Woman Told Foster Dog Not ‘Good With Cats’ Unprepared for What Happens Next

When a Florida couple took home their foster dog, they expected she would struggle to be around their cats, but then something unexpected happened.

Corinne and Anthony Nerad from New Port Richey don’t know much about Wren’s life before she came to the shelter, but the little they do know paints a vivid picture. “She has had multiple litters of puppies,” Corinne told Newsweek. “So it’s very likely she was used for breeding and then dumped.”

In February 2023, Wren was found roaming the streets of Bainbridge, Georgia, by animal control. She wound up spending the next year at the Bainbridge Humane Society and, at one point, was even on the facility’s euthanasia list.

Her entire life changed, however, when she met Ever Lyons and Mark Caplan, the owners of the Florida-based doggie daycare and boarding facility The Mutt Meetup. They regularly take in rescue dogs from kill shelters, along with owner surrenders and other shelter pets, rehabilitating them to the point where they are ready to find new homes.

Wren came to them just in time. “The Mutt Meetup brought Wren into the vet to get her spayed and it was there that they found she was heartworm positive and had several growths that needed to be taken care of,” Corinne said.

Wren spent the next few months with them but while she was recovering physically, she was struggling to drum up much adoption interest. Even so, Wren was a firm favorite with staff. “They nicknamed her ‘bulldozer’ because she will absolutely bulldoze you over when she gets the zoomies,” Corinne said.

Wren’s story took a further twist when, amid concerns about the approaching Hurricane Milton, Lyons and Caplan contacted Corinne and her husband, who had helped out at the shelter, to see if they could temporarily foster Wren while the storm passed.

They agreed, but did so under the proviso that they would be working the whole time to find Wren a permanent home. When they eventually found that, however, Corinne remembers the day Wren headed off to her new home as being bittersweet. “We were excited for her about it, but sooooo sad for us,” Corinne said. “We cried the entire day she left us, but took comfort in the fact she went to a great home.”

There would be yet another twist though, just three days later, and, as Corinne is keen to stress through “no fault” of anyone involved, Wren was returned to them. Corinne and her husband already had two dogs and three cats at this point and assumed Wren would struggle with the latter.

Some of that was down to how their first encounter went. “When they saw each other through a baby gate, Wren whined and pressed her face into it,” Corinne said. “She has also displayed a high prey drive on walks and constantly attempts to chase squirrels.”

However, once the gates were removed and the animals were allowed to freely walk among each other, something special happened: they bonded. “She has bonded with one cat in particular named Ziggy,” Corinne said. “He was dumped in the woods and rescued. He’s high energy and they like to play with each other. Ziggy tolerates Wren’s shenanigans”

In fact, the cat and foster dog have proven so close, Ziggy has even taken to giving Wren back scratches, as a video posted to TikTok under the handle anthonynerad shows. “When you thought your foster amstaff [American Staffordshire bull terrier] wouldn’t be good with cats, but now she demands kitty butt scratches,” the accompanying caption reads.

It might be a surprise to some but studies have shown how cats and dogs are capable of living alongside each other. In 2020, a survey of 1,270 pet owners with at least one cat and dog found 62.4 percent of respondents claimed their cats and dogs played together while 68.5 percent said they even napped together on occasion.

It’s been five months now. Wren is as close as ever to the other pets and there’s been one other noticeable change: Corinne and Anthony have adopted her.

Corinne hopes the video of Wren and Ziggy raised a few smiles, but she also hopes it encourages people to help animals in shelters. “Just because a dog is in a shelter, doesn’t mean it’s ‘bad’ or ‘damaged,'” she said. “Just because a dog is a pit mix, doesn’t mean it’s a fighting dog. Wren is the complete opposite. She is such a loving, friendly, sweet and goofy pup.”

Corinne added: “So many dogs that look like Wren die in a shelter every day and it’s heartbreaking. We hope the video makes people laugh, because she makes us laugh every day.”