During my housesitting adventure this last week I took the opportunity to introduce Ellie to cats.

She had been around them before but not for a prolonged period of time. Last week she spent 3 days and nights with two cats. Happily, she's not any worse for wear.

She's mostly curious about them. Mr. Peanut did hide in the basement the whole time but FiFi was in the living space with us. Neither cat has claws so I was not worried about them scratching Ellie if they did happen to get unhappily close to each other.

Ellie and FiFi would have a stare-off from across the room and if FiFi budged then Ellie would charge toward her and bark. She wasn't aggressive, but it would always surprise FiFi and she would hiss and yowl at Ellie and run away. Ellie would totter back to the couch pleased with herself.

Whenever Ellie would get within three feet of FiFi she would hiss and arch her back and Ellie would stop where she was, always reaching her sniffing nose as close as she could.

When FiFi would vacate her space on the couch or under the table, Ellie was quick to go over and sniff the entire location and then watch FiFi saunter away.

The last day I stayed at the house I was able to get Ellie on one side of the and FiFi on the other side of me so I could pet them at the same time. That's as close as FiFi would get without yowling, though she remained cautious and eyeballed Ellie the whole time.

And FiFi did jump on the bed in the middle of the night, but when Ellie poked her head up out of the covers she jumped down.

Ellie just wanted to be friends with the cat, is that so horrible?