Teona

[Teri9672]

I have been letting the girls take peeks at Topanga (newly acquired kitten).

They have been sniffing between the puppy gate. Tabitha could really care less about the new furball. She'll just stick her nose thru the gate and Topanga gives her a nice swat and she turns and walks away.

Teona seems to be scared of her though. Topanga is really curious about the dogs and keeps trying to get over the gate to see them. Yesterday Teona jumped a foot off the ground when Topanga launched a surprise pounce from the other side of the gate. Teona paces and makes her "monkey sound". I'll give them another week of looking at each other thru the gate then I'll try them in the same room.

My big bad alpha dog is afraid of a 1.5lb furball......

[TheScotts]

Oooh, be careful! You might be surprised to see your fearful Teona rip into the kitten. I would not leave them alone unsupervised for a very long time, when kitty can defend herself. Terriers can be just rotten with cats. Or not

[Darcy's Mom]

You forgot to add that your alpha dog is afraid of 1.5 lbs of kitty...with fangs for claws. I don't blame her for not messing with the kitten. One time Toby (now passed) was determined to get ahold of the cat (w/kittens) next door and sure enough, she came through the fence (with her 2 babies). Toby stalked her and pounced on her and she stood up on hind legs and slapped the crap out of him. He wasn't hurt (except his pride) and my DH and I laughed and said, good enough for you Toby. He never messed with a cat again.

[tena]

I would be cautious. Kittens are very much like Cairns in temperment they never give up and are completely fearless to their own detriment sometimes. If the kitten gets persistent and doesn't back off Teona will rightful defend herself, and kittens are small creatures.

Introduce carefully giving Teona room to back away and teaching the kitten that pounce the dog's head is not a good game.

Sophie is good with my cats but they are grown and can and will defend themselves. But they have had encounters that were scary to all of them.

[Teri9672]

Tabitha lived 4 years with our cat before she passed 2 years ago. Teona plays with the cats at the groomers.

They would never be unsupervised when together.

[Cairnmania]

When I was a kid (ages ago now, around the dawn of time) our next door neighbor had a Cairn. One day the Cairn got loose and decided to attack my cat, Rusty. Extract a little revenge I suppose as the Cairn used to be chained to my neighbor's tree and Rusty liked to position himself in full sight - driving the Cairn mad, of course.

Well, it was the funniest sight to see the Cairn running for it's life as Rusty chased it down our driveway. So much for revenge. :-) Deep humiliation was what he got instead.

Stacey