Pets are adjusted, I think. Hell has frozen over!

The animals are finally beginning to settle down, it is a freaking miracle! We aren’t waking to Dixie pawing at the door or excessive yowling from Hailey in the middle of the night AND everyone seems to be getting the hang of their new lives & homes.

Dixie now uses her nifty dog house for shelter from SOME of the elements. At night she does sleep in the dog house and she has figured out how to stay in it when the hard rain is falling. I still find her digging holes in the flower beds and laying on top of the plants for shade and cool, it is not even insanely hot here yet! So, we need to get some fencing around the beds already but having her sleep in her house is good progress.

Hailey is also getting the hang of her cat house outside. Like Dixie she would just lay out on the uncovered deck in the pouring rain and refuse to take shelter in her home. Now she is understanding that her food, water, blankets and the shade all are found in her cat house.

She too will take shelter in there when the weather gets real bad, yay for progress! On the flip side she is still not hopping the 6 foot wooden fence to let herself in and out of our yard. We have to let her though the gate and if she is still wandering the neighborhood and doesn’t get let in by dark she will yowl outside our kitchen window until we let her back in the gate.

So, the outside pets are getting in to the routine of things. We even have the bunnies out there for fresh air, though they do have to be tarped when it rains since their cages aren’t 100% enclosed. The rabbits even take turns “mowing the lawn” from within this movable gated run area we have set up for them. They seem to really like the grass and the room to exercise.

We’ve tried letting them roam the yard free (not together! We don’t want more dead baby bunnies…) but Dixie chases them crazily trying to “herd” them and they can’t handle it for an extended period of time.

So the routine is to feed everyone in the morning. The indoor cats have their food and litter box in the odd closet up in the master bathroom. They get fed (and hopefully scooped) in the morning. We’ve found that keeping their food topped off, by giving them food each morning has cut down on the vomit occurrences. Also, since switching to a food that is not bright orange the vivd shooting vomit has been much less of an issue.

Once the cats are fed we go out to feed the outdoor critters. Dixie still finds comfort in eating her food in her home so we take her a heaping cup of food out there to dump in her bowl, then we top off Hailey’s cat food and we give each of the rabbits some food also.

It is strange but routine is really one of the reasons why everyone is adjusting as well as they have. Having a consistant routine is a comfort for them I think and it makes everything else less scary in this odd time of transition. It is also a bit of parent training for us at the same time. I think kids like routine too huh? We suck at keeping with routines, so the practice is good 😮