Dogs and cats

As I have really discovered since we adopted cats, I am NOT A CAT PERSON. And I have been missing having a dog a lot recently. However, am determined not to get one while we are here - I am NOT going to have to give away yet another loved pet. So I came up with the idea of fostering dogs from SAD Dogs (Strays of Abu Dhabi). The idea is that you give the dogs awaiting adoption a break from the kennels, some basic training and get a good idea of the dogs personality so that they can be homed to the right family. So we got Chloe for a weekend. She was an absolute little sweetheart, had been found wandering in the desert, efforts to locate her owners unsuccessful (many abandoned dogs here as people cringe at the expense and trouble of flying them home when they leave the country), so she came to us for love and assessment before going to the kennels.
So well behaved, gentle, the kids absolutely adored her. She let them walk her, feed her, push her around, tried very hard to sleep on their beds with them. The only downside little Chloe had was...she absolutely hated cats. In other words, she and I got along very well - just I don't bark and try to bite them! Sparkly spent the first day at the top of the kitchen cupboards and then mastered getting from kitchen to David's bed surreptitiously. Tabitha is a noisy cat, constantly miaowing - after 24 hours of miaw woof miaow woof, we didn 't see Tabs again for 5 days. Even now, a couple of weeks after Chloe has left, we seldom see Tabitha. I must admit I'm not breaking my heart over her. Even Jeannette (who couldn't believe that a little kitty could be pure evil) has given up on her.
Anyway, it was lovely having Chloe to visit and although it was sad to give her back at the end of her stay, it was way better than having to give her away after years of love. We'll definitely take on another doggie guest once our human guests have left us.