I have a 4 year old male cat who's been fixed and declawed, I would love a dog/puppy but I'm concerned how Cooper (cat) will react. I would like to get a adult dog from the humane society, but thought bringing a full grown dog in the house might cause more problems than bringing in a puppy, although a playfull little puppy is probably going to keep Cooper under the couch most of the time. Cooper is the first cat we've ever had, I'm really a dog person, but he showed up on our deck one night at about 7 or 8 weeks old and I couldn't bring myself to bring him to the humane society so... I really miss having a dog, could anyone suggest the proper way to go about this.

Thanks.

Take a look at this site, blueice and see if it's helpful!

Tree

Thanks for that site, some interesting suggestions, although their senario is exactly opposite of what I would be doing. I have a friend who has four cats, two dogs, a pot bellied pig and a parrot, she has never been concerned about adding another animal to her home and they all just manage to get a long, she thinks I'm being anal. I have a parrot too and was concerned about bringing a cat/kitten into the house, but that hasn't been a problem, my parrot can literally walk across the floor in front of the cat and he could care less, they just kind of ignore one another.

Thanks again.

My family once had 2 dogs, 8 cats and 1 rat (white lab rat) for pets. They all got along.... or at least tolerated each other.

I am not sure about where you live,but I know that here when you go to see pets in the shelters for adoption they have a little note on the cage doors as to wether they get along with other animals and what kinds.Most cats will hide the first few days a new animal is introduced into it enviroment. If your shelter does not offer that kind of testing for dogs I think I would go with a puppy We have 3 cats and a dog....2 of the cats love the dog and want to love on her and sleep in her crate with her but the Siamese....he hates the dog..if one of the other cats yelp because they may have accidently gotten stepped on..even if the dog is in the other room, the Siamese hunts her down and tries to beat her up because he is sure it is all her fault even though she was no where around By the way..the dog does not like the cats..she stays clear of all of them and she has been around them since she was a puppy lol

A few years ago, my husband and I "fostered" two poodles that were not welcome in my in-laws new living quarters...at the time, we had MY two cats.

My cats had never even seen a dog up until this time. These dogs were poodles, both mature.

It took some time, but eventually the animals all learned to live together in the same house. It pretty much amounted to the cats totally ignoring the dogs, and if they DID happen to get chased, they could easily get up high enough where the dogs couldn't get to them, as Dorian pointed out

Especially as young animals, they WILL eventually get along, tolerate each other, or just hide from each other.

I've seen cats and dogs sleeping curled up together, and have even seen situations like this end up with the adult animal nurturing the baby...

It's just a matter of them getting used to each other

My cat, when I was a kid, was a Siamese.. a very dumb Siamese. His idea of fun was walking up to our Collie-Mix (a big 80-90 pound dog) and sticking his head in the dogs mouth. The dog would then drag the cat all over the house.

This was considered fun for both of them. They liked each other, this was their way of playing. BUT, it made me NOT pet the cat because who wants to pet a cat that has dried stinky dog spit on his head hair making these wierd icky spikes all over the place.

Our cats and dogs always got along together. Never had a problem.. ever. And we had strays and puppies and kittens etc cycling in and out of our house hold (both cats and dogs) for over 21 years.

Sher, your story gave me such a mental image that I had a great laugh. I can just see the cat nuzzling you and see you backing up saying 'ewwww, get away!'.

The first dog and cat we owned were very close. We had the cat first and she was very tolerant when we go the dog. They grew to be very close...so close that when the dog died, the cat passed a few months later.

We now have 2 dogs and a cat and there isn't any problem. Of course, my cat is about 3 times the size of my dogs! In fact, we had more of an adjustment problem when we got the second dog. The first dog, Sassee, wanted to make very sure that Belle knew who was boss. Sassee is an alpha dog to the core and poor Belle just wanted to be friends. Fortunately, after about a month, things settled down and they have since grown close.

We have 12 pets and they all live peacefully (did I say I'm an animal lover?).

OMG Sher! That's absolutely hilarious!!!!!

Thanks for all the encouraging stories, I hope when I take the step my experience will be as pleasant.