My big senior dog (14) and I will be moving in with partner and his 3-year old cat at the end of the year – from overseas, so no opportunity to slow-introduce before the move.
He's super-chilled and tends to ignore most other animals once he's had an initial 'hello'. If he sees cats at a distance he clearly has a bit of an instinctive prey drive, but absolutely no idea what to do once he's started running, so he gives up after a few steps – and up close to cats (i.e passing in the street) he goes very still and tries to avoid any kind of eye contact (it's very funny)
Cat is used to small dogs and gets on well with quiet ones, so I'm not too worried, but do want to make sure their first encounters are as relaxed and positive as possible.
Any tips on gentle intros between the two? I'm confident they'll be fine after a while, but would love to avoid my poor boy getting scratched and cat being uncomfortable in her own home!