Should we adopt an older cat or a kitten with existing dog?

[Amberfromcamber]

I say we, it's my dad who is looking for a cat after his elderly cat passed away a few months ago. He has a dog who got on well with his cat and who also gets on well with my cat, however if he sees a strange cat he will run after it.

My dad is concerned the dog will chase an older cat so he it leaning towards a kitten.

However my dad is late 70s and a kitten would likely be more work than introducing an older cat.

We have found a lovely 9 year old cat to rescue but my dad is suddenly worried that the cat and dog will not get along.

With the cats history the shelter are willing to trial the cat living with the dog and have talked through how to go about introductions.

Any advice would be appreciated.

We had an adult cat when we got two labs (one 11 the other 7) neither had lived with cats and it was fine. There was the odd incident of chasing from the younger dog, but the older dog and cat became best friends.
I think once the dog realises the cat is part of the household he'll be fine. Our younger dog has stopped chasing our cat but any other cat is fair game!

I think kitten too, it’s incredibly unfair on a 9yo cat to trial living with a dog.

It’s like trialling me living with a tiger.

If the cat has lived with dogs before and/or is reasonably confident I would go with the adult rescue.

I'd go for a kitten.

IMO it doesn't matter that the rescue cat has lived with dogs - your dads' dog has never lived with cats and this cat has never lived with your dads' dog.

We have a dog and three cats - while they all get on well enough, the cat we got as a kitten definitely has the best bond with the dog.

Thanks for the advice everyone. So we have decided not to go for the older cat and look for a kitten instead. We have experience of introducing kittens to dogs but not older cats so better safe than sorry I guess.

As I mentioned the dog has always lived with a cat and is good with my own one.

Looking on Facebook there was a lot of interest in this cat so hopefully he'll find a new home soon.

I have recently introduced 2 kittens to my young dog and its still very much a work in progress. I am having some days of regretting the decision but am looking forward to having 3 settled adult animals who will one day tolerate each other at the least. (We had an adult cat when we got the puppy, they kept to themselves mostly, but we lost her at christmas). I followed all the advice about scent swapping and gradual safe introduction but 10 weeks in and I still can't relax if they are all in the same room (and never leave them alone together). Fingers crossed it works out for your Dad.

Kitten for sure. We adopted an older cat from a relative and he took ages to get used to the dog, he refused to come into the house for a good month, then hid in a wardrobe for the next month, only surfacing for food. It took at least 3 months for him to get used to the dog. New kitten got used to the dog in one day and is now busy terrorising the household