Let me preface this by saying: I do not know if we will keep this kitty. If kitty can't adjust to the dogs or the dogs can't adjust to the kitty we will probably take him back because I need harmony in my house. At this point, it's looking good which is why I made this post.
Soooooo....we went to the Humane Society a couple days ago to LOOK at the cats. We were only going to look, see what kind of personality we liked and then come back in a couple weeks. (I know you're all snickering at me, it's ok lol.) Anyway, Matt fell in love with one which never happens because I'm always the driving force behind new additions. So, we brought home a kitty. His name is Sabertooth. Isn't he cute?
Sorry for the crappy pic, it's off Matt's cell phone.
IMG00150-20110209-0518 by taqroy, on Flickr
I need some advice though. He's been at our house for two days and we've been keeping him separated in the downstairs bathroom so that he can adjust to being out of the shelter. Plus I didn't want to push him into the middle of three dogs. Yesterday we did introductions in the computer room with each dog (separately of course) and they all did pretty well. Saber attacked Murphy's tail, tried to attack Tipper's face and flat out ignored Mu. Murphy ignored Saber except for sniffing his butt, Mu sniffed from a distance but Tipper got right in his face. Not so much of a problem (her foster mom said that she was good w/her kitty so I wasn't too worried) the problem is that when Saber batted at her a couple times she started air snapping. I *think* she's only playing because she does that to the other dogs to get them to play with her but it worries me because Saber is so much smaller. I started clicking and treating her for looking at him and she calmed down but I'm not around all the time to supervise. And I want Saber to have free roam of the house. Should I be worried about this or should I assume it will work out? I've never done cat to dog intros before. Today when I get home we're going to do intros again and see how it goes.
If you made it through that you get a cookie and a plea for food recommendations. He's on Science Diet (it's what the shelter feeds) and I know hardly anything about cat food. I'm leaning towards Taste of the Wild since it's what we feed the dogs but I'd love some advice.
TIA
Soooooo....we went to the Humane Society a couple days ago to LOOK at the cats. We were only going to look, see what kind of personality we liked and then come back in a couple weeks. (I know you're all snickering at me, it's ok lol.) Anyway, Matt fell in love with one which never happens because I'm always the driving force behind new additions. So, we brought home a kitty. His name is Sabertooth. Isn't he cute?
Sorry for the crappy pic, it's off Matt's cell phone.
IMG00150-20110209-0518 by taqroy, on Flickr
I need some advice though. He's been at our house for two days and we've been keeping him separated in the downstairs bathroom so that he can adjust to being out of the shelter. Plus I didn't want to push him into the middle of three dogs. Yesterday we did introductions in the computer room with each dog (separately of course) and they all did pretty well. Saber attacked Murphy's tail, tried to attack Tipper's face and flat out ignored Mu. Murphy ignored Saber except for sniffing his butt, Mu sniffed from a distance but Tipper got right in his face. Not so much of a problem (her foster mom said that she was good w/her kitty so I wasn't too worried) the problem is that when Saber batted at her a couple times she started air snapping. I *think* she's only playing because she does that to the other dogs to get them to play with her but it worries me because Saber is so much smaller. I started clicking and treating her for looking at him and she calmed down but I'm not around all the time to supervise. And I want Saber to have free roam of the house. Should I be worried about this or should I assume it will work out? I've never done cat to dog intros before. Today when I get home we're going to do intros again and see how it goes.
If you made it through that you get a cookie and a plea for food recommendations. He's on Science Diet (it's what the shelter feeds) and I know hardly anything about cat food. I'm leaning towards Taste of the Wild since it's what we feed the dogs but I'd love some advice.
TIA