Pregnant cat attacking dog

[ravendale]

We recently added a young cat to our family she was supposed to be 4 months old. She has been with us a month now. I have noticed she has been getting plumper. She has never been outside while we have had her. So I am positive she was pregnant when I got her.  I think she may be a little older than they said when we picked her up. Since we have had her for a month I am guessing she has about two weeks left before she delivers. You can feel the kittens moving. After she has her kittens we will be scheduling her spay appointment as we really only wanted one cat.
Anyway, for the first couple days she stayed in my daughters room to get comfortable in our house. At first she was pretty skittish but she has warmed up fine now to the people in the household. The people we got her from had a dog and kids and they said she was very friendly. They did not mention any aggression towards dogs. So I don't know if this is new because she is pregnant or if she didn't really like dogs before and that is why they gave her away.

I have been trying to introduce them slowly but she just hisses at them. If they are in their crates she will go into the room they are in but run if one of them barks. The other day someone let one of the dogs in from going potty and instead of going to his crate he pranced right into the living room ignoring the cat but she ran into my daughters room and he followed and proceeded to pick up all the cat toys he could fit in his mouth. I called him and he turned around. She was hissing at him and went towards him but his tail kept her away. It swings rather quickly. Maybe since it smacked her in the face a couple times while she was trying to smack him she thought he was doing it on purpose. After being thwarted that way she went to attack his face but I pushed her away and took him out of the room. He ignored her the whole time. He just likes to pick up soft toys and carry them around so he usually goes in the kids room to pilfer their stuffed animals.

Another incident all he did was run into the living room and I called him and he turned right around and came back. She ran out of my daughters room and chased him but stopped before going in the room with the dogs. I don't think he noticed.

I am a little worried if she actually does get him he will decide to fight back and not run away. He is a medium sized dog so he could very easily hurt her. Although currently all he has in mind is being a big goof. I have stopped all introduction attempts for now as I don't want any of the animals to get hurt as well as to avoid stressing her out while she is pregnant. They currently have separate time to be free in the house.

Is there a way to get her to accept the dogs?

 

[ravendale]

I forgot to add her name is Luna and also here is a picture of her.

IMG_7799.JPG

• ravendale
• Jul 9, 2014

 

[alyssam]

Totally normal. She is about to have a litter of tiny kittens and is probably feeling threatened by your dog. All she wants to do is protect her babies born or unborn! 

I suggest monitoring your dog when he is around your pregnant cat. If he gets too curious of her or annoys her too much she will attack him. Naturally the dog will defend himself. This is dangerous for the mother an her unborn kittens. You don't want her to feel stressed out and go into early labor or risk having her escape outside to have her kittens away from your dog.

Now, your dog doesn't intentionally mean her harm. These are just my suggestions so take them as you will. Try your best to watch them when they are together and if it doesn't seem to help keep them separated until after she has had her kittens. In which case, you can keep her litter closed in a room where the dog is unable to reach them. 

I live on a farm we have 6 cats and 5 dogs. All of our cats and dogs get along UNTIL one of our females is pregnant. Though I usually don't have a problem prior to the kittens being born. We have had a dog get too close to a litter out of curiosity once or twice and get attacked by the mother every time they crossed paths for a week. 


Best of luck!

 

[ravendale]

We have just been keeping them separate for now. The dogs stay in their crates while she is out of my daughters room. Unless they need to potty. While they are out running around she is closed in my daughters room.

I unfortunately had lots of cats when I was younger. We took in a cat that had been dumped and she had a few litters that we kept most of before we were able to get them all altered. She got along well with the dogs the whole time. Luna is the first cat I have had in a long time though.

 

[mani]

This article is about introducing dogs and cats.. not in quite the same situation as yours but it will still be helpful:  http://www.thecatsite.com/a/introducing-cats-to-dogs

But she will be being extra cautious ... I'd keep them apart as much as possible till the kittens are born and developing well.. it will be a case of playing it by ear to determine when the time is right.

Luna is rather gorgeous

  I'm glad she found you.

 

[chloe92us]

You could put up a baby gate at your daughters door- the dog won't be able to go in there, and the cat will have a safe place. They can see each other too, so that would help them get used to each other. If she's pregnant, maybe she won't jump over the gate, but she definitely could so be aware of that.

 

[ravendale]

Thank you for the replies. Thank you Mani I will check out the article in the a.m.


Chloe, thank you for the idea. Unfortunately my dogs are easily able to go over baby gates. They love jumping over things. So unless I was able to find one extra tall it wouldn't work in our situation. Maybe I could get one of those metal screen doors.