baby cats Dogs Fat Kitty Pregnancy

Big Sister Bella

Lisa Eirene

About Lisa Eirene Lisa lost 110 pounds through calorie counting and exercise. She swims, bikes, runs, hikes and is enjoying life in Portland, Oregon. Her weight loss story has been featured in First Magazine, Yahoo Health, Woman's Day and Glamour.com.

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16 Comments

  1. Marie

    We had my parents bring the placenta for the cats to sniff before we brought the baby home. (Kidding, they did do that with a baby hat though.)

    Our cats have been so much better with the second baby than they were with the first. The younger kitty has always been more tolerant than the older one, but now even the older one will crawl up on the kids and nudge/nuzzle them. Wrigley sleeps on Kenzie’s bed now!

    1. Lisa Eirene

      Awww that is so sweet. Kiddo and kitty snuggles. How were the cats with the first? Did they just hate her?

      Um, glad you were kidding about that first part. 😛

      1. Marie

        The older cat kept her distance but the younger one was curious and has always been pretty tolerant. For a while K just wanted to pull fur and poke ears and eyeballs so we kept them separated until she learned not to do that. Codie’s gentle with the cats but she gets excited and likes to cackle loudly and that kinda startles them. But no one (including the cats) has ever gotten hurt.

        1. Marie

          And I should add we never had babies in the house before we brought our own home so I think the cats did pretty well considering.

          1. Lisa Eirene

            I’m sure it was a rude shock for them!

        2. Lisa Eirene

          Haha that’s so cute.

          Sounds like a good plan. I definitely will make sure the baby isn’t alone with the cats til it’s old enough to learn not to poke and pull tails, etc. Good tips.

  2. Deb

    We don’t plan to ever have kids but Sashi has been pretty good with children and is incredibly curious about babies, though she did get too excited sniffing a friend’s little one and scratched him. I think as long as Bella and the kitties know they aren’t being replaced, everyone will do fine.

    1. Lisa Eirene

      Never replaced! They were my babies first. 🙂 But in all seriously, I know the amount of attention will change…I’m going to try not to do that but I know it will to some degree.

  3. Lisa

    We never had babies or young children in the house before we had children and we had 2 cats. We did bring a blanket home with the scent of the first baby. I’m not sure if we did that with the second baby. The cats sniffed around the baby but really didn’t seem to care about the baby. Since the baby grew up around them, the cats knew where they were safe when the baby started being able to move on his own. We have taught our children that confining the cats, chasing the cats, hitting them and pulling hair was not ok. One cat was always more tolerant than the other, and the one that wasn’t very tolerant seemed to have issues with being around people anyways. We only have one of the cats now and he still likes the boys, but prefers it when they aren’t loud or making sudden movements 🙂

    1. Lisa Eirene

      I have to agree with the cats–loud and sudden movements aren’t fun. LOL

      I’ve been told that the animals adjust to the baby because it smells like us and the animals can sense that. But I’m not sure if that’s accurate. It’s worth giving the cats a blanket to sniff, too.

  4. CARLA

    I definitely was NOT one of the people who left the baby or toddler alone with the dog.
    I’ve seen those lovely photos of the canine on top of the child which everyone thinks are so sweet—and they terrify me 🙂

    1. Lisa Eirene

      Me either. Supervised playtime only! Oh yeah I’ve seen those pictures too. I like the cute puppy cuddling with the baby pictures but….full grown dog? Yikes.

  5. Fran

    I don’t have children so my Bella is not used to children either. I have to say though that she met my best friend’s little boy twice and she was so sweet to him. But the boy was too: no surprise actions towards Bella that would scare her off and he was very gentle with her.

    That tip of never letting your child alone with a dog is a good one. I have heard to many stories on the news where dogs that never hurted anyone before, did something to the children when they were alone with them.

    I’m sure everything will work out when the time is there.

    1. Lisa Eirene

      I think it makes a huge difference when the kid knows how to behave with a dog, too. We’ve had encounters where Bella was fine but freaked out because a kid suddenly decided to start screaming and running at her with their hands out. I’d be freaked out too if I was Bella!!

  6. Bharat Sharma

    Hi Lisa,

    Kids and pets don’t go along very well because pets are also kind of kids and they love attention of their owners and they don’t like when this “attention” is given to kids. For them this is a kind of competition. But this is not how it always happen, and sometimes they go along with each other very nicely. Like a siblings with bittersweet relationship. Sometimes they play with each other and sometimes they fight with each other.

    I think you should be very careful and keep a close eye on their actions and don’t let them feel that the “baby” is going to replace them.

    We don’t have pets but we had a female dog when I was a kid. She was so nice to me that she had once taken my whole palm in her mouth ( I had a candy in my hand) but had made sure that her teeth don’t hurt me.

    Regards,
    Bharat

    1. Lisa Eirene

      Thanks for sharing your story and perspective, Bharat. I agree. I think the animals have been treated like babies all these years and it will be an adjustment, similar to sibling rivalry, when the baby gets here. Maybe I’m being overly worried and they will all be indifferent and adjust nicely….

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