Can cats and dogs get along?

The quick answer is absolutely.  You simply have to do a search on Google and you’ll get photographs and Youtube videos by the bundle that will be offered as easy proof.  Such happy companions, cuddling together on the couch.  And I too have had cats and dogs that have got along, played together, slept together, or at the very least said hello with a rollover.

But here I have to be honest.  I have had some cats and dogs that hated each other.  Often this was caused by an error in judgement either by the cat or the dog.

We had this beautiful black and white cat, one of those tuxedo cats.  He was the friendliest cat I had ever had…with people that is.  He had a personality flaw that the other animals tolerated but found obnoxious:  he was a teaser.  Blackie (that was his rather unoriginal name) would find something that irritated the other animal and do it over and over.  With his cat-sister, it was to cut her off.  He would come from behind at a trot and run ahead of her and make a quick left or right in front of her.  She often had to stop abruptly to avoid walking into him.  I could see that this habit of his irked her, but I could not see a way to stop him from doing it.

He used to love to sit on the chair directly in front of the busiest entrance in the house so he could keep track of those coming in and out of the backyard.  Whenever my sheltie passed by Blackie on his prestigious chair, Blackie would give the sheltie a paw to the butt end.  The sheltie put up with this. After all, the cat wasn’t taking out his claws; he was just taping him.  Then one evening, when my sheltie was suffering from a sore leg, Blackie gave him the usual tap as my sheltie limped by.  All hell broke lose.  My sheltie barked and growled directly in Blackie’s face, exactly three times.  Blackie backed away, sliding backwards off the chair through the hole below the low rail on the backrest and ending up under the table looking both aghast and astonished.  After that they were mortal enemies.

And then there was the dog I adopted from the shelter.  Immediately on his arrival at his forever home, he chased my cat up a tree.  That ended any chances of the two of them becoming buddies.  Even though I gave the dog a lecture, he chased the cat several more times before finally realizing that the cat belonged on the property.  After that, he only chased strange cats, but it didn’t matter, the damage had been done.  Whenever he got close to the cat, the cat hissed at him, and it sounded as if he was blowing up balloons so the dog was well-warned.

Not long ago I had to move my mother into a nursing home and I took her cats into my home.  I asked Memie how she felt about my dog Sadie and this is the answer I got.

Memie on meeting Sadie



Fat Cat

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A Mourning Dove in my back yard.







What Work Me?




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Things about dogs you were (maybe) afraid to ask



Do dogs have boogers?



Do dogs dream and have nightmares?




How often should I trim my dog’s claws?






Can a dog outsmart me?




This is my dog’s shaming picture.

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Shaming Photo






Should I get a breed dog or a mutt?




Coyote hunting in snow

