Dear Henrietta,
I just got married in June, and my husband and I have already had our first disagreement. The problem is that he is a dog person, and I’m a cat person, and we can’t agree on what pet we can have together. How can we resolve this?
Signed,
Pet Lover
Dear Pet Lover,
Your best bet is to get both a puppy and a kitten at the same time and raise them together. This is going to be a lot of work to get it right, but it will be worth it in the end.
The trick to raising a dog and a cat together is to introduce them very slowly over a period of at least a week.
First, choose a room for just the cat and limit her to that space. Put her litter box and food in only that area next to the door.
Next, let the puppy have the run of the house, but also make sure to begin crate training him. Put the dog’s food bowl just outside the door of the room where the cat is staying.
Let them smell each other under the door. Always feed them at the same time. They will start associating each other’s smell with the pleasure of eating food.
After three days, put the puppy in the crate, and bring out the kitten so they can see each other face-to-face, in a controlled environment where neither one can get injured. Keep repeating this exercise for two days.
On their next introduction, put the puppy on a leash and let them start having physical contact. In a few days, you should be able to let them roam freely together, but watch over both of them carefully as they get to know one another.
This process takes patience and time, but the payoff in the end is that both you and your husband can start your family together peacefully.
I hope this helps and remember: perfect companions never have fewer than four feet.
Love,
Henrietta
Henrietta Craven was born and raised in New Bern and enjoys gardening, hunting bears and improvisational dance. She is a self-proclaimed expert on a wide variety of subjects including (but not limited to) fashion, mixology, and cooking. Henrietta resides in a lovely Victorian home in downtown New Bern with her five cats: Graffenreid, Bethune, Devereux, Stanton and Carraway.