Kloe is a gentle soul who would not hurt another living thing on purpose. Except for cats. She loves all beings from the bottom of her giant heart. Except for cats. Kloe would walk through hot coals to save your life. She would also walk through hot coals to get to a cat! I’m not sure what would happen if she ever caught one. Have I mentioned that Kloe hates cats?

Part of our property is adjacent to a neighbor who feeds feral cats. Because of this there are always cats invading Kloe’s zone. That zone pretty much includes an area in all directions as far as her eye can see.

Kloe has a very deep bark that makes her 75 pounds sound more like 125. When Kloe sees a cat she’ll do one of a few things. She’ll bark and run to the fence at the lowest part of the property. Or she’ll squint her eyes, stare at the distant cat, and run to the fence at the lowest part of our property barking. Or, she’ll make a low guttural sounding growl before running to the fence at the lowest part of the property barking. All variations on a theme, that theme being Kloe-hates-cats!

Kali, our 11 year old pictured here on the left, has never given cats the time of day. She has always been mostly indifferent about cats. I think that if we had added a cat to the pack before Kloe, Kali would have been just fine and have accepted the cat as a friend and companion.

Much like our first Golden Retriever Bailey who accepted Panda, my daughter’s cat. Here they are many years ago hanging out on my daughters bed.

Koda, our two year old, looks up to her big sissy Kloe. Although their relationship is not as strong as Kali and Kloe’s was when Kloe was a puppy Koda and Kloe have grown close and are rarely far apart from one another. As independent as Koda is she still looks to Kloe for her cues and probably always will.

So Koda pretends to hate cats. Mostly I think because she knows Kloe hates them. When Koda sees one of the feral cats before Kloe does, she’ll sound the alarm with her high bark and then immediately look at Kloe. “Kloe, there’s a cat. See it? See it? C’mon, lets go get it.” Koda knows this is a good way to mobilize Kloe and start some commotion that may end up in play. Koda doesn’t hate cats but she uses them as a means to an end.

On walks Kloe can smell cats before she see’s them. Cat scent is galvanized in her brain. When triggered she goes into full-alert-all-hands-on-deck mode. Ears forward, tail raised high, nose in the air, tightened muscles. The “WOOFS echo throughout the road and the cats scatter. I hold the leash tight and hope for the best.

The other day I was walking Koda and we both see a cat about 30 feet away. We stopped briefly as Koda’s eyes zero in on the cat and the cat, in a crouch, stared back at Koda. About 10 seconds pass and we began walking without incident. As we walked away Koda looked up at me and I could see in her eyes what she was thinking: “You know Dad, Kloe hates cats.” “Yes, Koda”, I said “I know. Kloe hates cats.”