Possible advice on how to ensure old cat and new semi-grown dog coexist happily?

Hi r/pets!

First time poster here... hoping someone has some advice.

I have a 10ish year old cat as of a couple months ago. I never really wanted a cat tbh, but my grandma wanted to offload him and I didn’t want him braving the elements in his older age or ending up in a shelter where he’s never adopted. So he’s mine now and of course I’ve grown to love the little guy. Names Melvin.

Now the issue is that I’m about to move in with my long distance fiancée who has a 3-4 year old medium sized dog. The dog is really friendly to me and random people but not really sure if he will be cool with cats? He’s not super big maybe up to my knee, but is big enough that he could hurt the cat if he went ballistic for whatever reason.

I already plan to get a cat tower to give him a place to get away from the dog if he doesn’t want to be bothered. But I still worry about issues arising and would like to hear some tips on how to make this transition as smooth as possible. I don’t want either of us having to give up our pets because they can’t get along. The house we are moving to is big enough that they aren’t going to have to interact if they don’t want to, although I’d like them to be buddies. I mainly just don’t want them at each other’s throats.

Any tips?

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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/al8ken/possible_advice_on_how_to_ensure_old_cat_and_new/