Quote Originally Posted by katladyd View Post
A few years ago, my precious Miss Kitty was killed by a dog. I would put the dog down because the humane society in our area said a dog that does that may attack anything smaller than itself in the future. Sure enough, we asked that the dog NOT be put down and a year later, it mauled the neighbor's dog and small child. We DEMANDED that the dog be put down then, and it was. I know you love your dog, BUT IT KILLED A LIVING THING!!!!!
I'm sorry for your loss but just because a dog "killed a living thing" does not mean it would kill anything smaller than itself. I have three huskies and a lab mix....any of them would kill a cat/small animal/bird if given the chance. They did kill a chicken and have killed several wild birds that flew into our yard. Does that mean they are going to kill a small dog or a child? My one husky is fearful of children and strangers so I can't say she's good with kids (though she's never tried to bite) but the other three are great with them. They know the difference between a child, dog, cat, bird, etc. they aren't dumb. My mom has two small dogs and she regularly dog-sits my dogs and my dogs do not try to eat her small dogs, and one is about the size of the chicken they killed (it flew into our yard). My dogs have a prey drive, they were born with it, it doesn't make them vicious child-eating dogs. I just don't let them around cats/birds/small animals.

As far as this case it sounds to me like the dog wasn't necessarily trying to kill the kitten since it was just a single bite she didn't maul the kitten. Older dogs can really change in personality I'm a groomer and I see a lot of dogs I've been grooming for years change when they get old. Dogs that would never try to bite do, they just don't have the tolerance they used to. I definitely would not let the kitten around the dog though if you can't rehome him then keep them separate like you have been doing. My older husky Nebo bit my younger huskies Keva and Skya in the face a couple of times when they were puppies. It was just a "hey I'm the boss leave me alone" bite he was not trying to really injure them but if they were a small kitten it could have been different. Sorry for your loss what a horrible thing to witness.