Resource Guarding

I am sleeping on the couch in the living room outside my dad’s room, so if he has a problem, I will know about it. My bedroom is upstairs—up the circular metal stairs that no dog should travel up and down—particularly a clumsy dog like Maggie. She falls on the regular stairs. I have the stairs blocked off, so she is safe and Thunder has a place to get away from her. Well, now that we are sleeping downstairs, Thunder, my cat,  has a new job—keeping the dog from sleeping with me.




We sleep on Maggie’s couch. Maggie has to sleep on the floor or the loveseat on the other side of the coffee table. I put Thunder’s water dish, that used to be in my bedroom, on the coffee table. He likes to drink before bedtime. Well, last night, he was having his drink, and Maggie saw a perfect opportunity to climb on the couch with me. She headed my way, but just as she reached us, Thunder intercepted her and said something nasty in cat language. She backed up and walked away. He then climbed up on me to cuddle. When she came back into the room—he got alert and watched her every move. When she obediently climbed onto the loveseat, he put his head down to sleep—with one eye open.



Thunder takes his job seriously, and Maggie takes him seriously, too. She sometimes sneaks up onto the couch when he is doing his early morning patrolling, but she never stays long. She doesn’t want to cause the “Wrath of Thunder.”