advice please! my mum passed away and i have to adopt her dog but i have a cat

Hi everyone,

I'm Chris and my cat is called cat friend!

Here's my problem, my mum passed away recently and I am adopting her 12,year old yorkie dog, but I have a cat, syberian, who is also ten

I really want them to get along is there any advice for how I can make that happen?

How to introduce them?

Any wisdom would be really appreciated

Thanks everyone!

Sorry for your loss. 

We got a dog when my cat was almost 6 years old and the cat was not happy. He mostly avoided the dog and the dog learned to stay away from the cat.  We didn't do anything special, just brought the dog in the house and the cat, who was familiar with dogs as he was an indoor/outdoor cat just stayed up high or went outside.

We fed the cat in a separate room so the dog would not eat his food, that was really the only adjustment we made.

I'm sure someone else here will have better advise but that is my experience with cats and dogs in the same house.

Hi Chris and welcome to TCS!

I have no much knowledge about it but I am pretty sure others would share you their experience.

I'm very sorry to hear about your mom.  Bless you for adopting her dog.  I'm sorry I can't provide advice on introductions, but there are lots of folks on here with both dogs and cats.  As the others have said, I am sure someone will be able to offer insight on this subject.

theblitzcat said:

Hi everyone,

I'm Chris and my cat is called cat friend!

Here's my problem, my mum passed away recently and I am adopting her 12,year old yorkie dog, but I have a cat, syberian, who is also ten

I really want them to get along is there any advice for how I can make that happen?

How to introduce them?

Any wisdom would be really appreciated


Thanks everyone!

Click to expand...

Welcome to TCS.
So sorry for your loss. It's always hard to lose a parent.

Take a look at the TCS article on Introducing Cats to Dogs. Given the ages of both the cat and dog, you'll probably need to do some tweaking on the method of introduction, but the article should at least give you some ideas for where to start. Good luck with the introductions.

I am so very, very sorry for you loss.  I lost my mother a few years ago, so I familiar with that pain.

As for introducing the cat and dog, the article GoldyCat suggested is really good.  I went there, read that.  I do know that keeping them in areas where they can hear and smell each other, but not necessarily see each other is often suggested, and really helps when it is practical.  Also, make sure the dog can't get into the cat's food and litter box.  That will help.

Best of luck blending your family.  I'll be thinking of you as you face the holidays without your mom.  Candle lit for your peace and healing.