"Dogs and Cats Living Together!"

Since I got my first dog a number of years ago, the cat has been less than thrilled. She eventually stopped coming downstairs and I only saw her at night once the dog was asleep. It didn't get much better with the second dog. A few months ago I got tired of it. I started kicking the dogs out of the room for bugging the cat. (If I'm not in the room 99% of the time the dogs ignore the cat, so it is an attention seeking behavior.) I built cat shelves in the living room, figured out how to carry the cat downstairs without getting scratched ( the stairs are a closely guarded path), and moved on with the treats. It took 4 tries to find treats the cat would eat. She refuses anything without artificial colors and flavors, so I gave in and she gets Friskies (bleech!) cat treats. Just a few days ago I finally got my somewhat tubby cat to jump comfortably from shelf to shelf. (I only built two without a longing area, as I was unsure she would use them. I had been lifting her between the shelves, and encouraging her to jump down, since she wasn't quite ready for up.) I finagled the couch, and last night was her first time willingly jumping up all of them on her own, and she hung out there for a while. She's also been willingly coming all the way down the stairs, and hasn't been getting shanghied. (They jump her because her reaction is so spectacular, and for years she wouldn't scratch them.) I meandered out of the room, and when I came back I found this. (Mind you that dog is well aware I don't want her white hair and dirt on my dark colored, clean couch.)