Spot was a dalmation dog. He was a stray who wandered onto our farm one day. Unable to find his owner, he became our dog. He seemed to fit right in. He did his own thing, though. No other animal seemed to notice him. Although he was a big dog, he never tried to show any dominance. He could best be described as a "real pussy cat." The cats definitely did not see him as a threat. They walked around and about him as if he wasn't even there. This made me wonder where it came from that dogs didn't get along with cats.
One day Mother pointed out something to us. She seemed to figure out the secret to Spot's lack of hatred of cats. "Perhaps there was a time that he did hate cats, but he got too close," she laughed. "Look at his eyes. One of them seems to have a scratch on it." Upon closer inspection, we were surprised to see that she was right. It did look like he had a scratch on the eye.
There may have been some truth in Mother's speculation. Cats will slap at a child if it gets too close. In fact, I recently saw my two year old grandaughter chasing one of our tame indoor cats. They ran past me, but soon she came to me crying. Just below her eye, a spot of blood appeared from a cat scratch. The child got too close and the cat told her in its' own way to leave it alone. She learned her lesson. I think that long ago, Spot must have learned his lesson too.
