Anyone ever introduced an adult cat to an adult dog?

[DrNortherner]

We are probably going to get a dog of our own. Probably a pup at some point in the future.

We have the opportunity to dog sit for a friends black lab on sat and sun, we know the dog well and walk him regularly.

We would love to have him for the weekend, but will it freak our cat out or indeed the dog who does not currently live with a cat?

Thanks

bump

Depends on how your cat responds to dogs and how the lab responds to cats really.

Not quite, but our situation was close. And I think a weekend might not be long enough to let them get used to each other.

We had an adult (very bad tempered) cat and got a puppy. All went well - followed all the rules for introducing them, and it was fine. The dog was quite wary of the cat (in a good way) and mostly they kept out of each other's way. The exceptions are that the dog waits patiently while the cat eats his dinner, in case he leaves any (as if!) and also sometimes sweetly takes the cat a toy, then can't understand why he won't play.

However, when we had to move home from overseas in a hurry the cat came right away (had passport already) but the dog had to go and live with our breeder for 7 months while we did all the rabies malarkey. During this time the cat was clearly thrilled to have the house to himself again and dog was living a kennel life, only with other dogs.

When the dog (now age 2) came home to us back here in the UK, we did have a dicey few days. We kept the cat and dog separated again, and introduced them gradually. The dog was very excited by the cat (and he is an excitable bouncy dog at the best of times). I'm sure that for him the cat felt like a new experience and he found it hard to curb his curiosity. The cat was very very upset - stopped eating, very grumpy, bit all of us, stalked and lashed out at the dog on two occasions.

We have all been back together over a month now and things are OK, but I would say that it took a good three weeks for them to settle down to each other.

Sorry - that was an epic - hope it helps!

R

It'll never work you know. A cat/dog hybrid.

only the once

Did they swap numbers at the end hullygully or did the dog climb out of the toilet window?

Neither of them would tell me what happened. They said it was private.

I've just introduced a greyhound to our house and cat. Cat not used to dogs and dog not used to cats.

I was advised to keep the dog on a lead for the first day. So I had cat in her cat box for an hour to let them settle, then opened the box. I had a water pistol ready incase the dog showed any interest. The cat landed on top of the TV and terrified the dog.

That was just over a week ago. They're tolerating each other now. I kept the dog muzzled for the first 3 days at night time. But seeing as she seems ore nervous of the cat I'm not too worried that she'll eat her!