This is a special holiday that was created by our friends the Cascadian Nomads, My GBGV Life and us last year. We couldn’t get it together this year to hold any special events, but we still want to celebrate our day.
We have double reason to celebrate today! If you saw my post on Tuesday, you know that Sheba had blood in her urine, and even though it was most expected that it was a UTI we still worried about cancer. Good news! The antibiotics are doing their job, and as of yesterday there was no more blood! In addition, she is acting perkier and her appetite is coming back. I can’t tell you what a huge relief that is!
Yesterday I shared the most recent photo I could find of our whole crew of four together. It was from a year ago when we celebrated Multiple Pet Mania all June long. It was tough for me to realize that I had to go that far back. But our cat Samantha just doesn’t hang out with the dogs much. It’s not that she doesn’t like them, she’s just more of a loner.
I wrote a lot last June about the joys and challenges of life with multiple pets: we talked about grooming, exercise, training and life in general. So for this year’s celebration of Multiple Pet Day I wanted to share some of our more recent challenges.
The first refers back to Sheba’s UTI. I explained in that post how I had to play detective to find out who was peeing blood. Since we have a fenced in yard we’re not always outside with the dogs. The Dadz gets up in the morning with them, and starts to prepare breakfast while they’re outside doing their business. So we may not always know if someone is having an issue. However, I do go outside with them when I’m home, and when I get home from work. I don’t know if Sheba had shown any other signs of her UTI, but even once we figured out it was her, I never saw her straining to pee, and I went outside with her every time. If we did daily walks, maybe I would have caught it sooner, but I can’t know that for sure.
Believe it or not, I pretty much can keep an eye out for any pooping issues though! I clean the yard daily, often several times a day, and I know who poops where and what it looks like! Only a pet parent would say something like that, right?
It’s great with multiple pets to not only know those things, but just this morning I was sitting on the couch with Luke and heard someone getting a drink of water out of the bowl. I knew that it was Cricket without even seeing her! I can tell who is drinking water, and I can tell who is walking down the hallway when one is coming.
I’ve mentioned the other multiple pet issue we’ve had since moving to our new home. Luke has on occasion been aggressive with Samantha in certain situations and we worried that moving to a new house would trigger it, so we’ve been keeping them separate to be on the safe side. I continue to work with Luke and Sam and it’s going well. If he goes after her now (when he’s on leash and under control) it is just in a playful way (Sam does not want to play!). The only time I’ve seen him still act a bit aggressive is when they’re on opposite sides of the gate, and he does the same thing to his canine sisters.
I believe he’s just blustering but we have to keep Sam safe. We’re also trying to find the right place for her kitty litter so that the dogs can’t get into it. As our friend Jodi at Heart Like a Dog once said “We have more gates than a gated community.” Jodi was dealing with an injured dog, so different circumstances but her quote certainly applies to our household too!
We’re working through our issues, because that’s what you do when you have pets, and I feel confident Sam will be integrated into the whole household soon. I feel bad but she still gets lots of attention and love. Part of her area in the house includes my office, so when I’m working in there she’s right with me. Our second bath is also there, and since our master bath has been under construction, we’re using it more, and she comes right in looking for attention (don’t all of your pets follow you into the bathroom?).
The truth is, once she has access to the whole house, I imagine she’ll still spend most of her time in her own area. The only reason you see her hanging in the kitchen with the dogs in last year’s photo is because that’s where she was fed in the old house! She’ll continue to be fed in her own area, and though I know she’ll still occasionally hang out on the kitchen counter I don’t think she’ll be quite as obsessed with it (though it is a nice high place to stay away from the dogs). I also think that as Luke gets older and settles down some, eventually Sam will be more relaxed with him.
For me, having a fenced in yard is a must if you have multiple dogs. It makes our lives so much easier, and the K9 crew just has a blast playing fetch and cooling off in their pool together.
Challenges aside, I wouldn’t trade my multiple pet household for the world. We just rise to those challenges, and figure everything out even if it takes time.
Celebrate your multiple pets today if you have them, and tell us what things you’ve discovered to make your life with them easier, or what challenges you’ve been facing! If you’re a single pet household, how does that work for you? Do you think about having more?
I love having two dogs. I only wish financially I could afford a third. I too love having them around – ALL the time!
A belated Happy Multiple Pets Day. It sure can be a challenge having multiple pets, especially if you have to keep some segregated.
I think it’s a great day, and I celebrate it every day!
I’m glad I’m not the only one who knows which dog has pooped where, or which dog is drinking water when! ???? Of course, the difference in their size usually gives it away. I forgot all about Multiple Pet Day this year; but without Callie around, I probably would not have felt much like celebrating anyway.
I love the picture of all your fur-kids together in the kitchen. When I was a kid, we had an embroidered picture in our kitchen (that Grandma made) that said “No matter where I serve my guests, it seems they like my kitchen best!” and it was always true. We had a big kitchen and everyone always seemed to gather in there.
Kitchens are the best gathering places, aren’t they? That’s one of the reasons I love the open concept set-up at our new house. Luke likes it too, since he can be lounging on the couch and still keep an eye on me in the kitchen. 🙂
I’m so behind, I’m sorry Sheba has a UTI but glad it is just that and nothing more serious. I too have to play detective as someone is peeing in my house too. The joys of multiple dogs. I first thought Nellie, her urine is good then preacher hers is good so I think preacher is just forgetting to stop play and go outside.
That sounds like Cricket. Even as an adult, if we play ball in the house, she’ll have an occasional accident. I think she gets so obsessed with the ball, she forgets she’s not outside. LOL
We forgot all about multiple pet day which is silly because there are lots of us! But like you we make all sorts of concessions to help us all get along better. Love Dolly
Your family has grown a bit since you started your blog! Ours has downsized some but we started with so many, we’re still multiples! LOL
We’re so glad Sheba is doing better!
Happy Multiple Pet Day! The mom says her biggest challenge with the three of us is to make sure one of us (Wally!) doesn’t eat all of the other’s foods!
Oh yes, I remember those days! Whenever we had multiple cats, we always had at least one that was just a little piggy and would eat all of the food in sight. I can’t remember the last time when we had multiples that we were able to just leave food out for free feeding (we can’t even with Sam now because she is one of those piggies! LOL).
What great news and a very Happy Multiple Pet Day to your whole crew and the dadz Jan! Thanks for helping to keep the holiday alive. We multiple pet crazy people get so busy… and that makes us deserve a holiday even more! I hope this day surrounded by your pets is just that much more extra special.
I’m happy to help keep the holiday alive, Bethany, and I’m sure glad you reminded me of it! I had thought about it a while ago, and then with all the busy-ness I had forgotten about it again! Hopefully by next year things will have calmed down for all of us and we can do a little something more.
Bentley & Pierre are best friends but we really found out how much this past week. Pierre was still full of energy at the BlogPAws conference so I was putting him in doggy daycare and was taking Bentley to the “Quiet Room.” When we went to pick them up, Bentley was back in the playroom. The sitters said Pierre stood at the gate and cried until they went and brought Bentley back to him. ♥ ♥
That is so sweet!! Those two boys are just so adorable together.
Thanks for the shout out Jan, I’m so glad that Sheba is feeling better! Isn’t it funny how she and Delilah had different symptoms? Delilah was trying frequently, but I didn’t catch the blood, and you saw blood but no frequency. I wonder if the lack of other symptoms (in both of them) has anything to do with age?
Yes, we are gated too! Gates are fabulous, I actually think I use more gates now than when I had children.
I trust Delilah is still feeling better too. Sheba’s appetite was coming and going for a few days, but it finally seems to be back to normal now. I suspect she had that infection longer than we knew. Now I will know to watch things more.
I’d hate to be without the baby gates and have to have doors closed all the time. Even when Sam is in the office, at least she can see us coming and going, and I always stop by the gate when I’m passing by to give her ears a little scritch!
Happy Multiple Pet Day! I am glad Sheba is better. We have 13 cats and it can be hard to detect who is having a problem. We have a lot of screen doors in our house for segregation, but to still have air flow for the heat and a/c. There are some challenges, but I wouldn’t part with any of them.
It took me the longest time to realize why your blog is named what it is – LOL. I think the most cats I ever had at once was maybe 6 or 7, and that was when we had kittens. Cats can be so much easier than dogs in some ways, and yet they have their own challenges too! But no, we wouldn’t have it any other way.
I’m glad Sheba’s doing better. 🙂
Thank you, Edie, we sure are too!
I can tell my pet’s jingles, too! Even when we’re at my parents’ house with their dog, their cat, and my sister’s dog, I know which tag jingles belong to me 😉 When we moved and Barley and Soth got new tags, it was jarring, though!
We babysat a friend’s dogs the other day, so there were three dogs in the house and I realized that’s way too much for me, but I am still kind of wanting a little brother or sister for Barley, so maybe one day there will be two dogs and one cat!
There’s actually a pretty big difference between having two dogs and having three. Maybe it’s the fact that we only have two hands that makes two so much easier? 🙂
I’ve never really noticed the difference before when we’ve had all 3 or 4 dogs under the same roof at holidays–but there are always multiple people so everyone keeps an eye on their dog. This was just me with three herding dogs all 50 lbs. or more! It was a lot! Even Barley and Soth napped for a while with me when they left.
A fenced yard is a must for anyone with one or more dogs. Dogs need a place to run and play off leash that is safe and the yard is just that place. We love multiple pets, and hopefully will add another pet in the future, but for now, we feel lost without Katie and are just not up to celebrating just yet. PS We have baby gates around too for various reasons here and there, now and then. Quite helpful.
By next year your pain will have waned some and hopefully you will feel more like celebrating then.
The time that we were without the large fenced yard seemed like an eternity, it is definitely a must; especially when you have hound dog breeds that just can’t be allowed off leash ever. I also just love that the dogs can be outside more, I think fresh air is good for all of us!
I’m glad we’re not the only ones that use baby gates a lot! 🙂
I’m so glad to hear the blood in Sheba’s urine was a simple UTI! That’s a huge relief. We’ve never had multiple dogs, the only time we had multiple pets was when we had 3 guinea pigs and 2 turtles. Not nearly as much of a challenge as having 3 dogs! 🙂
I’m sure the Sam&Luke-challenge will be solved soon and there is peace in your kingdom…. we have this problem with Easy vs. Captain Hook the rooster… I first thought Easy is the rioter… but the rooster is not better he tries to peck Easy through the fence… what a stinker!