If you follow our Instagram then you’ll have seen I recently put up a picture up of Grayson playing with our cat, Kenny. We put up a blog post a while back about introducing a pet to a new baby (which you can read here), but what about when your little one is no longer a baby?
Grayson will be 2 in April, and is well within “toddler territory”, which means he’s constantly learning new things every day. 1 of the biggest lessons we like to instil into Gracie is to be kind, and having a cat definitely helps with this. We always tell Grayson to be kind to Kenny, to be gentle with him and give him nice strokes and cuddles.
Grayson sometimes doesn’t realise his own strength, and can be a bit heavy handed with his petting. When this is the case, we tell him that he needs to be gentle with Kenny and show him how we stroke him and have him copy us. Although, most of the time Grayson is absolutely fine with cuddling Kenny (the loud purrs suggest Grayson must be doing something right!).
We’re very lucky that Kenny is such a docile cat, because he has never once tried to bite or scratch Grayson. I’d say they both teach each other patience, because Kenny has to deal with Grayson getting in his face and going “hello Kenny cat, how you doing today?!” and Grayson has learnt that Kenny is a cat and can’t play how he can.
Obviously a lot of this does rely on the temperament of your pet, but so far I’ve adored having Kenny and Grayson grow up together and play together. So if you’ve got a child or children and you’re thinking about getting a pet, but you aren’t sure whether or not to take the push – I’d definitely recommend you do!