A heroic cat came to the rescue of her owner's dog after a local bully decided to tuck into the helpless pup's food.
For the past few months, Trixy the cat has been gradually adjusting to the arrival of a cavapoo puppy by the name of Ted. Owners Chas and Kezza, from Essex, in the U.K. have had their hands full with the young pup, whom Chas admits is a "very needy dog" who, up until recently, hadn't spent much time away from his paw-rents.
Trixy couldn't be more different. "Trixy is quite a small cat but is very territorial due to being half-Bengal and half-tabby," Chas told Newsweek. "She was living with us for about four years before Ted came on the scene and wasn't too happy about it to begin with."
Chas said they had their doubts about Trixy and Ted becoming friends. "It took seven months until she accepted him in the house," he said. "At one point, we thought it was never going to work between them."
However, cats and dogs are more than capable of living alongside each other. A 2020 study published in the journal PLOS ONE of 1,270 pet owners with both a cat and a dog found that 64 percent played together, while 21 percent even ate alongside one another.
Chas and Kezza were determined to persevere and, eventually, that patience paid off. "Now they are good friends," he said. "It just took time." Proof of that blossoming friendship came in an unusual form this past week when Trixy was caught on camera warding off a local "neighborhood bully" who was trying to eat Ted's food.
"There's a black cat rules the roost around here and is always picking on Trixy," Chas said. "On this occasion, it decided to sneak into our house and try to steal Ted's dog food!"
In truth, Ted probably should have been big and brave enough to deal with the feline intruder himself, but, as a young puppy, he is a little lacking in courage. "He's not really a softy, but he is a bit all mouth and no action," Chas said.
Thankfully, Ted had Trixy looking out for him. As the clip posted to TikTok under the handle Super_Ted_23 shows, the minute she spotted the cat making a move for the food, she swooped in. "Trixy was having none of it, as you can see; she stealthily followed the other cat into the kitchen and, when it started eating Ted's food, she chased it out of the house," Chas said.
Though there was some screeching and little kerfuffle as a result, the fact Trixy protected Ted in the way she did was heartening for Chas and Kezza to see. It felt like justification for getting a dog and, more importantly, provided proof of something else. Chas said: "They are getting closer every day."
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