Thursday, July 16, 2009

Cat vs Dog.....................

Thomas heathcliffe is fine, he is still residing at our old building and being taken care of by my old neighbour. but she wants to move and so now he HAS to stay at home and he and Brutus have to get along. Easy? I don't think so, I am going to fetch him AGAIN today and take him home for the hundredth time and I don't actually know WTF to do. The dog and the cat do not like each other and even though this is not the reason Thomas roams (he did it long before the dog came) I have to make it work somehow. I have tried introducing them through a cage, I have had to lock one up and let one out at a time I feel guilty about the one that is locked away. I want my cat & my dog both to be able to lie in the lounge at night with us and though that might be a pipe dream that is what I want. I couldn't get a big dog puppy and wait for it to grow up because we needed the security straight away. I sometimes think I shouldn't have got Brutus because of the cat, but if we didn't we would have still been scared and uncomfortable in our own home. Thomas is hardly at home so in a way it is his own fault if he is the one locked up. He is a maniac at night and keeps us all awake wanting to escape etc. I can't make a seven year old cat stay indoors after all these years, he is used to roaming. I wish T was here to help me when I get home today I wish the animals would get along, I wish I could "fix" this....................any suggestions?

3 comments:

Martha said...

I dont think there are any quick fixes.
They will eventually learn to tolerate each other.
When we first got Harry, our last basset, we already had a cat. She had already lived with our last dog and 'tolerated' her.
Harry and Mouschi did not get on - there was a fair bit of spitting and growling whenever they were together.
We would never have left them alone together - we always had them seperate when we were out.
Eventually they did tolerate each other - can't say they were ever the best of friends but they did manage to share a home!
Good luck
xxxx

lulu said...

hi thanks for the advice i am hoping for tolerance at least so my home can be peaceful while we there. I also don't leave dogs and cats together if I am out. Shadow and Thomas didn't get on at firt, she was licking his ears last night it was sooo sweet. But i did leave them to more or less sort it themselves because Shadow is small.

xxx

AngelConradie said...

Here're some links I googled... strongs!

http://www.thecatsite.com/Behavior/50/Introducing-Cats-to-Dogs.html

http://www.paw-rescue.org/PAW/PETTIPS/DogTip_Cat.html

http://cats.about.com/cs/catmanagement101/a/introducedog.htm