When we got the cat, who was about 8 weeks old, my dogs both thought cats were for one thing, killing. So we put the kitten in the cat carrier, and put it on the floor, and they both ran up to it, and tried to get the kitten, who really wasn't scared at all, in fact he seemed to be amused by it. We had him out there about 15-16 hours a day, and eventually, after about a week, they were totally burned out and didn't care about it one bit, and would walk up to the carrier sniff and look inside, and the kitten would pop his foot out and touch their noses. we would say, "Be nice", and the dogs would just wag their tails and soon walk away. After a couple of days of this, we did the big test. What would my Lab, Joe do when the cat came out? Would he attack?
I put a harness on him and had a leash hooked to him, just in case. At over 90 pounds, the cat could be hurt very badly or killed. My mother put the kitten, "Orville" on her lap, and I brought the dogs in. Blackie sniffed him and walked away. Joe came up to him sniffed him, and you could see him thinking about what to do. After a few minutes of no hostility, my mother put Orville down, and Joe got an odd look on his face, and snarled and made a move to attack him. Orville arched his back, hissed and Joe froze in his tracks. He wagged his tail and sat down and he and Orville played very nicely for about 10 minutes, and Joe seemed very happy to have the cat around. I have a picture of them playing together that day someplace. Anyway, from that point on, Blackie seemed to forget the cat even existed, and Joe would touch noses with him every day when he got up and there was never even a tiny growl from Joe, ever towards the cat. Soon, he and the cat were sleeping together on the couch on colder days, and Joe even let the cat sit next to the food dish while he ate, something Blackie could never do, even if she had the nerve to try it. When Joe's health began going sour, the cat spent a lot of time with him, he seemed to know Joe didn't have long to go.
