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Siberian Husky » Siberian Husky Forum
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Huskies and cats..

This is a forum for bonding with your fellow Dogsters about the traits, quirks and idiosyncrasies of your favorite breed. Please remember that there are absolutely no animal sales or requests for studding or breeding allowed on our sites. All posts and interactions should be in the spirit of Dogster's Community Guidelines and should be fun, friendly and informational. Enjoy!

  
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Sesi

Cute but dumb		 
 
Barked: Mon Oct 6, '08 7:39am PST 
We aquired a little 6 week old kitten last week, and was wondering of others experiences of huskies and cats.
Elektra, my 2 yr old, is petrified of him. Its not obvious, but she wont walk past the cat, wont look at the cat, but wont be at all aggressive.
Sesi, the 6mth old, is naturally inquisitive, but when she gets too close Jake, the kitty, swipes her full on in the face, along with hissing lol. Poor Sesi just wants to get a closer look, and ends up barking at Jake freaking the cat out even more.

I want them all to get on, not have Elektra hiding away, and Jake beating up Sesi. Any tips? The 7 week old is definately ruling the roost!!!
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Windy CD CGC TDI

Ethics Matter!
 
 
Barked: Mon Oct 6, '08 10:47am PST 
I operate a small, private rescue. As a rule, I never adopt out Siberians to homes with cats - no ifs, ands or buts. There is just too much potential for disaster. I know a small handful of folks who have owned Siberians and cats together for years, and one day they come home to a blood bath. Instinct just kicks in.

I personally have only one Siberian who I trust completely with my cats, and she is a very atypical Siberians in more ways than one. My GSD/Sibe mix is also trusted with my cats. Aside from Windy and Archie, the others have been trained to ignore/avoid the cats to some degree, but I would never allow them to be loose with the cats or ever left unattended. I have no doubt they would kill them.

Edited by author Mon Oct 6, '08 10:48am PST

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Cooper

It's all about- playing!!		 
 
Barked: Mon Oct 6, '08 1:15pm PST 
Argh, Windy, I'd hate to see my poor Taz in pieces!!

Now that we have two sibe puppies, a Chihuahua and one cat, so far I can say that things have been -- okay. At first, Cooper thought Taz (the cat) would be a good playmate, but when he found out Taz never felt like playing (he's 15), Cooper then harassed Taz by chasing him, trying to play bite like he does with Summer -- a lot. To the point where Taz hid in the computer room for quite a number of weeks. When Taz finally came around, he was afraid to move when he saw Cooper for fear that he'd be chased. Now, he's ok. In fact, Taz and Cooper will eat yogurt out of the same bowl at the same time with absolutely no conflict.

Summer, on the other hand slept with Taz in Cooper's crate the first day we had her home. She's inquisitive, and has now started barking at Taz, and tries to clean Taz, but that is the extent of it.

I understand that if you introduce puppies at a young enough age to cats, and hold the cat to you to show that they are dear to you as well, there "usually" isn't a problem. But then, you've got cases like Windy described.

I don't leave the cat unattended with the dogs, unless they are all snoozing (Taz and Cooper will sleep nose to nose sometimes now). I knew it was a risk to have a Husky and a cat, but figured if it didn't work out, I'd keep the cat upstairs and the dogs downstairs.

Hope that helps a little bit.
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Cairo

 
 
Barked: Tue Oct 7, '08 1:34am PST 
My thought is that -- generally speaking -- you cannot fully relax if you leave a husky alone with a cat, loose in the house together.

Cairo is good with cats but only because I have made it a point to acclimate her to small animals from the time she was 12 weeks, and I always emphasized that she must respect cats and their space. Our other dog is a miniature dachshund. I completely trust them together and they are best friends. I also started bringing her to Petco to meet the cats there up for adoption (but probably to the chagrin of the poor cats ...) so she would be familiar with their smell and movements etc.

When Cairo (my husky) was 8 months old, we started living with my roommate's adult cat. We were very careful to introduce them slowly and with no pressure or tension or stress, and thankfully this cat likes to bully dogs, and I reinforced the idea that my husky needs to submit to the cat. Since Cairo is submissive to me and listens, she backs off when I say so. She also gets plenty of exercise (running around chasing other dogs at parks, at daycare, etc) so she doesn't have the excess bored energy that makes her push her curiosity into mischief and danger and predatory zones. She and the cat get along fine, and sometimes they even take little naps right next to each other, or the cat goes up to her and the cat sniffs her affectionately, but I will not leave them alone together in the house for more than 10 minutes.

Bottom line is that I made it a point to acclimate her and familiarize her with cats from the time she was very little, and I know she is submissive to me, and she understands "NO CHASE!" (but that only works indoors), so they get along fine because the cat is very brave and bossy. I am a super control freak so I've tried to keep tabs on all her interactions with new cats, and there have never been any alarming or yellow flags or red flags, besides her extreme curiosity. However, despite all this, I still wouldn't be comfortable leaving them unattended together for long.
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Sesi

Cute but dumb		 
 
Barked: Tue Oct 7, '08 6:52am PST 
The dogs are never left alone in the house, never mind with the cat, I dont have any concerns about the cat getting savaged by the dogs, infact my concern is more that the cat will savage the dogs... I am pretty scared of them getting claws in their faces/eyes and hoping the kitty will calm down enough for peace to resume.

Elektra is very calm, with little prey drive, and got along really well with my old kitten (who we had for all of 4 weeks before she was stolen) but for some reason this cats spooked her, she wont walk past the cat, or touch any food thats near the cat, but never shown any aggression whatsoever, and highly doubt she would.

Sesi, I had my concerns about initially, as she seems to have a strong prey drive, for birds and ducks mostly, but I think its all bravado as she hasnt attempted any funny business with the cat. She wants to get close and figure out what the creature is, but kitty wont let her.

Im now pretty sure neither would want to hurt the kitten but love the idea of all curling up together being good pals. I dont think that will happen lol.
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Cooper

It's all about- playing!!		 
 
Barked: Wed Oct 8, '08 5:23am PST 
Have you tried putting the kitten in a crate so that Sesi can smell her? Just a thought.

That's just a strange situation, and it must be horrible to live with.
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Kristari's September Calypso

Calypso has- landed!		 
 
Barked: Thu Oct 9, '08 8:44am PST 
You really do have to be careful with huskies around cats. You often hear "they'll be okay if they're raised together" and that is true sometimes. Aspen was raised with two cats and although she loved to play with them and annoy them, she never went after them with the thought of supper.

Calypso is an entirely different story. She was raised with the same two cats but cannot be loose with them. In her mind cats = yummy snacks! So it really does depend on the dog.
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Thai

I love the snow		 
 
Barked: Thu Oct 9, '08 8:32pm PST 
Heck yeah depends on the cat and the dog... I have 3 cats and one husky pup and he has been great i dont think anytime soon I will leave him alone in the house with them the one thing is Thai has always been the bottom dog we brought him up as the low man well my cat Zeke just loves being the bottom of the pole so Thai jumped rank on him and Thai really does bug him the most.... But I really dont waant to come home to a blood bath so i don't feel comfortable with leaving Thai out right now and if it wrent a blood bath it might be a fluff bath my dog doesnt chew anything up the only thing he does is destuff things such as blankets so it's not fun when your nice comforter is little bits of fabric and white snow everywhere laugh out loud Husky love
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Kristari's September Calypso

Calypso has- landed!		 
 
Barked: Fri Oct 10, '08 11:25am PST 
LOL Calypso likes to make shredded white fluff too - out of tissue paper.
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Stinky

*insert fart- noise*		 
 
Barked: Thu Nov 13, '08 8:36pm PST 
Hi, my boyfriend recently brought home a Siberian puppy and he already had a cat at home. When he introduced them the puppy just wanted to play and the cat was a little nervous. The cat has swiped at the pup a few times but never with the claws out. It's like he knows not to hurt the puppy, but at the same time he is telling him not to get to close. After a few days they were more relaxed around each other and sometimes chase each other playfully. The only advice I can think to give to you is to let them get acquainted slowly with a lot of supervision and eventually (hopefully) they will just go on day to day like the other one was always there. Hope it works out!
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