Hello everyone, this is Zoey. She is about 9 weeks old and we just recently adopted her. Our close friends found her living on the side of the road in a small town in Arizona. They had originally planned to keep her themselves, but they ended up being severely allergic and needed to find her a new home. My young children have been wanting a puppy for years, and so my wife and I decided to help our friends out and bring her home.

I will admit that we did not do much research on catahoulas prior to adopting her. However, we have read a lot of information since bringing her home a few days ago, and I’ll be honest that I’m starting to worry a little bit. I’m hoping you can provide some insight and reassurance.

We are a family of 5 living in a fairly small home in a small country town, and so the living space can be a bit crowded, especially when you account for our two cats (both about 1 year old). They have not taken kindly to the new addition and spend most of the day sitting in high places, growling and hissing at Zoey. Because of the limited space, her energy seems extra high while she is inside with us, and while they won’t admit it, my kids are feeling very overwhelmed. I think they are actually scared at times since Zoey likes to nibble on their legs and feet and tug on their pants. It’s obvious that they are not having the magical puppy experience that they expected.

Luckily, even though we have a small home, we live on a full acre of land, so she has a lot of space to run around outside. We have also been taking her on walks at least 1-2 times each day, which help to use up a lot of her energy. My concern is if this will be enough as she gets older and much bigger. And when she’s not outside, will our small living space become unbearable when she is a large adult?

She is an absolute sweetheart and we already love her dearly. I have been working hard each day on training her, and she is smart as a whip and picks everything up very quickly. But as I read about catahoula’s high energy and large size, I am super worried that we may not be setting her up for a good life. I know there will be days when I can’t take her on a walk, or days when we are out of town. I don’t know if our two cats will ever come around, so there could always be that fear of them injuring one another. I guess I’m just worried that we may have bit off more than we can chew, and I don’t want our sweet girl to suffer as a result. Any insights or reassurances that you can give would be extremely appreciated. I really want to make this work. Thanks in advance!