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Talk about cats and dogs living together … sheesh

Did you ever see those YouTube videos of cats in flight attacking a human or other animal in self-defense? I lived this video the other night only I was the target. It was more like a slow-motion horror film.

I sound like Sophia from the Golden Girls, “Patton, 2018, picture this….”

I was relaxing on the recliner in our media room with our cat Gracie who was bundled up on my lap in a pile of blankets when the back door flew open and in popped my husband Ray and Rio, our 90-pound German shepherd puppy. They had been out shoveling, and Rio was wound tighter than an eight-day clock.

I preface by saying, Rio loves enticing the cats and pouncing (gently) at and on them, but she is never out to hurt them.

Gracie has pretty much become immune to Rio’s antics but this night Rio was too hyper trying to get at Gracie. Gracie had enough and jumped down onto the floor and slipped under the footrest of the recliner.

In all the chaos, I tried to raise the recliner into an upright position just as Gracie was trying to escape from under the chair but I accidentally hit the wrong button.

The recliner pinned her just enough so that Rio’s jabs caused her major panic and she started to let out a horrifying screech.

In my panic, I lowered the recliner rather than raise it further pinning Gracie under the footrest. Her cries grew increasingly louder until I was able to hit the right button and raise the footrest off of her.

She was spooked but fine and raced out of the room like a streak of lightning but not before BoBo (our male cat) raced into the room, ignoring Rio’s possible attempts at him, took one look at me (the one seemingly causing the harm to Gracie) and in one flying leap flew from the floor through the air in what seemed like total slow motion aimed right for my face where he proceeded to land on all four paws, ripping into my skin and leaving me temporarily pinned to the chair.

Ray, witnessing the whole escapade, was reaching for Rio with one hand and quickly grabbed BoBo and removed him from my face.

I was bleeding a bit and in a state of shock and awe from what had just happened when I realized that BoBo actually risked being pummeled by the puppy in order to come to Gracie’s rescue.

Perhaps he didn’t realize that he was attacking me in particular, he just knew somebody was hurting Gracie (or so she said in so many meows) and he needed to stop them.

Once the animals were all separated and Rio calmed down, I checked on Gracie who was now nonchalantly grazing on her cat food on the counter next to BoBo who was still standing wide-eyed looking as if he wasn’t sure what had just happened.

I checked them both out, and neither was any worse for wear. I patched my face which now looked like a sprinkler system of small cuts and scrapes and dusted off my pride.

Ray and I just looked at each other after we realized no trip to the hospital was in order and shook our heads at yet another relaxing night in the Hanna-Eckenrode household.

Amy J. Hanna-Eckenrode is the author of “Have Dog Will Blog,” editor of the Central PA Pets magazine and director of the Central PA Pet Expo. She can be contacted at ahanna

@altoonamirror.com or by mail: Paws and Reflect, c/o Amy J. Hanna-Eckenrode, Altoona Mirror, 301 Cayuga Ave., Altoona, PA 16602.

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