon.

Dillon is a large, neutered ,seal point, Siamese cat. He was brought up as a kitten in a home containing two gigantic Rottweilers, so a small Jack Russell (he is taller than Winnie) was absolutely no problem. Winnie was amazed. What was it? It didn't sound like a cat, it didn't look like a cat and it didn't seem pleased to see her. In Winnie's eyes this was 'inconceivable' (to quote the Princess Bride) so she looked a little flumoxed. She looked hastily around the room and espied the toy box full of dog toys.

Whilst Dillon stood there, drawing himself up to his full imposing height and fluffing his tail just for good measure, Winnie skipped backwards and forwards piling up the toys around him. Dillon looked at me questioningly, completely non-plussed that Winnie hadn't shot away in terror by his sheer magnificence - and height. Once Winnie had piled up all her toys, she went into a play bow in front of him - front legs flat on the carpet and bottom in the air, tail wagging furiously, asking him to play. Dillon looked from her to me and back to Winnie again. Finally, he gave her a look that was exactly like Captain Mannering from Dads Army, but instead of saying 'stupid boy Pike' I swear the look said 'stupid girl Winnie'!

With that he stomped off in disgust as if he had a bad smell up his nose.....

From these inauspicious beginnings a gradual friendship has been forged, largely due to a shared love of hunting - spiders, that is. I live in an old house built in the late 1600's, complete with huge wooden beams. These seem to be a spider magnet in the autumn as the temperatures start to drop. As the house has a large and drafty fireplace, plus less than perfect fitting sash windows, gaining access to my house seems to present very few problems to determined spiders. It has to be said I'm not a great spider lover, but, generally speaking, I leave them alone if they do likewise. 

However, Winnie and Dillon have other ideas. The pair of them seem to form up some kind of bloodthirsty tag team when its spider season. Between them, no spider is safe. Dillon can hurl himself at any wall or ceiling to dislodge them, doing so with an almost balletic skill. As soon as they hit the floor, Winnie is waiting to herd and push them with her nose so that they start to scuttle. Then the pair of them hunt their prey with a kind of pincer movement, gradually chasing their prey until there is nowhere left to run. However, this is where the team work seems to break down, as Winnie will eat the spider if she can. This infuriates Dillon, as he like to play with the spiders, monster that he is. So an early dispatch by Winnie often earns her a sharp clip round the ear from Dillon.

 I think he sees himself as the brains of the partnership.

Since  Ernie died last November, the two of them have become much closer. Now I can often find the two of them curled up on my bed together. However, I think this is more Dillon's idea than Winnie's, as she often wakes up looking a little startled when she finds Dillon snoring in her ear. She knows he has claws and is not afraid to use them. Although in Dillon's defence, I have never seen him bat her with his claws out, but I believe the threat of violence if often enough.....