“He really surprised me.”
A few months ago, when Andrea Fito and her family adopted a puppy named Coco, it came as quite a surprise to their cat, Horus.
After spending his life as the home’s only pet, Horus suddenly found himself in the company of a bubbly, bouncy dog. He didn’t hesitate to assert his feline dominance.
“From day one, Horus would look for Coco to play tricks on her,” Fito told The Dodo.
Horus became a bit of a bully.
As Coco got bigger, she began to better hold her own against the cat’s unwarranted antagonism. And soon they settled into a lukewarm war of sorts, battling out their little disputes with rowdy bouts of roughhousing.
“They are always looking for each other to have a play-fight,” Fito said.
But then the unthinkable happened — Coco fell ill.
One day, Coco began exhibiting signs of distress. She wasn’t able to keep down any food or water. So, Fito rushed her to the vet.
Coco was diagnosed with parvo — a potentially deadly virus in dogs for which Coco had not yet been vaccinated. “She was more alive than dead,” Fito said.
Fortunately, the disease was caught early enough to be successfully treated.
But on the road to recovery at home, Coco found an unlikely source of comfort: Horus the bully.
“He really surprised me. This wasn’t his typical behavior at all,” Fito said. “He went from always fighting to understanding that Coco was very sick.”
The cat and dog had put their seeming differences aside to share in a tender moment. It became clear to Fito then that they shared a loving bond beneath what often looks like conflict.
“Horus was sad that Coco was sick,” Fito said.
Deep down, Horus wasn’t really much of a bully after all.
Thanks to the love and care she received from Horus and her family, Coco was able to make a full recovery. And with that, she and Horus picked up right where they’d left off.
“Coco is healthy, fat, happy and fighting again with Horus,” Fito said, noting that, despite the return to their normal routine, she now looks at her pets’ relationship a little differently. “I haven’t seen that same affection between them since then, but I know if something were to happen again, Horus would go right back to it.”