Safely introducing puppy to house cat?

We have had cats and dogs together before, but I just want to try and make sure that this introduction goes extremely well as we will be bringing together our cat, Luna, with a 2.5 month old puppy (Dulce.) The puppy is a replacement for our recently passed dog we have had for 16 years and was the apple of my wife's eye...as the new puppy will also be. Here's a bit of history...

Luna (a neutered, fostered cat) came to our house when she was about 7 months old. She had been fostered, in part, with a household dog (a Sheppard.) She still had her claws (and still does) and very quickly appeared to adjust to life with us and our aging Salsa (a Havanese) for the last three months of Salsa's life. Luna only wanted to play with Salsa, but Salsa's temperament was such that she really never appeared to like any other animals. So, her typical reaction to Luna's advances were just get up and get away. Luna seemed to get the idea and eventually reduced her play advances. Nonetheless, Luna's just going near Salsa, still caused Salsa to leave the area. At no time did Luna's play swatting injure Salsa

Well, Salsa passed and Luna has been our sole pet for the last 3-4 months. She's a very good, affectionate cat (usually follows us around, but won't sit on us/loves being brushed/can be petted for relatively long periods of time...purrs, talks, drools/only shows very minimal aggression when she doesn't want to be bothered...will gently swat with claws, but no malice intended/loves to play -- you get the idea, a good normal cat.

Our concern is not that the cat won't accept the puppy, but that Luna may play too roughly with her and hurt Dulce with her claws. A this point de-clawing is out of the question. Luna's play is chasing and pouncing on play toys and Dulce will be only about 2.5 months old and will weigh only a few pounds...bigger than a mouse, but certainly within the range of other animals that cats can go after. I'm sure we're overstating our concerns, but nonetheless, we'd certainly like to hear some of your thoughts.

 

I think you are right to want to be careful. How about familiarising Luna with the puppy's scent before Dulce is brought home?

 

Good idea, but Dulce is a little bit too far from us to do that.

 

I think you're right in concerning for the new puppy since the puppy will be so small; and being careful or trying to prevent things from happening is perfectly understandable. I would probably keep my eyes on the puppy until he is familiar with the new situation and knows how to defense for himself first. Good luck to you and keep us posted.

 

I guess you can introduce any other animal to a dog in a slow fashion. We once had a pigeon that stayed inside our house just like a pet. We had 2 dogs when it came without notice. And the pigeon just stayed and never left. After 2 weeks, it tried to get inside the house and from then on it stayed on the second floor landing, in front of our bedroom.

From what I remember, the pigeon was outside but always browsing on the glass door. By that, our dogs somewhat got familiar with the pigeon so when it came inside, she was not harmed. That pigeon was with us for 5 years, mingling with the dogs.

 

You should do this very slowly when you finally allow them to meet, I think the cat won't be such a huge issue, unless the puppy tries to play with the cat right away. But in my experience most cats run away when this happens I'd not worry to much about it, just keep an eye on the puppy, never leave them together if you are not going to be nearby watching over the puppy.

 

I would love to know how this turned out @flycaster. I can't offer any real advise. My case was the opposite. I had dogs when my son brought home this tiny kitten. I had concerns having seen my dogs want to chase every cat they saw while out walking. When they were introduced to my cat Twinkle, it turned out to be a true love story until Twinkle left us too soon. I am hopeful things will work out well for them both.

 

We'll be getting our puppy April 3 and I will certainly let you all know how things turn out.

 

This has been posted for quite a while now, so sorry to bump this, but I'm really curious as to what happened. Any updates on this yet?
If it was a success, how did you do it?

 

Your concern is valid. The last thing is to release them together in the same compound without supervision which might result in disharmony or some nasty scratches. I would suggest that you place them in a cage for sometime each day. It should have a thin wire mesh to separate the two so that they would be able to interact at close range. After they are acquainted to each other, remove the wire netting. Make sure you don't detain them a this should be for short periods of time.

 

Update. Dulci is a very feisty puppy and Luna is cautious, but lay-back. Luna keeps trying to get close to the dog...man, she really tries and i give her a lot of credit for trying as the puppy still makes lunging advances (on leash). But, here's how it is working out after two weeks. If the dog is on the leash and is held back from actually getting to the cat with her lunges, the cat will not run away, nor will she show any signs of aggression. While leashed, they have been face to face with the dog giving the cat a lick on her nose. However, there have been times when the dog is not controlled and will chase the cat. The cat runs to a higher place (like her perch or the bed) with the dog mulling about under the cat. The cat still not showing any signs of aggression. There are also many times when the dog shows no interest in the cat and will walk right by her. And then there are times when they will sleep side by side. I'd say things are progressing normally and with time, they will be best of friends.