For Future reference....

[Glacier]

Huskies are natural hunters. Small critters are prey to them. Some of them can learn to live with cats, some of them cant. I have 8 cats with my dogs. Most of them are ok with the cats. They can never be left alone together. The dogs are not allowed to play with, chase or bug the cats in any way. The cats don't go outside. The one time one escaped the dogs killed her. I'm not feeling up to retyping Dominique's story right now, but if you search for her name you will find it. A friend of mine left her husky cross and her cat alone together last weekend for 20 minutes. She came home to a dead cat. They had lived peacefully together for 2 years.

And don't be sucked in by a breeder trying to sell you an Alaskan Husky. An Alaskan husky is a MUTT...any dog with a drop of husky blood in it can be called an alaskan. Some top mushers get big bucks for their Alaskans, but they are not a breed, not recognized by any assocation and there are thousands of them already waiting for homes in shelters and rescues.

[VTJess03]

We had a cat (Thomas, 8 mos old) when we got Belle (5-6 wks old); we weren't sure how they would react to one another. It turned out that Thomas hated dogs, but he was on his home turf, and was determined to stay. He established dominance over the puppy in play (once he decided not to be afraid of the pup, since he was about 3 times her size...no digital pics of that, sorry). Belle never challenged the 'pack' status when she got bigger. Also, when we got our coonhound Maggie (adopted at age 6-8 months), Thomas and Belle let her know in no uncertain terms how the status was at our home between the cats and dogs (first me, then my husband, then all cats, then all dogs). Of course, a coonhound is one of the breeds that has very high prey drive, and is bred to be so, but ours learned that cats are not prey; they are sometimes played with, but never bitten, carried, shaken, etc. Introducing another cat/kitten is really easy, too, since our dogs don't see them as prey. (The same cannot, unfortunately, be said about other dogs in our neighborhood ... no leash law and we've lost a precious kitten who never learned to fear dogs because of how well ours relate to cats ). Thomas hates being inside, but he takes very good care of himself, and Nicholas goes up a tree or into the rafters in our garage at first sign of a strange dog.

I think that it was critical to our pets' relationships that the first cat was older than the first dog, and he was old enough to be establishing his territory. They're so friendly now that the cats and dogs share the water (and sometimes food!) bowl and even curl up together on the dog couch (though I've not caught that one in a pic yet). The funny thing is that the dogs know strange cats when they come on the porch and still bark and try to chase them off (they can see them through the glass door) and the cats are only friendly with our dogs.


Thomas-instigated play session (Belle about 4-6 months old):

[Miss Z]

Thanks everyone for the advice

It's a long way off anyway but i thought i might as well know these things

And also, your pets are very cute VTJess03!

[Orlando's_Girl]

Well thats a good question. I have...had a friend who has 2 dogs and 5 cats and they get along fine. Although the dogs are very old and the kittens are young, I guess I'll have to find out how her kittens react to her new dog. I'm not entirely sure about what breed it is because I have only just seen a picture and it's not a very good picture at that.I think Alyssa(Maltise_Love) might know!!