Cat vs Dog

I'm fairly new here so a quick intro may be in order. I have two indoor purebred rescue cats...Bastet, a six month old Bengal, and Figment, a two year old Ragdoll. Bastet was seized along with her littermates during a drug raid and spent a couple days at the Humane Society before coming home with me...Fig was a stray that i took in and later found out was a purebred ragdoll who had been kicked out by her previous owners for scratching the kid.
We also have a cockatiel - Kozmo

Both cats are fine with the bird, mildly intereasted at best. Even when he flys off his cage and onto the couch right next to them they barely twitch a whisker.

Bastet enjoys going for walks and visiting Petsmart...she'll even go nose to nose with the dogs.


Ok..so much for a short intro...on to todays story


My college roomate came up for the weekend with her Rhodesian Ridgeback "Hunter"....He is fine with cats and I figured my cats would be fine with him...boy was I wrong..

From the moment he crossed the threshold Bastet had her hackles up...i have never seen her so puffed up! She climbed up on top of the fridge and didnt come down once all weekend. Strange when you consider the fact that she doesnt mind dogs outside the house at all. I hate to break it to the gal...but she is a young cat with alot of life left. And being that i am a dog person, there will be a dog in our lives in the next 20 years.....hopefully the fur won't fly too much then!

A visitor is often seen as a ENEMY ... a dog who lives there is family

A little strange but not surprising. Weird how outside the house the Bengal is fine. But the dog "invaded" the terrritory of the cats, so that's a typical reaction.

The better introductions are those between a cat and puppy or a kitten and dog. When you have full grown animals that are introduced things don't always work out the way you think.

As long as the dog is well trained in commands, you can put him in a down/stay so the cats won't be as threatened. And keep him on a leash till they are better with him.

First time my rexes (we didn't own any dogs at the time) saw a doxie they hissed and ran to the top of the refrigerator! They were bigger then the dog. The owner was buying one of the rex kittens and brought the dog with her without me knowing

A few years ago some friends came to visit my parents with their Bichon Frise. PurrPuss spent the entire time on the top of the refrigerator, even though he was easily twice the size of the B.F. and could have smacked it to Kingdom Come if he had wanted to.

TERRITORY! You have to remember YOUR home is your cat's territory, whether they pay rent or not