Cats and Dogs: Introduction Mayhem!

I hope this is OK. I'm attaching photos. The first is when we brought the first puppy home. The second is when we brought the second puppy home a few months later. We have one cat and two dogs. The cat came first (by a long shot), the dogs came a short time after we got married.





It's been mutual toleration from day one. The cat will generally run (she's got a room the dogs can't get into) rather than fight - but only after much growling and complaining. The dogs think it's great fun to chase the cat. The cat has slapped the dogs, but only once with her claws out (on that occasion, she caught her claw in his cheek, pulled his face over, removed her claw and then licked him where she'd snagged him!)

It's a very patient cat, imported from Russia when I came back from working there (with her brother who died before the dogs came), and I think it's a cultural thing, as strange as that sounds - she's nothing like the typical cat found in the US (I've had cats my whole life, and lived in Russia for 3 years, so I'm speaking from experience, not stories).

FWIW,

Liz

Brenda,

I sent you an e-mail.

lmcguire said:

The cat has slapped the dogs, but only once with her claws out (on that occasion, she caught her claw in his cheek, pulled his face over, removed her claw and then licked him where she'd snagged him!)

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What a great cat!

I hope the dog was duly impressed.

I've always had a cat and a dog. One dog I had used to wash the cat's ears regularly and they often slept together.

In general, I've found mature cats are wary but respond well to mature dogs. Bouncy puppies are another matter, mainly because they're often larger than the cat.

Carmy said:

One dog I had used to wash the cat's ears regularly and they often slept together.

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Oh, yes, kitty ear wax seems to be a special treat for dogs! And cats do like extra warmth (we sometimes catch ours snuggled up to one of the dogs - who seem to tolerate it if they're tired enough).

The cat likes to sleep under the comforter on our bed, and sometimes the dogs jump up and have great fun trying to figure out what the lump under the covers is - esp. once it starts moving...

Liz

smallthunder said:

I hope the dog was duly impressed.

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He seemed dumbfounded by her behavior. (I think the claw was a shock.)

Liz

I have had a cat and dog together for a while.
They sleep together.
Play (you chase me--then I'll chase you).
The cat will occasionally "lock" the dog in a room, by standing in the doorway. The dog doesn't like to pass by the cat too closely, those claws are sharp!
The only time they "fight" is that the cat can not stand for the dog to go near the litter box.

I don't have any pictures. I've had lots of cats and lots of dogs that got along in a variety of ways. I've rescued dogs that had obviously killed cats before, and had to keep my cat in her cage at those times so they would not kill her-- did have a couple of close calls which were very scary. (I found good cat-free homes for these dogs and made sure the people knew that they WOULD attack smaller animals.)

My big dog, Buddy, tried to kill my cat when I first got him. He kept trying to chase her and I would just scold him for it, and figured they would start to get along after awhile. (Buddy's a very lovable dog with a friendly personality; I didn't realize he had a "dark side" then.) One day several weeks after I got him, he and I were out in the yard and the cat came outside. I encouraged her to come up so she could make friends with the dog; she approached warily. Buddy watched with great interest. She got to within a couple of feet and then Buddy suddenly leaped up, grabbed her around the middle with his huge jaws, and slammed her against the ground! I grabbed him immediately and started hitting him. He let her go and she ran off.

I couldn't believe it, and I've owned lots of dogs in my life, as stated above. I had a hard time finding the cat, and was awfully scared that she had been seriously hurt. (And I felt REALLY GUILTY.) She finally returned and I was relieved that she didn't seem to be injured except for a couple of bruises and some missing fur.

Now Buddy and Divot the cat are friends. She will walk under him and rub against his legs, and he will give her little kisses-- though I note when they are outside sometimes he will make these dashes at her. I always keep my eye on him when they are around each other, but he seems to think of Divot as "his" cat now and she is off limits for killin. Not so with other cats! I've told my neighbors who let their cats roam that they should discourage their cats from coming into my yard if they can. There is one cat who is very nice and friendly that comes to visit me all the time; I've told him several times to say well away from Buddy and he seems to understand what I'm saying.

My two small dogs, Frenzy and Bentley, get along fine with Divot. Frenzy is elderly and he's usually not paying attention to her, but when he does he always shrinks back because he doesn't like being scratched. Bentley is jealous when I pay attention to her, but mostly they get along great. I've actually seen them playing in the yard: Bentley likes to run around and act crazy (he's half Jack Russell and half mini pin, so he has a lot of energy) and the cat will hide under something and then jump out to scare him. Occasionally Bentley will try to get sexual with the cat, and get scratched in the nose as a result.

Nugget and them felines

My elderly black-and-tan dachshund -- Nugget "The Toothless Wonder" -- used to react to cats in weird ways (now always he feigns blindness):

If the cat showed it was scared, well! Nugget would start acting like a big shot (i.e. a fully-fanged doberman), barking and chasing (if necessary). Never got too close to the cat, though -- he's dumb, but ain't that dumb.

If the cat ignored him, Nugget figured it was out of his league, and would "save face" by ignoring it back. Though one time, he figured the not-running-away-cat must be a funny looking dog. So he went over and tried to sniff its butt -- which did not go over very well with the cat, believe me!

The last time he actually interacted with a cat was at the vet's office -- we used to go to a vet that had a rescue cat who "owned" the office. No fear of dogs, or strangers, or anything. It jumped up on the bench next to me while I had Nugget in my lap, and proceeded to ignore both of us.

Nugget sniffed it -- and then stood looking off into the distance, his gaze just above the cat's head, absolutely transfixed. The cat yawned and then decided to catch a nap. Nugget, meanwhile, was frozen in thought -- I could almost hear the gears in that dog's head click-click-click through the thought processes: "Hmmm, it's not a ... human, no, no, doesn't smell like one of them ... dog? hmmm . .. no, no, not quite a dog ... it ... must ... be ... wait a minute, wait a minute ... it's coming to me ... yes, not a dog, then ... ummm ... it's ... a ... c ...a ... t ... cat. Yup, cat ... I mean ... CAT!!!!!"

When the lightbulb went off in that little dachshund brain of his, Nugget knew exactly what he had to do: BITE ... THE ... CAT!!! And he suddenly lurched forward to grab the cat by the back of its neck!

I don't know who was more surprised -- me or that cat!

Or Nugget, for that matter!

Thank god Nugget isn't called "The Toothless Wonder" for nothing -- so he basically gave the cat a good one-grab gumming -- but still!

The cat ran away, and Nugget's doghood was restored.

BTW: When we left the office later, the cat stood by the door and neither one of those animals would give the other the satisfaction of a nod of acquaintance. It appears that both had become, suddenly, selectively blind.

LOKI....the Cat!

Loki is his name and Loki is nothing like the Norse God of mischief. No, no, no...much worse!

Came to us as a baby without benefiting from Queen's (mother cat) teaching so, Loki does not know he's a cat. Thinks he's one of the family, has a vocabulary of about fifteen different yowls, meows and growls all of which we know exactly what each mean and... we obey!

As a baby we introduced him to the Doberman puppy next door and to the Australian cattle dog puppy on the other side - they are great pals and nary a problem with any - no fear, loki perches and watches but does not slink away...

I like dogs a lot but, CATS rule!

I have a boxer/pit mix, and one day my roommate brought home an eight-month-old kitten named Fitch. Kabuki, the dog, loves everything--sometimes a little too vigorously. We had to put a leash on her and practically sit on her so she wouldn't run up to Fitch, scare the crap out of him, loom over him, and sniff him to bits.

We did this for about three hours.

Eventually Fitch calmed down about this big crazy thing that wanted to play with him and came up to sniff Kabuki of his own volition. For her part, Kabuki learned the command "gentle" and was kept under close watch for the next few days. By the end of the week they were playing facehugger (with the kitty wrapped around Kabuki's head and both play-chewing on each other).


But yeah. Lots of supervision, lots of caution, and no underestimating either of your critters. Dogs can kill cats easily, but all it takes is one claw in the wrong place at the wrong time to make your doggie blind.