So I just adopted a dog from a rescue a couple of days ago. He is mostly a black lab, on the petite side (less than 50 lbs). The rescue group thinks he is 3-4 years old, but they aren't positive. He is supposedly "good with cats," but the foster could only back that up by saying that she has an older cat and he leaves her alone.
My fiance and I have 2 cats who are littermates; we have had them since they were babies. They're about 2 1/2 years old.
I am absolutely torn up right now because I'm not sure I trust the dog with my cats. He is SUPER sweet and loving and I can't see him hurting a person, but I'm nervous about how he's acted around my cats. Yes, we've tried a slow introduction. Today he lunged at one of my cats who was under the bed and hissing at him because he got too close. He also growled and barked in his face. My fiance saw it, I just heard it, but it sounded really intense.
Later, he wanted to go upstairs which is where the cats happened to be. I took him up on a leash and both cats were growling relentlessly. The dog then started growling and barking, so I took him back downstairs.
The most concerning thing is how TERRIFIED my cats are. They just lived with my parents' 90 POUND black lab mix for over 4 months, and they were fine. Not quite as outgoing as usual, but they still went all over the house and would walk by him without issue. They would even still sleep on the bed with us when the dog slept on the floor next to me. And my parents' dog will chase cats if they run. I am trying to figure out why they're so scared of this dog, who is overall much quieter and smaller than my parents' dog. One of my cats has been hiding in the bathtub (never seen that before), and didn't use the litter box or eat all day until we moved the litter box and food bowls into our bedroom. His eyes are constantly huge. My female cat is a little braver, but he has chased her and barked at her too.
It just seems like a no-go, even though it hasn't been very long. I have been crying most of the day because I'm terrified that this dog will hurt my cats, or do something even worse. I already don't feel like I can ever leave them all alone unsupervised, and I don't really think that's fair to any of them.
Am I overreacting? Not giving it enough time? My cats are my world and I hate the thought of returning a dog I adopted, but it doesn't seem like a good match. He would be going back to a foster home, not a shelter, but I feel like such a bad person. I really thought there wouldn't be an issue considering how my cats were with my parents' dog.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/kc4s7b/new_dog_with_resident_cats/
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