2 9mo Cats needing a new home Oceanside, CA

Hello everyone, so my wife and I adopted 2 kittens around November. We have given them much love since they have been with us. we also got a puppy who is now 6 months old. One of the kittens loves the dog and the other not so much. I'm scared it might get bad with time, and I don't want either of the animals to get hurt. we have tried many of things to bring them together. We don't want to give up either of the animals. We want to be in it for the long haul but its not a safe environment an I'm not sure if I should take them to a shelter. The reasoning on giving up the cats over the dog is because the dog has been needing medical attention and I don't want to burden anyone with that nor do I want a shelter to put her down. If anyone is interested in adopting 2 wonderful loving cates please let me know. also any advice or tips will be helpful too. Thank you!

I definitely don't think you have to make a choice to give any of them up.

I'm going to ask some questions so that we can offer advice on how to help them all coexist better.

Can you tell us a little about the behaviors you are seeing? What exactly is the cat doing? What about the dog? What is happening before any altercations?

How did you go about introducing the cats to the dog?

Has the dog had any obedience training?

Does the dog know and listen to "sit", "down" and "stay"?

Are there any "dog-free" zones that the cats have access to?

Do you have cat trees or am at shelving?

Also, welcome to TCS! There are many members here with both dogs and cats (I'm one of them), so I'm sure others will be along to offer advice.

It's good that you are wanting to address problems before they escalate into something bigger.

It took a little for everyone to coexist at my house. The first dog we got (surrendered to me), is an 80 lb Dane/Dalmatian/Hound mix. He hadn't ever been around cats and just wanted to chase/play with them. The cats in turn would hiss and pop him.

Once we got the dog on a routine and started working on basic obedience and worked on getting his excess energy out, things started to calm down.

We still have several cats that do not like dogs, which is ok. The dogs are kept in a confined area of the house (they are prone to eat thing/demolish stuff) and the cats are free to come and go. The ones that don't like dogs simply stay out of the dog zone.

Other members have cat rooms in their house, which typically consists of a bedroom with a baby gate placed in the door way. The cat room typically consists of the litter box(es), food/water, a cat tree, toys, bed, etc...it just gives the cats a safe place that they know they can escape the dog.

Having cat trees or wall shelves that allow the cat to get up and out of reach of a dog in areas where there is likely to be interaction is another idea. This gives the cat a safe place to retreat if they feel threatened.