Precerpt Friday: Raising Happy Cat Families (Norwood) - Alpha, Beta, and Everyone Else (Introduction)
On precerpt Fridays, we share excerpts from forthcoming books. Today, we are sharing an excerpt from Raising Happy Cat Families: the introduction to the chapter, "Alpha, Beta, and Everyone Else." Not all families will have both an alpha (dominating) and a beta (nurturing) cat. We did for many years, and that may have made it easier to keep the family together, bonded, and a receptive place when a new cat came along. Now, all four males—gentle souls all of them—take on the responsibility of welcoming the new cats. A cat rescuer, bringing our latest, Moo, to us, commented, “Your male cats are so gentle and welcoming!” They are, indeed. We expect them to be that way, and we raise them to be that way. Only Happy Cat is a beta cat. Now, because of blindness, he cannot fulfill that role. It seems as if the other three males understand that they are needed to help out, and they do step up to the plate. As a result, Moo was integrated by Bear, but Jack mentors him, as does Happy Ca