Being an owner of both dogs and cats, I submit, for your approval, the following information: At my house, the cat box is on top of a large dog crate (like for a Golden) and the food dish is up there, too. The cats can access them, but the dogs cannot. If Shai knows "leave it", use it if she shows too much interest in the kitty that looks like she's thinking "squeaky toy". Lacey, our old cattle dog mix, ALWAYS "squeaked" the kitties, but she never HURT them. I have also used wire crates to introduce the new housemates as safely as possible. While dogs are loose, cats are in crate, while dogs are crated, cats get to explore the house. Worked fairly well. Also, my cats have been allowed to retain ALL claws as they may have need of "instructing" the dog(s) in what cats can do. Lys chews a bit on Monocle, just now, but Monocle lets her know about it when she's tired of messing around.

Congratulations on your new acquisition and best of luck in getting them to be good house buddies. One last note, k'Treva and Monocle got to be such good friends, Trev would go to Monocle and lower her face for Monocle to groom her. They snuggled together at bedtime, too.