introducing a dog into a cat's world

[Anonymous]

Anyone done this recently who can impart some advice?

We have a 2 year old cat who has shown herself not to like the company of other cats. Otherwise she is friendly, playful, affectionate and mostly well behaved. She responds to her name, prefers to be with us than without. She is indoor only, but gets a lot of exercise playing catch and jumping for the feathers on the stick.

We want to get a dog. Will she hate and try to kill him? We may not get one, but its something we are thinking about doing.

[Anonymous]

Make sure kitty has safe space away from the dog. When introducing a new critter into our household, we used lots of ex pens to separate space until things were more comfortable.

It will depend on the dog too. Most rescues/shelters attempt to "cat test" dogs to make sure their prey drive is reasonable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Make sure kitty has safe space away from the dog. When introducing a new critter into our household, we used lots of ex pens to separate space until things were more comfortable.

It will depend on the dog too. Most rescues/shelters attempt to "cat test" dogs to make sure their prey drive is reasonable.

Thank you. While our cat is a rescue, the dog would not be. We have small children and have been advised against it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make sure kitty has safe space away from the dog. When introducing a new critter into our household, we used lots of ex pens to separate space until things were more comfortable.

It will depend on the dog too. Most rescues/shelters attempt to "cat test" dogs to make sure their prey drive is reasonable.

Thank you. While our cat is a rescue, the dog would not be. We have small children and have been advised against it.

Then don't get the dog. Duh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Make sure kitty has safe space away from the dog. When introducing a new critter into our household, we used lots of ex pens to separate space until things were more comfortable.

It will depend on the dog too. Most rescues/shelters attempt to "cat test" dogs to make sure their prey drive is reasonable.

Thank you. While our cat is a rescue, the dog would not be. We have small children and have been advised against it.

Then don't get the dog. Duh.

It is possible to get a dog which is not a "rescue"...

[Anonymous]

You won't know until the dog arrives. A good rescue will cat test their dogs, but it is no guarantee. It may be easier with a puppy.

[Anonymous]

You could get a rescue puppy.

[Anonymous]

Our cat that mildly dislikes other cats really hates dogs. She'd probably slash a friendly puppy across the muzzle.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our cat that mildly dislikes other cats really hates dogs. She'd probably slash a friendly puppy across the muzzle.

Ok, good warning. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

When we got our dog our cat loved him, I think he thought we got him for him to play with. The dog was a tiny puppy and our cat loved swatting him with his paw. As a puppy our dog would try to get to the cat on the couch and the cat would just lay on his side and smack the puppy in the face when his little head would bob above the cushions. When our dog was about 6 months old and became bigger than the cat and could get on the couch we started to have some issues. The cat just turned on the dog over night. He would hang out on the counter, and when the dog walked by he would try and knock things on top of him. One time it was scissors! When our dog turned 2 and started to calm down a little the cat became more affectionate towards him.