Cats And Dogs

[disintegratus]

We have 4 big dogs, and 5 cats. Of the cats, one is petrified of life and will avoid the dogs like the plague (oddly enough we got her from the shelter as a kitten and she's been raised with the dogs), 1 is a big lazy fatty who's "defense mechanism" when he's had enough is to roll over onto his back and meow until someone saves him, and the other two put up with the dogs, but barely.

The kitten (now about 20-odd weeks) adores the dogs, and is the only one who actually enjoys their company. At first I was very wary of leaving them unsupervised together as the dogs are big and one misplaced paw could do a lot of damage, but as the kitten's gotten bigger and more robust, and I've seen that the dogs are able to play with him in a manner that won't result in death, I'm happy to leave them in the house unsupervised. He also has several places where he could jump to get away from them if needed.

Of the dogs, 3 of them are perfectly fine and love the kitten, but all 4 of them will chase any of the other cats if they run. The other dog, the dobe x kelpie is "sticky". He will follow the cats around, nose to their bum, for hours, and the look in his eyes says "I want to eat you", but if they turn and face him, he will back away very hastily. I've found that visitors often find it very unnerving, but he's been doing it for years, he even does it to my rats. To be honest, out of all of them I'd trust him the most with any other critter, because he just wants to look at them, doesn't like it when they're touching him. Poor Harley, kitten takes advantage of this and likes to try to rub up against his face all the time, Harley doesn't know what to do!!!