Buying a cat...

[Scrounge]

It's been my experience that most cats and dogs do Ok with each other. The cats become pretty indifferent to the dog, especially if it's not an active dog.

Our Shih Tzu we had for years was middle aged when we got a kitten that grew to be a big cat and when he was about half grown, he was close in size to the dog and would lie in wait and pounce on him. The dog never initiated it, but it was game on when the cat did and I think they both enjoyed the little wrestling matches. Neither ever bit the other or really tried to hurt as near as I could tell.

Other than one sweet female cat who used to face nuzzle a sweet old basset hound we had, I have never had cats and dogs that really liked each other and sought one another's company.

My big oaf of a dog, Orca, wants to play with the cats, but they don't want to play with him. Only game he knows is tug-o-war. He's about 90 lbs. The biggest cat is about 12 lbs. OTH, when he's laying down, there's often a cat snuggled up to him. He was raised by cats, and taught that cats rule, and dogs drool. We also use the phrase "Women and Cats." Translated for the slow, that is "Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs might as well relax and live with it."

[uscra112]

The hissing and spitting is just them establishing pecking order. I have four girls (including poor hapless tripod Smudge). Mother cat and three from her first (and only) litter. Five years or so on they still do it to each other. (Mom is still the top boss!) What's interesting is that the sole remaining male (neutered) in the family gets a free pass. It's only the females that snipe at each other. I've been extra kind to Cozy, who is the runt, because of all the bullying she gets.

[rking22]

3 girls and 2 guys here and all fixed. All different ages and joined the family at different times. Funny how the girls do the hissin and growling while the guys just go about their important cat business without fuss. Has been that way as long as I remember with all our cats over the years. They are just furry little humans, ore maybe we are just bald cats????

[richhodg66]

3 girls and 2 guys here and all fixed. All different ages and joined the family at different times. Funny how the girls do the hissin and growling while the guys just go about their important cat business without fuss. Has been that way as long as I remember with all our cats over the years. They are just furry little humans, ore maybe we are just bald cats????

It's been my experience on average that male cats make better pets than female cats and the exact opposite is true with dogs.

[uscra112]

As long as they're neutered.

[Mr_Sheesh]

Years ago a girlfriend didn't tell me she was bringing her favorite dog over;'Stray' (a rescue) was on the kitchen table, as allowed, when her Irish Setter came in. Stray alerted and sat up ready to respond; Her dog looked at him, looked like she said "Ah, a cat" and went on to explore the rest of the place. Stray settled right back down into his usual position, curled up comfy on his side.

Dog and cat I used to know would play "Chase me, chase you!" and had great fun doing it - 6-7 pound cat and 130 pound dog, they'd alternate chasing, dog chases cat from bedroom to living room and cat chases dog back. I found it hilarious, especially as the dog was clowning around with a facial expression of "Oh noooo if that cat catches me she'll eat me!" Best buds

And a neighbor's little dog got loose and made a beeline to me (My front door was open) for pets, I collected her dog and waited for her to collect him. Francine's only response was to give me a dirty look, something like "Oh, GREAT, now we have a Dog here, too? Meh."

Dogs and cats can get along very well, definitely. It just depends on their temperaments.

[blackthorn]

Years ago I was on watchman duty at the mill where I worked. I found a kitten that was just old enough to eat solid food, crying in obvious distress, with a hard, distended belly from being constipated. At the end of my shift I took the kitten home, squirted some mineral oil down its throat and stuck it in a box till the problem solved itself. I then let the kitten out on the floor and he promptly sort of waddled his way into the front room where my German short-hair was sleeping on the floor. Dog spots cat---cat spots dog (never saw one of those before)---dog growls, cat hisses. Kitten walks up to dog and whacks him across the muzzle and then curls up between the dogs front paws and promptly goes to sleep. Dog sort of looks puzzled, holds that position for a couple of seconds an then goes back to sleep with his head along side the kitten. hey were great friends for the next ten years the cat lived.

[rockrat]

I had a female cat and wife had an Akita/shar-pei mix. They kind of ignored each other till one day the dog got in trouble and wife and I both yelled at him. He sat in the yard looking mistreated till the cat went over and growled/hissed at him, then swatted him on the nose. Cat turned around and with tail in the air, walked away. Poor dog just looked at us really feeling sorry for himself. We just laughed, which made it worse. Dog got up and went somewhere in the yard/down by the sheds and didn't show up till dark. Off sulking I guess

[blackthorn]

In the late 1990’s we had a big tom cat show up at our house. He had been in some sort of altercation and had about two inches of raw bone sticking out of a much-shortened tail. He carried his head at an odd angle and had one claw that would not retract. He was sort of uncoordinated in some of his movements. He was living on dog food he stole out of my dog’s dish by reaching through the wire of our chain link fence. We started feeding him cat food but it took me quite awhile to coax him close enough to get a hold of him, but when I did, we took him to the vet who checked for a chip. No chip so the vet said if we wanted to give that cat a home, he would give me a good deal on fixing him up. So, for $200 the vet shortened his tail, neutered him, gave him his shots and we named him Bubba and took him home. He could not live inside as he had a problem of throwing up a lot of what he ate so he lived outside with the dog. When we moved to Kamloops in 2004, we brought him and another outside cat (also a stray) along and they lived outside in summer and in the shop during the winter. We had him here for another five or six years until a Coyote (or something) got him. After that we moved the other cat indoors where she lived happily until she had to be put down.

[mickbr]

I like animals but put a limit on care. They are not kids. With the world the way it is I think we will be back at the 1980's level care for pets which is "poor puss in boots is just too sick to live kids and mom and dad cant afford two weeks salary to fix a cat like we used to, so its goodbye to puss" Add a reminder about mother nature, the cycle of life, the law of the jungle, and get a new cat to love.

[Butzbach]

I like animals but put a limit on care. They are not kids. With the world the way it is I think we will be back at the 1980's level care for pets which is "poor puss in boots is just too sick to live kids and mom and dad cant afford two weeks salary to fix a cat like we used to, so its goodbye to puss" Add a reminder about mother nature, the cycle of life, the law of the jungle, and get a new cat to love.

Sometimes it’s hard but you make a great point. For an $800 vet bill you could probably pull 10 spayed / neutered / vaccinated cats out of a kill shelter.

[clum553946]

How’s Mittens doing, still well?

[richhodg66]

We kenneled my son's dog at our vet this weekend. That office is a happy place and they usually have a couple of adult cats that are very friendly and have run of the place, this morning, a big siamese I hadn't met before jumped up on the corner before I even got up to it to purr and get petted. There were two others I had met before, seems they live out their lives in that situation.

What I did notice (missed) was a little female boxer they used to have. When we first saw her, she was a puppy and her hind legs were so twisted, it was amazing she could get around at all, most people would have put her down, and it was apparently not correctable. Anyway, she was sweet, got along with the cats and they had a bed for her there in the office, she didn't move around much, but we watched her grow up and always saw her when we went to the vet. When I asked one of the girls, she told me the little boxer had passed. I hadn't realized it, but we'd seen her for what is pretty much the life expectancy of a boxer. It made me sad, but those folks are truly special to have given that dog as good a quality of life as she ever could have had with the disability she had.

[bakerjw]

How’s Mittens doing, still well?

She's doing very well. I am amazed how she can run and jump with only one back leg.
She now gets the run of the living room during the day. The other cats really have no interest on what goes on in there.

She is certainly taken up with us. I get a little more attention but I was the one who held her the most for the first few rough days.

I'll post some pics here soon. my bakerjw.org website has a gallery with all kinds of our activities, vacations, kids and animals. She'll get her own sub folder there.

[rking22]

So glad to hear she’s doing well! Can’t wait for pictures, since our 2 legged kids left home, we take lots of cat pictures.

[contender1]

Thanks for the update on Mittens.

I rarely visited the "Our Town" section,, but when I found this thread,, I have been following it. It's making me smile when I see the positive posts about her.
She has found a home that God chose for her. She will reward you 10 fold.

[bakerjw]

This morning, she came galloping into the side room when I put out some dried food. She had already eaten all of the wet food that we put down. She slid and bumped something that hurt and started crying and hissing. We try to keep her calm and subdued, but she embraces her "Inner Kitten" quite vociferously.

[richhodg66]

I don't think there's anything in the world with a stronger life force than a puppy or kitten. They just live to live. We could all take a lesson.

[oldred]

Like everyone else I was very touched by what I read here, the OP's story is heartwarming to say the least and I also want to say kudos to all the others here who have so unselfishly opened their hearts and their pocket books to help the little critters. I know how you all feel and I have been there myself, those here that know me know I have many cats here on the farm, 15, at the moment and almost all of them were abandoned at a popular "dumping off" spot on a secluded section of road near our farm, we too are not strangers at the local Vet's office. Those of you who have spent big bucks on their little friends deserve a special reward and I know there are others here who would also if the need should arise, this is money well spent and not at all wasted.

Some folks think of cats as being aloof and selfish but they just don't understand the little critters, cats can be very loving but they tend to be independent at the same time. They DO care about their owners (or rather their subjects since they think THEY are the owners!) and often look to us for help when the need arises, this can all too often go unnoticed since they are usually quite subtle about it. A case in point is our little cross-eyed Siamese, Cocoa, who managed to fall into a bucket of motor oil I had drained from my dozer. I normally am a real stickler about not leaving such things around for the nosy little buggers to get into but I had taken a lunch break and had not finished the job I was doing, however a couple of minutes of neglect is all it takes! I was eating lunch when he came to the door and started meowing which was a very strange thing for him to do, sensing something was wrong I opened the door to see him standing there with a hopeless look on his face and completely dripping in old dirty black diesel engine oil! Normally he would not let anyone even pick him up but this time he was just limp and not complain at all. It took three tries of soaping and rinsing in the bath tub after first rubbing him down with Go-Jo hand cleaner and all the while there was not a whimper out of him, he just stood there and let me do anything I wanted to do to him. Any other time trying to put him in a tub of water would have been a huge mistake likely resulting in fatal lacerations, after all this is a Siamese I am taking about! The little fella realized he had made a big mistake and instinct told him he was in serious trouble and needed help so he came straight to me and let me do what was needed, no one is going to convince me that cats are not close to their owners (or rather their subjects as the case may be).

[richhodg66]

Like everyone else I was very touched by what I read here, the OP's story is heartwarming to say the least and I also want to say kudos to all the others here who have so unselfishly opened their hearts and their pocket books to help the little critters. I know how you all feel and I have been there myself, those here that know me know I have many cats here on the farm, 15, at the moment and almost all of them were abandoned at a popular "dumping off" spot on a secluded section of road near our farm, we too are not strangers at the local Vet's office. Those of you who have spent big bucks on their little friends deserve a special reward and I know there are others here who would also if the need should arise, this is money well spent and not at all wasted.

Some folks think of cats as being aloof and selfish but they just don't understand the little critters, cats can be very loving but they tend to be independent at the same time. They DO care about their owners (or rather their subjects since they think THEY are the owners!) and often look to us for help when the need arises, this can all too often go unnoticed since they are usually quite subtle about it. A case in point is our little cross-eyed Siamese, Cocoa, who managed to fall into a bucket of motor oil I had drained from my dozer. I normally am a real stickler about not leaving such things around for the nosy little buggers to get into but I had taken a lunch break and had not finished the job I was doing, however a couple of minutes of neglect is all it takes! I was eating lunch when he came to the door and started meowing which was a very strange thing for him to do, sensing something was wrong I opened the door to see him standing there with a hopeless look on his face and completely dripping in old dirty black diesel engine oil! Normally he would not let anyone even pick him up but this time he was just limp and not complain at all. It took three tries of soaping and rinsing in the bath tub after first rubbing him down with Go-Jo hand cleaner and all the while there was not a whimper out of him, he just stood there and let me do anything I wanted to do to him. Any other time trying to put him in a tub of water would have been a huge mistake likely resulting in fatal lacerations, after all this is a Siamese I am taking about! The little fella realized he had made a big mistake and instinct told him he was in serious trouble and needed help so he came straight to me and let me do what was needed, no one is going to convince me that cats are not close to their owners (or rather their subjects as the case may be).

People who don't like cats tend to be very insecure in my experience. They need something that is extremely needy and subservient like a dog. Most all of the cats I've had in my life are affectionate and enjoy human attention, but they're not as demanding of it as dogs are. I like both but doubt I'll get another dog until I'm full time retired and am around all the time.