Hello everyone!

I'm emergency dog sitting for 3 days and need your advice.

My mom rescued a 4 year old female husky, Princess. She is now 6 years old. Bear in mind that she, myself or my family has no experience what so ever with dogs. I also don't live with my mother, so I don't know her *that* well. We don't know her background. She's made 2 other homes that we know of.

Here's some information about her:
- She likes hugs. She'll roll on her back when she sees you arrive and even if she doesn't know you she will lay her weight on you, like a hug. She bows down her head at 180 degrees sometimes just to lay it on your leg lol. One of the sweetest dogs I ever saw in my life.
- She snapped at my hand once when I tried to take her blanket while she was in her bed. No contact was actually made because I quickly moved it away. Nothing else.
- The only time she barks is when my 7-year-old brother's friends and are too excited outside (never inside). She will then bark at her friends and stop them from picking objects from the ground. She doesn't bite, but it's scary. Territorial showdown?
- 0 signs of aggressivity towards humans otherwise. A robber wouldn't have any issues.
- She entered a fight with dogs twice. They growled and softy bit each other (no blood).
- At first, she was more aggressive towards dogs (unsocialized). Now she's doing much better.
- She doesn't like to play. She will rarely run after a ball, let alone bring it back.
- She'd really love a bite of my chickens, and potentially of the feral cats.

I have a cat at home. She is very sweet. She saw the dog, SSSSSSSSSSSHT at her a few times and puffed her fur, but then she was rolling on the floor to greet her. She's very excited at her sight. She has no claws so she can't defend herself. She's a house cat. She has no aggressivity whatsoever inside her, except for flies. She never bit or hissed at anyone.

Now, here's my question: Can I let the dog inside?

I don't want any accidents. But I also don't want her to spend 3 days outside, poor thing.

Here's the behavior of Princess while she was eating food, which I put right next to the patio door (50 cm) and the cat was freaking out at her:

- Tail lowered, but not between her legs
- Eyes not staring at the cat, usually not looking at her
- No sounds (but then again she rarely makes any)
- Body tends to go away from her, or maybe face her?
- Ears up
- Generally speaking, she doesn't seem to give her much attention

If she goes away from the door and the cat jumps on all the windows to follow her, she will make sure she's as far away as possible from the window, while not flanking the bars completely. When she's done eating she doesn't stay there, she goes elsewhere.

PS: I will move her food if you guys think it's stressing her out.

If there's only a slight chance that she will snap my cat in half, she'll have to stay outside. But I'm willing to try and get her inside if you think it's going to be okay!

Thank you.

Keep them separated.  If the dog needs to be in the house for any reason, keep it leashed to you or in a crate.  Could also put the cat in another room with the door closed while the dog is in the house.

While it's possible they may get along, it's also possible something will go wrong VERY quickly.

No reason to risk it.

I could show you the security cam video of what happened when our cat pulled the screen door open and went outside.  But, while she ended up being ok, it's a very disturbing video of our dogs attacking her.  Luckily, they were still sort-of puppies and were losing their baby teeth.  The cat ended up with two of their teeth in her fur.

I got her inside yesterday for 5 minutes - On leash and with the patio door open to make sure she could exit.

She avoided the cat as much as she could. She felt cornered once and had to turn her face towards the cat to move. Her nose was down as not really happy to be facing her, looked submissive and anxious. Other than that, tail flipping around and smelling.

The cat attacked her sides a bit but she didn't really react to it.

So that was cool, but I definitely don't want a sudden snap happening and my cat getting hurt. I'll leave her outside for the time being. I wish I had more experience with dogs.

I could try the crate (I have one as I'm going to have a pup in 4 months) but she's not used to them, so I don't know how she'll react.

Thanks!

Sounds like the pup is more afraid of the cat that vice-versa <chuckle>

Like others here, I have 2 cats and 3 dogs who all co-exist (my cats fight, but not with the dogs); both my cats have their "preferred" dogs but other than play chasing there's never been any serious conflicts - obviously play when they both stop at the same time and set and watch the desert ...

Others here have had dogs who view the cats as prey - obviously not a good thing since the cat generally ends up dead.

Since this is an emergency situation, I'd take the safer course and limit any interaction between the two. Bringing the dog in on leash and keeping them apart is probably going to be your wisest / safest choice. Were this to be a long term or recurring event, I might see how the dog handles the crate and monitor any interaction between the pup and the cat - but it sounds like the cat's got the dog completely buffaloed at the moment.

You could pick up a basket muzzle to introduce them. That way Princess wouldn’t be able to hurt the cat with her mouth at least. That’s how we introduced our last cat to the dogs.