Pam, that was one of my concerns about my future dog. I was thinking a puppy might be better because my cats have NEVER been around a dog, and having a puppy grow up with them would be ideal. However, I'm still wanting to do a rescue, possibly greyhound or whatever furbaby just happens to catch my eye...but I was concerned that a large older dog might be pretty scary to my kitties!!! In any case...that's still probably pretty far off since I still work too much and have a really horrendous commute! But it's something I've been thinking about too.