Family cat meets new pup & world does not explode!

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It was a real pleasure & felt like an achievement to get our new family puppy and house cat to set aside their ancient enmity and have their first peaceful meeting.

It helps that Pinnico, our cat, is fearless, and Leo, the puppy, is naturally curious.

Leo’s reward for behaving well was a bath & grooming (after he was done rolling around in the mud and getting thoroughly dirty).

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Here’s short video of the little prince being pampered by my wife (and me, off-camera, sounding a touch jealous :)

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Below, an animal-related poem of mine:

Dog Ideal

without the need to stifle the cry of consciousness
through drink or drug or violent distraction,
disinclined to wreak havoc on self or other

free of the sustained illusion of written words
and images, with their enduring damage
or turning to the senseless spell of art for oblivion

their memories are not material
but perish at birth, still-born
always the present, unoppressed
by the burden of past or future
the unspoken and unspeakable

without the complication of human sophistication
or impossible longings beyond dog and dog world

they dream of food/shelter/air
and wake to find them there

without false divisions among mind/body/soul
so without perversions

honest in their need to give and receive
a love neither tormented nor tormenting

nursing their wounds without meditation,
which is the creation of more suffering

a spirituality of the earth
a piety and humility that accepts
the man and God-given crumb
expects nothing

unconcerned with the pursuit of truth and other lies
they live in Truth

never lost in the labyrinth of self
they are without self-image,
thus without self-deception

blissfully unaware of Schopenhauer's Pendulum
which from pain to boredom swings
their tails sway contentedly
always at home, in their bodies

nonchalantly, watching the world pass by
with benign curiosity and sideways glance
slipping in and out of untroubled sleep

they do not know the gloom
of deliberately darkened rooms
suspicions, fears and worries
real confounded with unfounded

or artificially purchased dreams
long after an inexhaustible mind
has exhausted its hapless frame

without question, they accept
the deposits of Fate
without the added interest
of personal doubts
questioning their place in the universe

unconcerned with peace, justice and other human nonsense
impervious to the charm of philosophy or psychology
the conceit of thought, the paralysis of analysis
all idle speculation, and monstrous civilisation

neither prisoners of Time nor victims of temperament
without necessary occupations
or unnecessary preoccupations
with sanity

out of reach
out of reach
out of reach

work like dog
live like a dog
die like a dog.