Dog Lovers Group Community Group
This group is open for people that like dogs, have dogs as pets, work with dogs etc.
We have 4 cats of various ages, the oldest Tigger is 16, Spice is 14, Penny is 8 and Lucky is 3. We were wanting to have a dog, but didn't think Tigger would cope at his age, so was going to wait until he had passed on, however we had the opportunity of having a pedigree Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and couldn't resist. We took it easy with the cats, introducing them carefully. The puppy (alexi) is now just over 4 months old, and she knows Tigger is the boss, will chase the other cats, but won't chase tigger, and tigger gives her a good bop if she dares to !! Penny who is very maternal (had several litters of her own, plus raised one of her sisters litters) has accepted Alexi as well without too many problems, will go nose to nose with each other and give each other kisses. Tigger and Alexi were both up on the sofa together last night as well, so no problems there.
Spice well she is wary of Alexi, won't go too close, but doesn't have a problem being in the same room as her, providing we are there, or if we aren't there, goes up high out of Alexi's reach and is fine with that.
Lucky is the one we are having a problem with..........he is very wary of Alexi, won't be in the same room as her if he has the choice, has done so on a couple of occasions with us there, but very reluctant. For the first 6 weeks that we had her, we didn't hear a peep out of him (normally very vocal), he hid away in our airing cupboard or under our bed upstairs away from her, and only came out at night when she was safely in her crate ! after about 6 weeks he seemed to have forgiven us and came out to us when we were upstairs in our room and she was safely downstairs and started talking to us again and wanting attention........that was about 4 weeks ago, and it hasn't progressed any further. He has started recently disappearing for a couple of days at a time, then when we have taken her out of the house, he will come back in, and disappear upstairs to the airing cupboard, he'll still come out for attention when he hears us go to bed. We've had really cold weather -14 and snowing recently so was worried about it, but he is coming back without any ill effects (possibly found a nice warm bolt hole somewhere).
Has anyone got any tips on how to get him more used to the puppy. It would be nice if all 4 cats would accept her and come into the lounge when she's out with us in the evenings. So far 2 of them will, the third on occasions and Lucky, well we don't see him until we go upstairs.
Anybody else on here, had similar problems with introducing cats and dogs and can give any advice on how to get lucky and alexi to tolerate each other ? or are we just going to have to accept that those two will never get on.........
Spice well she is wary of Alexi, won't go too close, but doesn't have a problem being in the same room as her, providing we are there, or if we aren't there, goes up high out of Alexi's reach and is fine with that.
Lucky is the one we are having a problem with..........he is very wary of Alexi, won't be in the same room as her if he has the choice, has done so on a couple of occasions with us there, but very reluctant. For the first 6 weeks that we had her, we didn't hear a peep out of him (normally very vocal), he hid away in our airing cupboard or under our bed upstairs away from her, and only came out at night when she was safely in her crate ! after about 6 weeks he seemed to have forgiven us and came out to us when we were upstairs in our room and she was safely downstairs and started talking to us again and wanting attention........that was about 4 weeks ago, and it hasn't progressed any further. He has started recently disappearing for a couple of days at a time, then when we have taken her out of the house, he will come back in, and disappear upstairs to the airing cupboard, he'll still come out for attention when he hears us go to bed. We've had really cold weather -14 and snowing recently so was worried about it, but he is coming back without any ill effects (possibly found a nice warm bolt hole somewhere).
Has anyone got any tips on how to get him more used to the puppy. It would be nice if all 4 cats would accept her and come into the lounge when she's out with us in the evenings. So far 2 of them will, the third on occasions and Lucky, well we don't see him until we go upstairs.
Anybody else on here, had similar problems with introducing cats and dogs and can give any advice on how to get lucky and alexi to tolerate each other ? or are we just going to have to accept that those two will never get on.........
One time we adopted a rescue kitten, it was an older kitten (half grown). She didn't like our dogs one bit when we brought her home. The dogs were curious and the kitten scratched one of the dogs across the nose pretty deep and it bleed alot. In defense of my dog I popped the cat on the head hard enough so she would not forget what would happen to her if she hurt the dog again. Then I grabbed the cat, held it down and made it stay there until the dogs had inspected it from end to end until they lost interest and went and laid down. After that the cat accepted the dogs. The cat was smart enough to realize that the dogs weren't going to hurt it, but if the cat hurt the dogs then I would be the one the cat would have to worry about. After that no problems ever again.
Another time a stray kitten cried outside at our mailbox all day long until I finally felt so sorry for it I brought it in realizing it was lost. It was a very small kitten. It had no fear of the dogs at all, it rubed all over them and purred really loud and just loved being inspected by the dogs. That little kitten fell in the love with the dogs from day one. Then came the problem, the cat grew up and got older. I was laying in bed one night and way out in the woods I could hear a cat screaming, I just knew it was my cat and some dog had gotten hold of it (not our dogs, some big fox or dog or something got it) Our dogs stayed in the house at night but the cat wanted to go out. Anyway I was right that it was my cat in trouble because my cat never came home again after that night. The cat just never had any fear of dogs at all or bigger animals I guess, and that is what did her in. Sad story, that was a good cat and I still feel bad when I remember how loving that and trusting that cat was.
good luck all animals are lovely and multiple animal familiues are great