and then she self-corrects. That's what happened with the barking - it pretty much stopped within 24 hours of my post here. And it seems to be working with the cats.
A couple things happened yesterday to give me much hope. First of all, we made a trip to PetSmart to get Bear an inflatable collar since he demolished the Cone of Shame trying to get through the dog door. The collars were right across from the cat cages of their adoptable cats. Honey was like, "ZOMG! There are CATS here! And they're not running! Cats are everywhere! Cool!" She wasn't at all aggressive, obsessive or otherwise inappropriate, she didn't jump on the cages, she just seemed interested to see cats exist outside our home. The second thing that happened was I tried a trick my friend told me about, feeding a treat to the dog in the cat's presence whenever the dog showed appropriate behavior toward the cat. As it happened, hot dogs did the trick. Both the cat and the dog like them, so they shared the treat. From that second forward, for the rest of the night, she'd walk by the cat's room, glance in, but keep walking. Even before bed, when I use the bathroom and one of the cats visits me in there, she usually stands at the door and stares at the cat. Last night she came to the door, looked at the cat, yawned, and just went to bed. I'll watch carefully over the next few days, but yesterday was really a remarkable and encouraging turn-around.
Here's my puppy pop psychology theory: she acts out worst when she's processing most, on the verge of a breakthrough in understanding. I, in turn, see that behavior and panic, but it turns out for naught. We'll see if I remember when whatever her next acting out adventure is.