Making everyone feel at home.

[darcya]

So as some of you know I recently adopted a kitten from a shelter.

I also own two golden retrievers, that I love dearly. They are older 7 and 9. They have been around cats before and they were never aggressive and they don't chase. They are merely super curious and they want to smell her.

Anyway, I wanted to post this thread basically kind of as a journal/diary where I update it with how I am going about introducing them. Also I want to use it to see how long it takes to get them used to each other.

Sunday July 21:

The kitten was brought out of her safe room into the hallway about 4 feets from the dogs. (AGAINST WHAT I TOLD MY PARENTS TO DO!!)-I really didn't want to rush it, but my parents don't understand that it takes time. They seem to be on board now, though!

Tuesday July 23:

I let one of the dogs sleep and play with a blanket and then gave it to the kitten and she sniffed it and slept on it all day today. We also feed the dogs treats on one side of the door, and fed the cat her wet food on the other. She seemed very interested and alert, and she listened to them and then when the dogs walked away she did eat her food.

We're working on it slowly!

Give me any advice or questions!!!

-Darcy.

 

[mani]

Great idea, Darcy...

It will be interesting to see how it unfolds... It is different, introducing cats and dogs rather than cats to cats, but it does pay to be careful

 

[darcya]

JULY 23 (Evening):

We allowed the kitten to smell the dogs chew toy and we dangled her feather toy around it and on it to make her play by their scent.

July 24 (Evening):

Nala has been crying a lot, and she wanted to explore so bad. Part of my anxiety about the introduction, was that I have heard horror stories of letting them meet and the cat gets scared and runs the wrong way into the rafters of something.

We let her explore the upstairs hallway, the stairs, the dining room, the kitchen, the pantry, and the living rooms while the dogs were locked up in my parents room. (She still has not seen my brothers room, the basement, my parents room, or the basement.)

Against my better judgement

, my parents wanted to see how she would do with our more calm submissive female dog.

We put her in her safe room and made the dog lay down about 12 feet from the door in the hallway. We opened the door and let Nala decide if she wanted to go see or not.

Slowly she did inch her way out and she got within about three feet 

 but decided to go down the stairs instead. There was eye contact, but both animals had good body language, and best of all they weren't very fearful; they were insanely curious!

It went really well!

We decided to do the same method and try with our dominant, more aggressive dog. He isn't even aggressive, but more so than the other dog is.

I suggest you never do what we did by rushing it. It wasn't my descion (thank you parents!)

Anyway, both dogs were there. One decided to approach and Nala warned them with her hiss to stay away. It didn't go bad at all, and I will admit my anxiety level was soaring, I just want it to work out so badly. Poor girl just sits up there and cries because she wants out of the room. (And she has escaped many times!)

Kepp your fingers crossed! 

 

[darcya]

July 25

We did the same type of visits as Wednesday night. We brought one dog at a time into the hallway into a laying down postion. We let Nala decide if she was going to go see the dog or not. She got within about one foot of our more gentile, less aggresive dog. She got about two feet from our more aggressive one. 

All body language has been looking really good. 

Nala is a bit scared of little noises and things and often she will run if she hears one.

She has literally been sitting at the bedroom door crying her buns off, because she wants to come out. If we weren't so scared of the dogs sitting on her and hurting her, we would let her roam free after more introductions.

Anyway, all seems to be going well. Things tend to seem more anxious for her when both are there at the same time, but we will get there and hopefully all goes pretty smoothly from now on.