No, no, we don’t kick the kitty in the head….

Lilly’s first birthday is just around the corner and as such, our little lady is really starting to develop her personality. It’s incredible. I love experiencing the new faces, sounds and reactions she has to things she either loves completely…or completely hates.

Unfortunately, she is starting to show a love/hate relationship with one of the cats.

Let me start off by saying we have a house full of animals. Our german shepherd, Rinnie, is her best friend and main playmate, who achieves the most pointing and the title ‘Daag’. My cat Star, (because my husband would never claim her as his) is an overly fat, cranky old girl that really wants nothing to do with the baby, and is really only there as someone for Lilly to chase and annoy. Our crazy, guaranteed to be in-bred cat Scurvy…don’t ask, her name requires a whole other blog post to explain…is the competition.Scurvy started out as the highest level of fascination for our little Lilly. She was the only animal in the house with the guts to approach the baby, even if it was out of desperation to hang out with the hubby and I. I would be holding Lilly on the couch and the cat would hop right on up to join the cuddle. At the time Lilly wasn’t really mobile so she would really just touch the cat’s ears, stare and coo at her. Very cute.Then Lilly started to crawl, walk along furniture, develop some words and determine that Mama is HER Mama. Now Scurvy is screwed. That poor cat can’t spend 5 minutes with me without Lilly excreting her position in the pecking order of the household.The worst display of jealousy usually rears its ugly head in our morning cuddle time. Lilly joins Dad and I in bed for a bit of pointing at the ceiling fan and cuddling, and Scurvy still bravely partakes. This is ok with Lilly, since she still does like to play with the cat. However, if that cat has the audacity to try and curl up on me, it’s game over…Our loving, gentle and sweet little daughter lifts herself into downward dog position, lifts one leg and hoofs Scurvy in the head!

If that doesn’t work, she literally just sits on top of the cat until Scurvy throws in the towel and leaves.

We have of course tried to tell Lilly no and correct the behaviour, but she’s just an infant, so it doesn’t exactly sink in just yet.Ideally, everyone in the house would just get a long…but I don’t see that happening in the near future.

Here is the progression of the Lilly and Scurvy relationship. Enjoy.