Saturday, April 16, 2011

Not Everyone Is Happy

Not everyone is happy about the new addition to the family. Lucy is saying, or rather thinking, bad words. They are in a little thought bubble over her head - can you see it? Miss Katie has obviously never been around cats, and while she is a gentle dog like her brother, she also has a prey instinct like any other dog. This has translated into intrigued staring and incessant tiptoeing around the house trying to find the cat. Needless to say, all this attention is making Lucy uncomfortable, so she's tending to hang out under the bed and in the stairwell. When she's hiding, or actually running, Katie's interest escalates.

And worse yet - Lady was joining in at first. That didn't surprise me a bit. Lady has a very strong prey drive, so I knew if Katie took to chasing the cat, Lady would be like "Oh! We're going to chase the cat? Awesome! Let's chase the cat!" Hopefully I've now nipped that in the bud, as Lady and I have had several very stern discussions about this and I think she's gotten the message.

Several times, when Lucy has gotten brave and walked past Katie in the hallway, Katie has just wagged her tail and then turned away. But at other times, Katie seems just a bit too interested. It's hard to know when to supervise and intervene, and when to let the two of them work it out on their own. I 'mostly' trust Katie not to hurt her, but don't want to take any chances. Any advice from those of you who have been through this before?
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6 comments:

  1. JennerApril 16, 2011 at 11:10 PM

    The white on Lucy's face makes her look like she's constantly peeved and puckering her lips! They will get used to each other sooner or later, trust me, I have had a lot of dogs and cats in and out of here!

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  2. Ina in AlaskaApril 17, 2011 at 10:04 AM

    I have no advice we don't have cats but I agree with Jenner, they will eventually work it out.

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  3. Vicki LaneApril 17, 2011 at 7:18 PM

    My son's girlfriend's pitbull is very interested in our cats --always has to see where they are. We keep an eye on him and if he gets too close we always tell him NO. After about a year of this, he's still interested but there haven't been any bad incidents.

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  4. Sam GastonApril 17, 2011 at 8:30 PM

    Good luck!

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  5. ForPetsSakeApril 18, 2011 at 1:18 AM

    I wish I knew for sure. My kiddos have a very strong prey drive. Only Nyxie who respects Haimmie (our ferret) as her packmate, is kinda sorta ok with him. A stern no when ANY interest at all is shown has done the trick in the past...

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  6. sonia a. mascaroNovember 20, 2011 at 11:05 AM

    Lucy looks beautiful!
    I am really a "dog person", I never had a cat in my home, but I like cats too. They look free and independent, isn't?

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