Countifs function, ignoring those blanks

I've had an issue plaguing me and it wasn't until I created this test scenario is where I realized that when using a countifs function, once blanks are introduced it affects the countifs results?

First create 3 ranges, each range with a series of different values.

ie.
range1 = A,A,"",B,B,B,C
range2 = Dog,Dog,Dog,Cat,Cat,Cat,Cat,Cat
range3 = alive,sick,"",lost,alive,alive,dead,lost

Now if I use a countifs function.

=countifs(range1,"A",range2,"Cat",range3,"<>alive")

This equals 2


If I remove an "alive" and make the cells blank. It returns 3 for one and 4 for both


What can I do to have the countifs to ignore the blanks after it has determined a count? or is there another way?

Can you post a copy of your file with the sample data?

Thanks for the speedy reply. Here is my example workbook.

Thanks for adding the file... try this

=COUNTIFS(A9:A16,E7,B9:B16,E6,C9:C16,"<>"&"alive",C9:C16,"<>"&"")

I can't believe that passed me by and thank you so much. It works and no more "it has to be so simple headache".

I did get it working though using and array sum formula and perform multipliers for each conditional but this was exactly what I needed and saves me some excess processing power.