I've had my cat since birth, she's 17. We got Buster as a pup and he's 4. Of course the pup wanted to play and Bleu (declawed since she was bout 6 mos.) just didn't get it, Get Off Me !!!! Well here they are now

What a beautiful dog. Awesome face.

I had a Kitty who was 3 when I got my first bully puppy and they got along great for 13plus years. They were both females and the cat was not declawed. Abby did not seem interested in chasing her ever. The cat was in control from the first because she was grown and bigger when I got the bully. When I would board the bully, they would miss each other and rub against each other afterwards.

I had no pets for about a year and a half.

This time, I got a grown bully. I had to make a decision about a cat or not. I was really apprehensive about it because my current bully has a strong nose and roots out ground squirrels and eats small natural colored stuffed animals. In short, she is a hunting bulldog. So I researched kitties and personalities and kid tolerance. I got a male kitten who is bold, bold, bold. He is afraid of nothing except going outside. You would think that 2 little boys would be enough to cause a kitty to have a nervous breakdown, but not yet. He was scared for a couple of months and spent a lot of time in the bathroom when they were unsupervised. She did chase him and still does, though now for fun. I think it helped when he got bigger. He was more real to her. She never has hurt him. He will now lie under her neck and bat her neck, a practice that I discourage. In a pinch, he could hold his own now as he is ten pounds and about 10 months. I expect he will be 15 when he is grown. He will jump on her as she walks by to play. He has a cat tree to escape the bully, but the kids can climb it easily. He will flinch when he sees a small boys come with 2 hands to carry him barely through the house and almost drop him, but he doesn't scratch. He just takes it. Most of his life is pretty good, though. Over 22 hours a day, he has peace. It's only when they really want to hold him and carry him around that he's at risk. I think at this point Flora doesn't bother him at all. When I bring her back from boarding for a weekend, he seems glad to see her. So I feel lucky!

I think kitty personalities vary more than bullies because there are more of them. I have been fortunate to have pretty mellow kitties and bullies. I don't think a high strung cat might ever like a bully no matter what you would do. I have never had a declawed cat, so I don't know how they are. I thought they could still defend themselves with their hind feet. I don't think my bully would truly hurt the kitty unless she accidentally stepped on him. She is quite gentle.

I have found that cats will usually get used to a dog after a few months, and often become quite affectionate with the dog (unless the dog seriously tries to hurt the cat). Both my cats (except for one) and my dogs sleep on my bed, and I think that sort of forces them to get along since neither wants to give up the bed.

My biggest problem is not the cats getting along with the dog but getting along with the other cats. The cats just hiss at each other, refusing to have anything to do with each other. One of my cats is pretty much a total loner who stays in an upstairs bedroom by herself, only coming down for food. It's almost like having a stranger in the house. Two of the other cats will sleep on the bed with the bulldogs, but not really play with them. Then there is the youngest cat, Atticus, also know as Cat Bast@#d for loving and leaving the ladies. Atticus seems to think he is a dog. I just took in back in October after I found him laying the middle of a lane after getting hit by a car. Fortunately, he only had a concussion and broken pelvis. He is very mean to my three female cats, but he is crazy about my dogs. He plays chase with them all the time, sleeps cuddled up next to them, lets Clovis (my youngest bulldog) lick his ears, drinks out of the water bowl right next to them as they drink, and even joins in the run when the dogs get the zoomies and race around the sofa in circles. I'm convinced Atticus thinks he is a dog. If you look on the page or two before this one, you will see a message I posted titled "STEP 1 -- the making of a bullcat." That message shows some photos of how good Atticus gets along with my two bulldogs. Here are a couple of more photos:

and Nigel (when he's feeling frisky) tackles them..I mean, he tackles any one of my cats at any given time..they usually meow very loudly and punch him in the face several times (they do not have claws)..he blinks when they punch him..this has been going on since day 1..sometimes the cats allow Nigel to sniff them which really means that they are tolerating him at that particular time..it's quite a scene..I have been trying to get Nigel to be kinder to them, but it just doesn't work..so he continues to tackle them and they continue to punch him. Good Luck

Hi there-
We had a cat who we "inherited" when she was 13. She is going to be 17 this coming May and was NONE too happy when Danted showed up on the scene in September.. Anyway- she only weighs 6 1/2 lbs and ended up losing a 1/2 pound from being constantly chased by the pupster. She would also howl, his and bat at him every chance she got... We tried everything but unfortunately b/c of her age and personality it didn't seem like things were going to improve. Thankfully we live in a 2 family and my mother lives upstairs. She agreed to take the kitty and now everyone is much happier and calmer!! I know that there are plenty of cats and dogs out there getting along just great but I also know it never would have worked between these two. Good luck!! -Ann

I'm just loving up the pics today!

they are great!

Emily

Thanks for the advice. I am trying to do a lot of those things. The cats have the mudroom of my house to themselves. It has a small kitty door, which Bella's butt doesn't fit through. It has their food and litter box. The cats get to climb on the sofa, chairs, and bed. They know not to get on the table. The big cat just HATES Bella, but I honestly think the little one teases her. I think a lot of the time she intices Bella to chase her, and then jumps where Bella can't get her. The little one also likes to investigate Bella's crate when she isnt around and will sniff Bella when she is in her crate.
I guess I am in a unique situation because my cats are declawed. They can't really set their boundaries or defend themselves. We scold Bella for chasing the kitties and try to divert her attention, but if they are at ground level, they are fair game.
We just moved into our first house, and the neighborhood has a lot of cats running around, which she also chases. One of these days one of those kitties is REALLY gonna teach her a lesson. Any more advice from anyone???

have a different language, which causes them to misunderstand.
A moving tail is good news in a dog, but bad news in a cat. The playbow of a dog doesn't mean anything to a cat.
We had cats for 7 years before our first Bulldog joined us. It took about 10 years for the cats to get used to a dog. To our surprise, when our first Bulldog died, they went on at the same foor with the next dog.
We always placed the cats on no1. The dog wasn't allowed to chase the cat, the cats were allowed on the table, chairs, cupboards. That way the cats could always flee upwards.
Keep your dog on leash for a few days, and learn her not to chase the cats. Not for play, not after being scratced on the nose. Chasing is off. Feed the cats first, pet the cats first, be sure the cats have allways access to their toilet without being afraid of being nosed while using the toilet (and you don't want to have them peeing around....).
Don't expect them to be friends, be happy to have them living more or less peacefully together.

Hi

As you can see from the picture the cat just about tolerates Oscar having a sniff at her.
They generally get on quite well. (for cats and dogs hahaha).
Lynn and Oscar
xxxx

but my Chloe is 4. she hates anything on four legs or two, except for me.

so, chloe is in the bedroom, and murph is baby gated into the rest of the house. when ever murph is crated or asleep, she'll wander out.

it's only been like 2 months...i don't want to push things.

murphy tries so hard to "play" with her, but chloe thinks she's going to get eaten by the snorting monster!!

Sorry, I'm really of no help.

Emily

I have 2 cats, one 9 year old tabby and one 3 year old Persian. My 9 year old HATES Elsa. Hisses. Yowling. NON-STOP yowling. I might have to get rid of him because he has ATTACKED Elsa on several occasions, most recently, this morning he attempted to attack Elsa, which made me VERY angry as she just came home from the hospital from being spayed. My persian is very curious about Elsa. They play "chase" through the house and he sleeps on top of her cage or next to her cage. While Elsa is out and about, Loki (my persian) keeps his distance, but I don't think he's hating her. He stayed far away from her for about 2 months (we brought Elsa home in November, 2002), but now he's kind of coming around. The other cat is impossible. I know how you feel. Maybe give it a little time. I have one that hates the bully & one that tolerates her. The 9 year old, Harley is horrible to her. After Elsa had been home a week, Harley was growling, so Elsa submissively layed down in front of him and tried to share her new booda leopard print squeaky ball with him by rolling it toward him with her nose. When she layed down to show she wouldn't hurt Harley, he attacked her and bit her. Poor Elsa loves EVERYONE. I wish you the best of luck.