Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Cat, Welcome to the Dog House

I can use some helpful advice. I had what I called my 1/2 cat. Our next-door neighbor owned a mostly outdoor cat, but wasn't home very often to feed and give the poor little guy any attention. Ken and I stepped into the role of giving Miles, the cat, attention and making sure he was fed. The neighbor moved away and we agreed to keep the cat that has settled in nicely to his outdoor surroundings. We love the cat and he has become part of our family.

Now, on to the dilemma ~ a very spoiled dog has run our house for the past 6 years. We would like the cat to be able to come inside without our dog eating Miles. I have been online and have read some ideas, but I would like to hear some success stories from actual people. Please leave me a comment or send me an email. I'd like our furbabies to get along!

5 comments:

  1. Oh my ... I have a cat but no dogs so have never given this a try. However, a friend of mine has ... but she introduced the pair when they were both youngsters. They were also of different sexes. We have friends who have dogs and when they come to visit my cat hides. Then, slowly, she comes out to investigate and all the critters size each other up, sniffing and checking each other out. Perhaps, supervised "get acquainted" sessions would work ... after awhile maybe they would be used to each other and wouldn't fight.

    I hope you'll post about how it goes ... I'd be interested to know!

    Good luck!

    Small Footprints

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  2. I've never had to do this but I have owned cats for over 20 years. In my experience the dog rarely catches the cat and when it does it often comes off worst. just don't fuss the cat in front of the dog, make sre there's no competition about food and good luck.

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  3. Hi Angela. I have 1 dog and 5 cats and they all get along, but they've all been raised together. I would slowly introduce them, and make is supervised as it's already been said. When your dog "makes nice"....even the smallest about of nice with Miles, praise him and maybe give him a treat of some sort to show him that this is the correct behavior. I'm sure he will stand his ground the first few times, cause dogs are very territorial, but give it some time and take things slow, and eventually he will accept his new friend. I wish you lots of luck, and I commend you for taking Miles in as your own. :)

    ~Brenda

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  4. Thanks so much for all of the comments! I guess I feel like I want it to happen overnight instead of introducing them slowly. We've taught our dog tricks with giving him treats for good behavior so that's a good idea.
    Thanks for all your help!
    ~~ Kim

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  5. So sorry I got your name wrong. That will teach me to put my glasses on from now on. :)
    Have a great day Kim!

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