My aunt is getting a baby kitten in 6 weeks time and i will be looking after it for 2/3 days a week while she is at work, until the kitten is old enough to be left for longer periods of time. I have a 9 month old springer spaniel who is very friendly but has been known to 'play' chase local cats. They however don't realise he is playing and run off, he is fine with cats who are part of the family. My aunt already has two dogs and a cat of her own so the new kittten will be used to other animals. I am sure once my springer understands this new kitten is part of the family he will be fine but how do i get to that stage without stressing either of them (or myself) out. I have never had a cat before so i don't know if i'm over anxious for nothing, but i figure better safe that sorry. Does anyone have ideas on the best way to introduce them. If it helps the kitten will have it's own cage and i have a baby gate i sometimes use to keep my dog in certain parts of the house when i need him out the way (decorating etc). Any advice would be gratefully recieved. thanks

Hi Guest

In autumn I got a 3 month old kitten and I have a labrador. She was at the time 6 months old. I didn't do anything special, because the kat could jump up on tables and such things. I just kept an eye on them over the weekend and stopped Luna,, the dog, from running after the kitten.

But it would probablely be a good idea with the babygate. I did that the week after, when I had to go to work. Then the kitten can decide for it self when and if it wants to go out to the dog.

My dog and the kitten ended up playing together.

Another thing is, that in my opinion a kitten doesn't aquire(sp?) a specific age for being alone home. When I got my first cat in 1995 I picked her up on a saturday around lunch and went to work monday morning!

Jeanette

I have 5 Weimaraners, a nine year old cat and a Siamese thats 8 months old and a Siamese thats 13 weeks old.  I worried how the dogs would fit in with the kittens, but they all got along great. In fact the Siamese kitten thats 8 months cuddles up to the dogs.
I did nothing different. I had the same routinue, and I just sat and watched the dogs with the cats for a start and if one seemed to be over curious I would tell it off, but they just fitted in perfect.
My dogs dont like the neighbours cats and will chase them off but they live quite happily with their own cats. Strange really.
Nutkin

Years ago my parents had a sheltie dog and got a persian kitten, they got him at the weekend and they hated each other, theyw ere worried about work on monday but by the time they were home from work the dog and kitten were cuddles up to each other asleep.

I dont have any cats but i know that with their persian they also got it at the weekend and went to work on the monday