5 Cats, 2 Dogs - Fun Cartoon Ideas, Or Life Of Harmony And Chaos?

Our family of fur babies was never meant to get this large, let alone this diverse.  As far as I can remember, we have been a strict "dog only" family, and there was never any possibilities of a kitten being allowed in our house.  When we came back from our time in Germany, we had one small, anxious Australian Terrier named Jax.

He is a small dog, with a big dog complex, and he was a happy dog, but we knew he needed a friend.  That is when we started the search, and Max, a rescued mutt that we have come to believe is part Saint-Bernard, that has done nothing but love his little brother. 

As the years went on, our family fell into a nice, and easy routine.  Our dogs went on walks together, shared their toys, and shared the love in the house.  Then came the time for me to go off to college, and I knew there would be a change in the house, but my one rule was "no cats".  Fast forward to my first set of midterms, North Carolina was hit with an intense set of thunderstorms, and my family got word of a litter of kittens that had shown up on a neighbor's doorstep. 

My sisters refused to let my mother leave those kittens behind and talked her into picking up one.  I get a call that night, and a little black kitten named Jinx had been introduced to the family.  Fast forward a few weeks, and yet another storm runs through my hometown, leading to another litter, and a black and white cat named Binx joined the Tavares clan.  Although I was against the idea at first, when I came home to those little furballs of energy, I fell in love.  They were so cute, small, playful, and cuddly.  I was so happy that my family took in those little firecrackers.

When we first took in the kittens, we did our best to keep them upstairs as they grew, and away from the dogs.  Max and Jax were none the wiser, and everything seemed like nothing had changed.  Then it came for Christmas season, and seeing those big festive balls on the tree was too much temptation for a curious cat.  Little Binx saw that the two big monsters were asleep on the couch and took his chance.  He jumped down through the banister by the stairs and went right under the tree. 

He was having so much fun under the lights and shiny new "toys", but when a ball fell from the tree and made too much noise, my boys perked right up.  I tried to keep their attention away from the trees, but then Binx poked his little head out, looked at the dogs, then looked at me and he just thought "Oh Hope's here, I'm safe" and just walks his happy self right in front of the dogs.  After the confusion had settled for the dogs after seeing a cat in their house for the first time, they sprung into action. 

Max and Jax lost their minds and chased little Binx around the house, and Jinx took that as her moment.  She jumped down and ran behind the couch. Max kept her behind the couch, and Jax chased Binx up the stairs.  It was a good 15 minutes of pure chaos and confusion.  Once I separated the dogs from the scene and got them outside, I pulled Jinx out from behind the couch and the first night was over.  Little did I know, that was only the beginning, and those kittens would never stay upstairs for a whole day again.

Little by little the dogs learned how to live with two cats in the house.  The kittens started to go downstairs more and more, and the dogs noticed them less and less.  They would chase each other around every once in a while, but all in all, they were growing to like each other.  As the months went on, we would catch them laying right next to each other, eating food and drinking water from the same bowls, and even walking around the yard together.  Binx loved to lay down and play with Max's hairy tail as it wags back and forth.

Along with the love that has grown between the first two cats and the dogs, we had another surprise in store for us.  Of course, never having cats in our home means that we did not know much about cats, including how to tell their gender when they are young. 

This lead to us having one male and one female cat.  We tried our best to keep up with Jinx's maturity, but before we knew it our kitten was in heat.  We then tried to keep Jinx locked in my mother's room, but our efforts were futile.  Jinx became pregnant, and soon gave birth to five little kittens, three boys and 2 girls.  Once they were old enough, we gave the two girls away and kept the 3 boys.  Now we have all of the fur babies in the world, running around outside, cuddling with each other, and driving each other nuts like actual siblings.  And I couldn't be happier.