So we have been thinking of buying a kitten for some time. We took care of a cat we believed to be a stray for a month (long story, but the cat was seriously underweight and shut out in heavy rain, we took it in, searched for owner, no luck until man down end of street came forward saying we went away to Italy for a month and expected ex-wife to care for the cat which she didn't...) and I got very attached to the idea of having a cat around. We decided to wait until our present shepherd pup was a little older before making a decision. She is now 9 months and seems to crave company with other animals as well as humans, which kind of helped to make up our minds a bit, as a kitten could also grow into a companion for her, as well as being an addition to our own family. We were advised a kitten would be the best choice (even by people from rescue we called) because a kitten could then get used to our dog, and vice versa, as our dog isn't used to cats (although she was bred by a lady who had a lot of cats) and a kitten would be less problem than an older cat.
Anyway, I have been calling Cats Protection, the RSPCA and other rescue groups in the area, and all have a substantial waiting list for kittens. In the meantime while looking I was after some advice from people who have cats and dogs. For one, how do we introduce our dog to a kitten? Our dog is very friendly, but is totally clueless about cats. She is not aggressive but is very interested in them (the closest she has got is touching noses with a cat on the garden fense). How do we go about making a meeting a successful one?
Also, what is a good food for cats? I feed my dog Royal Canin, and I know they do a cat range, but i was hoping I could find out about other brands of food for cats. What is considered good and bad? Also, can you suppliment a cats diet with perhaps oily fish once a week?
I am new to cat ownership (as you can tell ) and definitely new to cats meeting dogs, so any advice would be appreciated.

Also, if anyone knows of any kittens for sale in the Surrey area, do let me know!

Why don't you go for a pedigree kitten instead -it's just like with dogs, you know what you're getting temperament and size wise and will then buy from somebody responsible with health tested parents etc. :)

Geeting used to dogs -the one essential piece of info is that the kitten MUST have somewhere to escape to, so that he or she will never need to feel cornered.  Baby and dog gates are great because kittens will just walk through the bars of them!

We've had several kittens (and adult rescues too) that weren't used to dogs but they've all got used to our lot no problem, it just takes a bit of time and the best thing is to not interefer -other than to make sure the dog knows the cat is not a toy of course. :) Never leave them unsupervised together etc. If you get a rescue mog, most rescues let the kittens go very very early as a) they need to home them ASAP and b) there is a great fallacy amongst rescues and even vets that kittens should be homed aged 8 weeks. The shouldn't, kittens should be 12 weeks old minimum before leaving their mothers, but a rescued mog WILL cope -just beware it will be very small compared to a GSD and may try to suckle anything furry. :D

Food, in my opinion (and many other breeders too) you can't beat Royal Canin (and you need kitten food up until at leats 6 months), but other good ones include Techni-cal, Hills, Iams. I would never feed dried alone as it often leads to problems long term, so always feed one meal of each for adults, dried and canned, for kittens 2 meals of canned and 2 meals of dried a day. Denes is very good as far as canned goes, but also HiLife, and on the cheaper end Felix. I'd never feed anything like Friskies or GoCat or Whiskas dried in any shape or shop's own or similar.

If you want to feed fish now and then, best thing is to feed coley or cod boiled -cats go absolutely mad for it.

I have to echo what Marianne has written about pedigree cats.

I have always had moggies but decided in 2004 I wanted a pedigree or half pedigree.   I found the breed I was looking for by accident on the Internet and then followed it up with lots of Googling about the breed, then eventually was put in contact with Zelli's breeder.  And I collected my gorgeous girl in November 2004, she was about 4.5 months old then and had never seen a dog before in her life - I had 4 at that time!   We had one 'incident' and after that they have got on famously.

The pedigree cats temperament tends to be more 'dependable' to the breed standard, I went for a British Shorthair who are laid back affectionate cats & pretty bombproof.  Sometimes you'll get a retired spayed queen looking for a home having been raised in a house with a dog, but do watch some cat breeders are just breeders and 'recycle' their queens on a yearly process!

I have the most lovely cat who is Not pedigree and she is so docile and loving! We're hoping to get a puppy soon maybe next week and hopefully they wil get on (touch wood). So cats who aren't pedigree are just as loving!
I feed my cat (3 years old) on Hills and they are great she's been on that since a kitten and loves it. It's dry but you can get wet food if you prefer.
PM and I maybe able to help with looking for a kitten.

Thanks Cavie_lover :)

So cats who aren't pedigree are just as loving! mad

Not always -it's pot luck, just like getting a mongrel dog is pot luck -you don't know what the temperament will be like. I've had (and met) far more mogs that have been really aggressive than pedigrees. One mog put my mum in hospital for 8 days. Of the 2 mogs I have now, one you can only touch if you've known him for years, the other I show as a non ped and judging there is all on temperament and condition with temperament counting for most -and he's had BIS wins. So you never KNOW. Likewise I sold a Persian kitten to a family about 2 years ago. They phoned about a month ago, and told the story of how friends of theirs were so impressed with the cat (you can do literally anything with her) that they decided to get a kitten of their own. They got a moggy, and were very disappointed when it turned out to be nothing like expected. Another family had an Exotic off me that sadly died, took in a moggy kitten, and they actually gave up on it as it was so wild, and say they will never risk not having a pedigree again.

Having had 7 moggy cats prior to getting my first pedigree, I have found that my pedigree is far more unperturbed by loud noises etc. than the moggies were.  My mogs were great with my family and very affectionate but Zelli's temperament overall is by far better.

You going to call him Greebo by any chance?
Becky

ha! Greebo would be a good idea! Well, we have tracked down some kittens close by. Believe it or not there seems to be a derth of kittens available at the moment, and we were very lucky to have managed to secure one. We read an add on a website for available litters from breeders (you know, when you can look up a breed and see what litters are currently available all over the UK) and under non-pedigree we found a litter, currently two weeks old. I went to the vet and got the vet to show me what I needed to look for, and the veterinary nurse gave me a free cat care book, and I went to check the litter, saw the mum was who lovely (very sweet with her kittens and very happy for people to be around them) and checked over the kittens, and out of a litter of four we now have a black and white kitten we are thinking of calling Dolly if it is a girl (after Dolly Parton) or Dorien if it is a boy (after Dorien Grey by Oscar Wilde, although it is hard to tell at two weeks, but we think we have a girl). I am really chuffed, and just hope an introduction will be successful and my pup and the kitten will be great friends. The thing is, i have had two different pieces of advice on introducing a kitten to a puppy. The trainer at my dog class said to just bring the cat basket into the living room - acting as if nothing abnormal is going to happy - and then open the basket and allow the kitten to come out and take it from there. I am worried this might be a little too direct, as perhaps from my pups point of view, this is an outsider to the pack, and perhaps a little extra precautions need to be taken. A friend who is a german shepherd breeder said the opposite, and instead suggested we have missy on one side of a dog gate, and the kitten living on the other for a day so they can explore each other safely and get used to each others smell before we allow supervised interaction. What do you guys think? What is the best way to go about things?

The main thing like I said is to make sure the kitten ALWAYS has somewhere easy to escape to. Otherwise you could end up like me last summer when my puppy had his eye punctured by a cat that didn't like the pup wrestling with her.
Edited to say: A gate won't stop the kitten from entering a room of course! Even my pregnant queens squeeze through the bars of child and dog gates. Which is great as the dogs can't!!

Just make sure the escape route doesn't lead to under your floorboards!  Yes this is the area Zelli discovered after Mia chased her into the kitchen not long after I'd got her!