Tags
Cat, Cohabitation, Green Iguana, Iguana, Multi-Cat Homes, Pets, Recreation, Rescues and Shelters
While looking for another photo, I came across this one of two of our four-legged loved ones.
Pictured are Lucky the iguana, and Lynard (Len-Len) our melon- headed cat enjoying a spring morning in the sun room.
All of our animals used to love that room in the warmer months and even on cold winter days, the 2 cats used to curl up in the shelving, on a wall not shown, to soak up the sun’s rays.
One animal would take the more coveted position on the wicker table; each liking the feel of digging nails into the coarse threads of it. (Something I was absolutely not happy with.) Sometimes we saw them both, or all of them, on one piece of furniture.
For a while we used to worry that when we weren’t looking, the cats would use Lucky as their play thing. Even though the tail of an iguana can be quite dangerous and is used to whip-snap at any threat to its safety, his claws, which would have been even more of a threat, were missing.
He’d suffered from mites when he was just an itty-biddy thing and lost most of his spikes and claws because of it. However, those fears were unfounded, as each animal was content enough with sharing the space and sometimes even seemed to enjoy the diversity as a welcome thing.
The cats would spend hours hearing-then looking for- the various birds that dared to perch in sight. Tails would begin to twitch and backs would arch, ready to bounce on the glass in an attempt to catch the scarlet-red cardinals that flew from one branch to the other just outside the windows.
Lucky would try to scale the curtains, clawless, and then fall helplessly onto the backs of the cats, roll over, and try again. There was never any hissing or whipping of tails by either species; just a natural appreciation of the space they all wanted to share.
It was a peaceful co-habitation albeit an unnatural one, and it was one that grew stronger with time.
