Ivan the Terrible comes home with Gus

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Well, Dave fell in love with this young kitten. We hadn't given him a name yet, so we started calling him 'Little Bit' since he was just so small. Here's a picture of him about the time he came home with us.

Here's another one to give you an idea of just how little he was:

As you can see, he was just a 'Little bit' of a thing when he came home. But he was fearless! Miss Cat was NOT happy to have another interloper in HER house and if he even came in the same room she would just go into a major hissing fit! I never really realized just how close domestic cats are to their wild roots until we brought this little guy home. Little Miss Cat would growl just like the big cats do anytime he even came close to her. But, he just didn't care. He would try and get her to play, sneak up on her, do just about any cat trick to make her like him. It didn't work very well, but she came to where she could tolerate him. Here's a really good couple of pictures that show their relationship:

As you can see, it was a real stand-off between these two for quite a while. It has gotten better lately, but only a little, lol. So, here was 'Little Bit' tackling Miss Cat and trying so hard to get her to like him. Around the same time, we decided to start leaving Gus home with Bit during the day, hopefully to keep him in one piece and safer from Miss Cat.
Remember when we first left Gus home and he would chew on pillows? Well we forgot, and left some throw blankets and pillows on the chair backs and the couch. Well, we got home that day and the pillows were all over the floor, blankets were dragged into empty areas of the floor and they had all gotten a good chewing up. The upside though, was that 'Little Bit' was still among the living so we knew Gus had watched over him really well. That was the day he went from 'Little Bit' to Ivan the Terrible, lol.. since we knew Gus hadn't gotten the blankets down on his own. This little bundle of energy worked in tandem with him to wreck havoc, but we could see that they had fun together. How can you get too mad at a couple of critters for playing when you were dumb enough to leave things in reach? We just couldn't get angry with them. So, Ivan the Terrible was born.
Gus was just so happy to have a playmate at home that leaving them all day was so much easier. We just had to 'pet' proof the house before we left each day. The funniest thing was watching Gus become this little guy's Mama. He would carry Ivan around by the scruff of his neck, clean him all up, hug him tight and just plain watch over him. That is when they weren't playing 'chase' all over the house, lol.
I have a picture here of Gus trying to carry Ivan around, it's not very good, but you'll get an idea. I could just never quite get a really good one. Whenever I would try and get the camera, Gus would drop Ivan and they would both follow me. Made it tough to get a really good shot of Mama Gus. But here's one that's pretty ok:

These two are still best buddies a year later. Even though Ivan has grown quite a bit, Gus still tries to be his 'Mama' whenever he can, it's just a lot harder to carry Ivan now. But, Ivan just goes all limp and lets Gus drag him around for a while. They still play chase and they still work in tandem to get in trouble, just not quite as often as they used to. Miss Cat is getting a bit more tolerant, but Ivan and Gus are still not her favorite housemates, lol. Here's one of my favorite shots of Gus and Ivan and then one of all three of them co-existing at least for a bit:)

The first one is just a great indicator of the Gus/Ivan relationship, those two are just the bestest of friends. The second has all 3 of them snoozing with me on the bed, but Miss Cat's back is to Gus and Ivan and that's still the way things work. She tolerates them, but refuses to acknowledge them if she doesn't have to. Kind of like: if I don't pay attention to you, or I can't see you, then you aren't really there. She is just too funny sometimes.

Well that's the story of Ivan's becoming part of the family. He's made quite an impression on lots of folks, starting with Gus and Miss Cat and including his Vet and the rest of our family. He's a comedian and quite the little actor and this place would be a lot less fun if we didn't have him with us. I'm hoping in a couple of years we can add some more kitties to the family and maybe give Ivan a run for his money. We'll see what happens, but for now, Gus, Miss Cat, and Ivan are slowly learning to get along.
Thanks for stopping by and reading more about the continuing Adventures of Gus the Wonder Dog. You can see some more pictures of Gus,Ivan and Miss Cat at his website:
http://www.gusthewonderdog.com
and you can read Ivan's version at:
http://ivan-a-cats-tail.blogspot.com