Inter-species territory dispute

Winnie: Uh, excuse me. This is MY crate. Also, maybe you're not aware of this, but around here, I'm what's known as the "alpha".

Maddie: Yes, but you're the alpha DOG. As a cat, I'm not actually under your jurisdiction. I looked it up.

Winnie: Oh. I didn't realize. Well, I'm too tired to argue anyway. I guess we can share.

Madonna or Madeline?

After calling this kitty Maddie, Madness, and Mad (right after her flea treatment), yesterday morning I was calling her and "Madeline" just kind of slipped out. So...

Thinking about changing my 1 year old cat's name to Madeline. (Bit of a refresher/background--I adopted her as an 11 week old kitten in January and she CAME with the name Madonna. The name always felt a tad awkward, but I didn't have any better ideas at the time.) Can still call her Maddie or whatever else springs from my lips at a given moment. LITERALLY no other human in the household cares, or even calls her by name. So, no help here, and I am REALLY undecided. Input please.

Addendum: For some reason I resisted calling her "Maddie" for a long time, and it still doesn't quite trip off the tongue. If Daughter had been a second son instead, I liked the name Matthew, but not Matt. Also, I did enjoy the Madeline books...

Maddie and Perkins

Maddie. Been trying it out for a couple days. Don't know if it's going to take. But Madonna seems unwieldy--it's the name she came with and I frankly didn't have any better ideas. Mostly we call her "the kitten", but now that her size is beginning to rival Stevie's, that is starting to seem less like a workable solution for the long term...

One point in favor of the name is that the girl does seem to have a touch of the madness. Case in point, now that Perkins has made it fairly clear that he has no plans to eat her, she's gotten downright bold. I'm still feeling tentative about the degree to which I can trust a dog with a strong prey drive to be gentle with a small animal. But Maddie has decided it's perfectly okay to bat at his tail as if it were a toy. She is, at least, smart enough to wait until I've clipped a leash to Perkins' collar before pulling this move. Still it gets me thinking "What exactly is the difference between doing something "bold" and doing something "stupid". I guess the answer to that question, at least in part, is, do you live to tell the tale?

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Really wish I could have caught a picture of these two that looked a little less like Perkins was tasting Madonna (okay, I will most likely go back and forth with the names). But the interactions tend to be brief, and the other two pics I got were much blurrier. So you'll have to take my word for it that there have been downright sweet moments in which Perkins licks the cat on the nose, or she affectionately rubs the top of her head against his face. I am still careful not to leave them unsupervised in a room together, but it does appear that these two are sorta kinda working out something like a friendship.

Stevie and Madonna chillin'

Kind of a bummer it's hard to get good still shots. I know I've posted pictures of Stevie and Madonna together in the same space, but this is the first time I've seen them together in this chair. In the living room, rather than hiding in the basement from the dogs. Most of the picture I attempted to take were a bit blurry due to the fact that Stevie was busy grooming the heck out of Madonna's head.

I has a house

This is Winnie's crate. Well, was. She doesn't care to sleep in it any more. So recently, Madonna has claimed it. She finds it nice and cozy.

Madonna less than graceful

Taken with my Blackberry device. Stinkin' iPhone 3 does not shoot video...

Madonna is getting big!

Madonna still ACTS like a kitten, but I don't currently have a working video camera. So I took a picture to show how big she is getting. She is still playful and an absolute delight. And frankly, it's an absolute miracle that I was able to get her to sit still--and pose SO nicely--so that I could take this picture of her yesterday.

Madonna looking for breakfast

Okay, I've missed Madonna something awful. She's been staying in Chicago with my brother, Paul since around the time I got back from the hospital. Hoping to reintroduce her to Perkins while keeping his prey drive in check. He is a good boy, but there are some "triggers" that he can't seem to resist. Like anything darting past him. Or humans with wheels on their feet. That's just WRONG. It's an abomination before Dog.

Madonna being a kitten

Hopefully this link works.

Facebook promised me that it would, but Facebook has lied to me before...

Quick kitty video

Madonna doesn't seem to sit still long enough to be photographed--at least when using the absurdly slow camera on my phone. So here's a quick video: