Cairn pup + 2 year old kitty = ?

[Barney's Mom]

Any of you Cairn Mom's and Dads who have cats, what is the best way to keep puppy from getting rough with the cat? Here's our set-up right now:

Barney is in the kitchen, closed off with baby gates. My kitty is very curious of our new little fellow. She leaps over one gate into the kitchen, then saunters slowly across the floor until she is sure Barney sees her, then he takes off after her and she soars over the other gate, then stands on the other side and stares at him! She even rolls over on her back and stretches, as if to say, "Nanny nanny boo boo, you can't get me!" Sometimes Barney will cut her off and she has to reverse direction, and he gets a few of her tailfeathers on the escape route!

If he does get a piece of her, saying NO to him is a waste of breath! He is just deaf to it when he has the cat in his crosshairs! What is the best way to teach him to leave her alone? Will he settle down with her as he gets older? To say I adore my cat would be an understatement! She is my precious baby and I really don't want her to get hurt. Barney is an ornery little fellow, and I am not sure how far he would go.

Another bizarre episode

[JerryLv]

Sorry to disappoint but neutering didn't slow our Zen down one bit. Daisy, our kitty was probably 5 years old when Zen came to us. Daisy was twice his size

and didn't pay much heed to his carrying on. We did move her food and water

to table height and provided her with a mean of getty up there so she could eat in peace. It has been a year now and Zen is twice her size. They have a love/hate relationship going but Daisy holds her own. Zen loves to roll her around any chance he gets and if he can trap her in a small space, like a bath room, there is much commotion, hissing and barking. It sounds awful and sometimes he gets a little fur, but they seem to have a mutual understanding that this is not a serious thing and they sleep on the same bed every night. Whenever we want to distract Zen, all we have to say is "where's Daisy?" and he stops everything and goes looking for her. I believe that if you let them be togeather they will make their own kind of peace. Good Luck.

[JerryLv]

Sorry for the double entry. I was trying to post a picture, which never works for me. JG

[bradl]

JerryLv - only a fraction of the picture loads because you're attaching a very large picture (2816 x 2112 pixels) - that one picture alone is probably bigger than the space allotted to each user for all attachments combined. Try the online image resizer to make a copy of your picture that's smaller. Try 480x360 for example.

You may have to first delete the current attachment from your account here using your MyControls panel to make room for the resized picture.

Apologies to all for being off-topic.

[OzGirl]

We had the same set up with gates to restrict Roxy's play but suitable for Minnie our 16yr cat to escape.

In the early days Roxy would try to chase Minnie and she would run so it was a game. She ignored us telling her "no" (as they all do ) so we started physically stopping Roxy as well as telling her to stop chasing the cat. It took weeks and weeks but she eventually got the message and what helped also was we would let them sniff each other as we held them. Minnie quickly learned she was "top dog/cat" and would put Roxy in her place with some severe hissing/growling and then a ''clip across the ear" if she got too close.

Now at 9mths Roxy will follow behind her and Minnie even lets her sniff her butt, it's really funny watching the relationship now. Its like Roxy is saying "can I get closer huh huh? Oops sorry I forgot - 2 steps behind" like a submissive slave. It was funny one morning I had put Roxy's breakfast down and the cat got to it first, Roxy sat a little distance from her watched. Minnie sniffed it, decided she didn't like it but then sat down right in front of the dish so Roxy couldn't get it. She waited till the cat moved away - it was funny she was too scared to make the cat move.

I also think that given time Barney and kitty will sort themselves out, just make sure the cat always has an escape route. Good luck!

[Dawnya]

We have issues with Daisy and the momma barn cat.

Well, we thought we did. Momma kitty would allow herself to be mauled, even play rough for a minute but when she was done, she was done.

She lets Daisy know when enough is enough.

Your kitty is having fun!

[Teri9672]

I have the opposite situation.

I'm trying to introduce a baby kitty to my grown girls. Tabitha could really care less about the cat. Tabitha was a puppy and grew up with our grown cat. Teona really wants to play with the kitty, but I fear the cat is too young and will get hurt. For now they only see each other thru the puppy gate and they play.

[JerryLv]

Brad, Thanks for setting me straight. I resize a photo and am trying again to upload it.