So I used to be more active here than I have been for the last few years. I have 2 sibes. Jasmine was my first. Got her from a puppy mill about 12 years ago (before I knew any better). Barney is about 8. I got him when I was doing a transport for a rescue and I didn’t finish the trip. So I’m pretty familiar with the breed and have has a few years experience. My wife and I also have two children (who we also adopted). Alex is 5 1/2 and Ava is 4.

Jasmine is in excellent health for her age but is very visibly slowing down. She still walks 2-3 almost daily, no problem.

Soooo...lately I’ve been getting puppy fever. The last few weeks I’ve mentioned to my wife that maybe we could consider a puppy. Well yesterday I found a pup (guessing 6-8 months) on the interstate. Several factors indicate he has not received adequate care. He is beautiful and has a very sweet personality. I checked with our local H.S. and they said no one has reported a missing husky. I took him to the vet to check for a microchip and he didn’t have one. He is not neutered either. We are not completely certain what we are going to do at this point. If we don’t keep him I will probably take him to the rescue.

I would love to keep him but we have one MAJOR obstacle. He wants to kill the cat. He tried to chomp at her when he first came in the house and I was able to intervene. I’ve tried to introduce them slowly since them but he freaks out every time and acts like he’s going to kill her. My wife is extremely upset about that part of his personality. It’s her cat. We have a pretty good system for the time being to keep them separate and safe but that can’t go on forever. Is there hope?! What can I do??

I once upon a time had a dog that killed chickens.  There was no restraining him - if he heard a chicken he was going to have chicken for supper (or lunch or a late night snack.)  The only solution that I found was to move 800 miles away and we have no local chickens here.
My uncle raised rabbits for food (er, human food) his dog killed several litters before we discovered who was killing the rabbits ... my uncle refused to ever have a dog tied up 24/7 when he lived in the country so he took the dog out for a walk, my uncle came back after several hour, the dog didn't.
I, thankfully, have 3 huskies and 3 cats (I think?) and my dogs and cats easily coexist.  So much so that I saw one of my cats use Avalanche as a stepping stool to get from the chair back to the floor.

All of that said ... some dogs get along with cats (and other small furry things) and some don't.  While this may sound unnecessarily harsh - if he wants to attack the cat, either he or the cat need to find a new home.  

I got two of my cats as kittens and separated them from the dogs with a child gate ... they got used to each other.  The kittens would come to the gate and when a bouncy dog came up to the other side, they'd back up.  Once one of the cats stretched out a paw and got a chunk of Avalanches nose all either of my cats have to do is raise a paw and the offending dog backs up - quickly.  But you don't have a little puppy who can be controlled by your cat and from your description you dog has no interest in your cat except as prey ... you can try to get them to coexist but personally I think it's going to be a failure (and your wife's going to hate you furever!)

(( I have a feral cat who lives under my trailer - I have two who come and go as they will  -  do I have two cats or three? Beats me! ))

He and Barney have had 2 fights today. I’m definitely losing hope that this is going to work. I contacted the rescue I’ve always dealt with and they are full. I’m at a loss.

I’m going to try to make an appt. ASAP to get him neutered. Whether we keep
Him or not he’s going to have to be neutered. Our rescue did recommend the possibility of training him with a basket muzzle around the cat.

Talk to Amy (@amymeme) about the basket muzzle since she uses one almost constantly??> for Z'ev.

My personal (and completely unsubstantiated) feeling is that the pup would be so frustrated at not being able to get to the cat that when the muzzle came off he'd simply go for it. Possibly you could desensitize the pup to the cats presence - but *I* wouldn't hold my breath.

I sincerely wish you luck. I really appreciate what you're trying to do, every dog deserves a chance at a good home. I'm just so afraid that this is gonna bite you .....

I appreciate your input! We are making some headway today. He’s seen the cat a couple times (through the pet gate) and didn’t go completely ballistic. She wandered off and he moved on. He and Barney are doing some better. I’ve been doing the sit on your dog exercise and it seems to be helping him to be more chill in our home. We have a vet appt next Monday and he will be neutered. My wife is also coming around. I have some plans to work on the cat issue but I’m going to give it a little time before I go at it too hard. I will be completely honest, I am completely willing to re-home him if someone I knew and trusted to home a husky expressed interest. However, I am not actively seeking someone to take him. Time will tell!

I wish you luck with the cat and dog. Mine were fine for 3 years, squirt and rambo were puppy/kitten raised together and right before squirt turned 4 she killed rambo. Then 2 weeks later she killed patches the other cat. She has since attacked my other three dogs countless small furry things 2 steers and some sheep. We just play musical dogs and keep squirt away from any 4 legged animal

Could an E-collar and muzzle be used to discourage prey like attention? I would be very content for him just to ignore her.

They have so far had two interactions...one was accidental. The cat was in the pup's mouth both times but uninjured. She was pretty wet but it doesn't appear that he bit down. We've taken some more precautions since to keep it from happening again.

Probably if you used it correctly amymeme does both successfully

aljones wrote:

 But you don't have a little puppy who can be controlled by your cat and from your description you dog has no interest in your cat except as prey ... you can try to get them to coexist but personally I think it's going to be a failure

you were right...

I hope I wasn't fatally right ....

aljones wrote:

I hope I wasn't fatally right ....

yes..

I'm sorry. Some dogs just never seem to make the "*this* cat is part of the family" connection.

How's your wife handling it?

aljones wrote:

I'm sorry.  Some dogs just never seem to make the "*this* cat is part of the family" connection.

How's your wife handling it?  

She was pretty hysterical initially. I asked her later if she wants me to rehome him and she said no that it wasn't his fault. She doesn't seem angry. Just sad about the cat and would rather try to forget about it. My wife is a saint..

Im sorry for your loss i went through the same thing in 2014

So sorry for you loss