My cousin and his family have a great, old (~13 years) dog Enzo (who was great friends with Willow), and I have been lucky enough to be his caretaker when they go out of town.
I can safely say that I am in Enzo’s top 5 favorite humans and he is in my top 3 favorite dogs ever. We brought Enzo out to the ranch in Humboldt when he was a bit of a rickety old man in early 2024 and he absolutely flourished and thrived in that environment of unbridled doggie smells and romps and adventure. Enzo is still around but is showing his years as a 90lb, 13 year old.
My cousin’s family recently made a decision to adopt another pet into their home and decided that, instead of bringing in a puppy who might push Enzo too much, they would get another cat. Their last cat, Vincent (Vinnie) was a beautiful, sweet Siamese boy who loved Enzo and he reciprocated. Vincent was born in October 2005 and died in 2018 so their house has been devoid of cat energy since then.
They got Vincent in 2006 and, when Enzo arrived 6 years later, Vinnie trained him well in the ways of cat superiority and who was the boss of the household.
Late last year they decided that a new kitten in the household would be a good thing for all concerned, human and canine. I advocated for going to the shelter and adopting a cat but Vincent was such a good cat they wanted to stay within that general breed pedigree and in fact went back to the same breeder they got Vincent from around 20 years ago. They contacted the breeder and met the parent cats. The mom was Siamese and dad was Balinese so what the babies would look like when they were finally born was going to be interesting. In February of this year (2025) they got to meet the litter of kittens and chose a male they named Rocky (after Rocky Balboa) and then had to wait to pick him up until he was properly weaned.
A couple weeks after bring him home they learned that one of his litter mates, a female, had been adopted by a family who found out their daughter was highly allergic to the cat and so the breeder put the two families in contact and they brought a second kitten home about two weeks after Rocky arrived and named her Adrian (also from the movie Rocky).
We first got to meet the kittens in June of this year (2025) when both were now about 5 months old. They had gotten somewhat used to Enzo mostly because he seems a bit disinterested with them but Gia was New and Scary and Exciting and actively wanted to meet and greet the two kittens so they had no choice but to get with the program sooner rather than later. I used the classic “Scent transfer” method to let each of them get a good smell of the other without actually getting too close. From Gia’s experience of meeting and befriending my sister’s two kittens (now cats) she knew to just stay calm and relaxed and move as little as possible and let the kittens come to her. She did very well.
In only a few days the kittens were comfortable enough with her to voluntarily come up on couches or on the floor next to her.
They got so comfortable that, if Gia is running down the hall after a thrown toy, the kittens stand their ground as she runs right past them. The girl leans back out of the way while the boy usually takes a playful swat at Gia as she runs past. I regularly threw little crumpled up pieces of paper for the kittens to chase and pounce on and tried to throw it near Gia and that worked great getting them used to her essentially nonreactive presence.
I saw several times that the boy would get right up next to Gia and take turns grooming himself and then her.
Gia is known to have a bit of a resource guarding bad habit (which is getting better) but she would readily allow either kitten to come over to her food bowl and swipe a piece or two of kibble if she was not actively eating and had walked away from it leaving some leftover kibble inside. She certainly perked up when she heard bowl/food sounds but would relax when she saw it was a kitten. Overall I was delighted at how quickly Gia and the kittens figured each other out and got along.
When the family returned from their holiday we left and returned home. We didn’t get another chance to interact with the kittens for about two months. When we again stopped by for about an hour on our way to Santa Cruz I could tell that the kittens had forgotten a bit of their chill and calm demeanor around Gia. In the course of that hour visit though they both seemed to remember her and came up for a close-up, friendly investigation and by the time we left they were both again playing comfortably in her close proximity.
Gia began her life with me as a dog with a worrisome Resting Serial Killer Face (RSKF – a bit like Resting Bitch Face but with a less expressive, cold, calulating gaze) who everyone assumed would have a brutal prey drive. She has surprised us all with her calm and even-keeled demeanor when dealing with three separate groups of cats and has excelled each and every time. Two of those groups of cats now eagerly come up to greet her when we arrive and she takes turns thoroughly sniffing each of them in turn with her floof tail wagging heartily. We will again kitty sit these two once in November and another time over the x-mas/new year period this year. I completely expect they will remember her and eventually be just as enthused to spend time with their doggie friend Gia as the other groups of cats do.