Loving our pets is absolutely fundamental to making your pet partnership work. And yes, it is work a lot of the time.
Bringing a new animal home to your existing pets can be a tough thing to get right. It can take a lot of time, energy, and effort, so loving them is a big part of staying sane and keeping everyone happy.
But sometimes, love isn’t enough.
There’s bound to be a little tension, but with a lot of work, training, patience, and management strategies, that should all pay off. But sometimes, it just doesn’t. You might have tried every tactic under the sun to help everyone get along, and it still might not work.
In a coaching call, I spoke with Katya Lidsky, animal lover, writer, and host of The Animal That Changed You podcast. We talked about her experience with fostering animals over the years and about the time she made the tough call to rehome a kitten to keep the peace with her other animals. Tune in to hear why it was the right call to make in Katya’s case.
Key Moments
6:43 – Katya talks about her experience of fostering animals
12:01 – Why cats react differently when coming home from a shelter
14:39 – Why you should aim for two layers of management between pets
17:18 – How Katya dealt with a difficult dynamic between two pets
21:25 – Why sometimes making a tough decision to rehome a pet is best
25:12 – How to know when to rehome vs. stick at it and continue training
27:09 – Using data to objectively look at conflict
36:15 – How to assess the effects difficult animals have on our health and family
39:55 – What a healthy pet coexistence looks like
44:16 – Why it’s important to make tough decisions based on your own needs
Key Links
