My friend works at a vet and an 8 month old cat was brought in, found in the street, pregnant, and dirty. They cleaned her up and found out she was about to give birth any day. Fast forward to 5 kittens later. Now she is in a foster home with one of the girls from the vet while she nurses the kittens and then mom will be available for adoption as well as the kittens. She is very sweet and cuddley, and she is calm (although maybe because she was pregnant) So we decided to do a foster trial as I have always wanted a cat. Have to wait 6 weeks though so I have some time to prepare. My question I guess is, how will my dogs react to something they have never seen before Has anyone added a cat/kitten to the family with dogs established already? How did it go? Axel still being a puppy kind of worries me, I can see him being very in her face and doing lots of puppy bows and following her around. I'm worried she will get annoyed and swat him. But I also can see them becoming best friends. Any advice is appreciated!
I had two kitten sibling fosters come into to my house when my first dog, Duncan, was about three years old. He'd never seen cats before. I put the kittens in his old crate (Rottie-sized, so it was like a kitty mansion for them). I figured this would keep them totally safe while have a nice place to play with each other. The first day, when Duncan was in the room with the crate, I kept is covered with a big blanket. He did not like this and sat right next to the crate and whined all day. OK... so I carefully uncovered most of the crate and watched both the kittens and Duncan for signs of distress. Kittens were unflappable, Duncan still whined. The next day I took them out and carefully held them one at a time so Duncan could have a sniff. Duncan was much happier with them out and the kittens were still unflappable. So finally on the third day, I opened the crate door and just let them come out if they wanted. They did want, and in fact ended up climbing all over Duncan's head and back. For the rest of their stay, they essentially used him as one enormous jungle gym. He loved them. This experience probably isn't typical at all - it is my one and only time having cats in my house - but it is one time where a dog with zero cat experience did just fine!
My inlaws have a cat - Stanleys had very little to do with her as she bolts as soon as he comes into the house. But his Doggy day care lady has 3 cats who've all stood their ground with him and they seem to get on really well, they even play a bit! I think as long as the cat is quite confident to not be frightened they should be fine
We had a cat when we got Hattie, there was never an issue as Felix quickly let her know who was boss, he never ran away and stood his ground, they lived happily together x
@Emily_BabbelHund I think your experience is fairly typical. Labs are pretty easy going dogs, friendly with other species. Plus, dogs tend to think an animal you allow into your house is meant to be there so while accepting of those you bring in, interlopers outside in their yard might be chased. Jet (used to our previous cat) actually became best friends with a new kitten and got along with the mother but chased the mother when they were both outside. Till one day the mother decided not to run and Jet had to put the brakes on. @Kelsey&Axel I bet if you follow standard procedure for introductions, separate rooms for a while, then able to see and hear each other, then superivised visits, escape routes for the cat (or are you taking a kitten?) I bet it works. Kittens, in my experience, tend to be fearless and usually like dogs, mother cat might take bit longer.
In my experience it depends on the cat. A confident cat will put the dog in its place, give it the odd hiss/swipe/growl if the dog annoys it, and just go about its business. This is how Daisy behaves. But a nervous cat will run away and the dog will feed off this nervous energy and just want to chase/bark at them. This is how my other two cats behave. When we get another cat I will ensure that it has been raised around dogs and is confident around them, because having nervous cats around a dog just isn't worth it imo. Does the foster parent have a dog?
The foster parent does have a dog, but an older dog. So I imagine he doesn't pay much attention to her. Due to her calmness and sweet temper I feel like maybe she is more on the confident side (I hope). But I really am not sure as I haven't met her yet. @Snowshoe we will be taking the Mom, though with her being roughly 8 months old, she is pretty young still, so hopefully that will help us. I worry about our Pomeranian with the cat- he's very dominant but also very skittish (he's the boss and Axel knows it). But because I keep being told that this cat is so laid back I also think that Odie will be just fine with her. We will set up gates so she can escape of course. Should I try introducing them to cats before hand to prepare them or do I risk a bad introduction and then them being tainted towards cats ?
Do you know anybody with a dog-confident cat? If Odie and Axel have never encountered a cat before then I think it'd be helpful to know how they'd react. Knowledge is power and all that.
I haven't done this myself but am thinking about it. Cats Protection has this great video about introducing cats and dogs:
