[alawton]

Hello,

You have your sources, and I won't argue with you there. I still feel it sounds awkward to say, "There ARE a dog and a cat .... ". This may be an area where the average English speaker uses the incorrect grammar. I learned Spanish at a later age. I teach Spanish at the college level. Every semester I'll have a native speaker in the class and he/she will tell me a certain sentence I use just doesn't sound right. I will show this person the formal rule that I am using and we agree to disagree. I think we have the same situation here. Ask another native English speaker what he thinks. I think you will find that most will agree with me, that an English speaker wouldn't say that sentence the way you have it written. I could be wrong, and that is fine. That's why I love these conversations! Tell me what you think.