|
|
Post by melonie on Jul 12, 2013 4:43:58 GMT -5
My daughter and I have really been missing having a cat in the house. So I've been considering it.
My hesitancy is Cleveland. He has been know to harass cats. My last cat lived fine with him in the home. But if given the opportunity Cleveland would bark and carry on at him.
Winston is cat friendly in the home... unless Cleveland decided to pick on Mill. Then Winnie would join in on the barking. Not always though.
I'm thinking I would need to adopt a dog friendly cat to begin with.
I'd like a Maine Coon since they are pretty big.
How would I go about introducing them? Should I even try having a cat if Cleveland is a known pain in the catbutt.
Sent from my XT881 using proboards
|
|
|
|
Post by seamonkey on Jul 12, 2013 20:40:39 GMT -5
The only thing I can really think of regarding introducing a cat into the house, is that, do you have the type of dogs that if they get in the cats face and the cat takes a swat on the nose, are your dogs going to go after the cat or learn the cat is attached to sharp things and stay away from the cat?
Matilda was 8 weeks when we bought her home and the cats were already here, so she views the cats as tiny hairy things for her to lick until they are soggy (I have no idea why my foster kitten puts up with this)
We worked with George's behaviorist on him chasing the cats and how to redirect him, but what REALLY cured him of it and he has not done it since, is that my husband and I foster and work with kittens with biting issues and work them out of it and get them ready to adopt.
We had just gotten Sophie and she maybe weighed 4 lbs soaking wet and George was let out his kennel to go for his walk and Sophie was right outside the baby gate to the cat room and George tried to chase her and she didn't run away from him like the other cats and swatted him straight to the nose. He started pig squealing and went and hid in his kennel
Sophie had come to foster here right after my husband lost his cat, all the bottle fed kittens he was feeding, and one of our fosters who would have wound up making someone a very nice lap cat after we worked with her on the biting, had to be put down with FIP. Sophie decided my husband was her human and she was going to make him feel better and she is now a permanent resident here and the 2 of them are disgusting together
|
|
|
|
Post by melonie on Jul 12, 2013 22:18:18 GMT -5
Our last cat Milo was front declawed, and wasn't afraid of the dogs, he was cautious of Cleveland. He was known to play with my ex's wiener dog, and while he didn't play with Cleveland, he did hang out with him in the same bed, or sofa etc. Winston didn't chase him since Milo acted like he could care less. But Cleveland would bark so the cat would go hide, or sit on the counter or microwave where he knew he could torment Cleveland safely. Mostly Cleveland ignored him though. Given the chance I'm sure he would chase.
Winston was here when a cat I had taken in had kittens. Only one survived, and Winston was very good with him. At that point I didn't have Cleveland yet.
I'm guessing that if a cat hauls off and swats either dog they'll back off. Clevelands excitement level can spike quickly though, so not sure how he'd react if allowed to get into that situation.
If the cat runs, the dogs will likely chase.
I'm going to spend some time surfing for more info.
|
|
|
|
Post by seamonkey on Jul 13, 2013 14:23:39 GMT -5
One of my friends with the rescue is the one that fosters all the Pit Bulls that comes in and I know she has a Pit bull of her own. She also fosters cats. I can ask her today how she handles introductions with her pit bull to the new cats and kittens that come in
|
|
I look forward to learning much here