One of the latest posts called "Eating non-edibles" lead to the conversation of "Eating cats"... Well, not really EATING cats but at least tolerating the family cat.

I know I have read over and over that huskies will kill cats and other small creatures but my first husky did very well with my Mother-in-law's cats. We have been told and believe that since Sabaka is young he can learn that our cat belongs here with us and even if they do not LOVE each other they must tolerate each other.

The short story is that the cat really cannot live with us like the dog can because I am extremely allergic to her. She just showed up a few years ago and adopted us so we decided to make it work by allowing her to live in the basement, be cared for by the hubby and kids and have freedom to be outside when she wants. It's not a cushie life...but it works for her.

So now we introduce crazy puppy... Frist, I'm afraid of "cat claw meets dog eye". We have not allowed them to even touch each other. They bat at each others paws under the door and bark and hiss. Our vet says that's a great start and now we should begin letting them "visit" by seeing each other with the cat in a carrier and the dog on a leash and us saying "leave it". We tried that once... It seemed kinda mean to the cat. So far we have never let the dog go into the cat's world thinking that we should allow her to have a space where she feels safe from his hyperness. I don't think these gradual introductions are working. I really don't want the dog to hurt the cat if they accidentally get together sometime. Nor do I want the cat to slice up the puppy now because when she sees him (on his leash) she is a hissing, spitting fool!!

Any thoughts?

Willow chases my cats but she is more interested in licking their butts than eating them. Gross I know! I introduced her from day one so I think that is very important. I also correct her when she chases them so she knows I don't agree with that behavior. It doesn't stop her but I think she would be worse with them if I never correct her. SInce your cat has claws, maybe it won't be a bad idea for your dog to experience a swipe. MOST dogs will leave a cat alone after that! I do understand your concern about sabaka getting it in his eye though....

I'm more of a introduce them with the cat loose and husky on a lead kind of person but situations vary and you know best how to handle your pets. Honestly I have no problem letting my sibe gets swiped by a cat and yes, he has had a nasty swipe right on the nose that bled profusely if you can imagine. That didn't teach him anything at all, cats are still fair game outside the house as far as he's concerned but inside the house he has been taught to leave them alone. Took a lot of close monitoring and vocal correction when he got too close but he learned in time.

At first I kept him on a lead when a cat in the house was around. He was extremely interested in the cats but got a vocal correction when he got too close (within approx 3 ft) to the cat and lots of praise when he ignored the cat. DIdn't take long to grasp that we didn't like him to get too close to the cat but he was praised like royalty when he ignored the cat. Now we only issued vocal corrections for getting to close to the cat if he was too interested or the cat felt threatened. If both the cat and sibe were calm and okay with each others' presence then we allowed them to meet. I would not force a meeting if the cat is not comfortable with Sabaka, that's just asking for trouble in my opinion. I would just bring Sabaka into the cats space but allow the cat to decide if he wants to meet Sabaka or not. If the cat is being aggressive then I wouldn 't bring Sabaka into a situation like that as you don't want a bad first experience and you certainly don't want him to think that all cats are like that and that he needs to react similarly in defense.