Cats and Dogs - Introducing my Devon Rexes to my Irish Setter

Lola, my gorgeous Irish Setter girl is 11 years old now and as chilled out as a dog can be. My moggie Pushka was brought up with her and adored her, always snuggling up in bed with her or grooming her face. The feeling wasn't entirely mutual and Lola never really returned his affection, she just put up with it but if she ever saw him fight with another cat or get chased by a dog she was there in seconds to protect her baby brother.

One big, happy family

Blue as a baby snuggling a dog at his old home

My Devon Rex kittens had also grown up around dogs as the breeder has some and when I saw the photos above of Blue and Bowie with one of her dogs and then met my chilled out boys I was sure introducing cats and dog would be a breeze. I was wrong. The breeder had small dogs, not much bigger than the cats themselves. Lola is a big girl and I'm pretty sure the cats never even connected her to the tiny dogs they had met previously.

As the kittens had had such a long day full of new experiences, I decided I would sleep with them in the living room on their first night home with me and Lola would go in with my boyfriend in the bedroom. That way I'd give the kittens time to get used to their new home overnight and introduce them to the dog in the morning.

The second the boys spotted her, they ran and hid. Any attempt to bring them closer to the dog or vice versa was met with lots of growling, hissing and flattened ears. Lola is as soft as a dog can be, but she's still a dog and although she's absolutely fine when the cats are holding their ground or in my arms, the sight of a furball fleeing is too much for her canine brain to resist and she will chase them when they run away. Not because she wants to catch them and she wouldn't dream of hurting them, she just thinks it's a game. That wouldn't help the canine-feline peace talk process at all so Lola was kept on a lead by me whenever the cats were around for the first few days.

After about a week of hiding/hissing/growling whenever Lola came near, the boys suddenly started to relax. I've tried to stay out of the whole process as much as I can and just let them all get on with it. No forced introductions, just making sure I have Lola under control either on a lead or stayed in her bed while the cats are nearby.

Now, nearly three weeks on, they pretty much ignore each other. Blue was definitely the ringleader when it came to hissing at Lola. When Bowie was on his own near her, he'd hiss and growl but two seconds later be washing himself or playing with a toy. It was like he was just pretending to be scared of her because his brother was watching. I'm pretty sure that if I had only had Bowie to deal with and no Blue in the house he would be snuggling up to Lola every night by now. As it is, they aren't scared of her but, aside from the odd sniffs at her by Bowie they really aren't very interested in her at all.

Lola and Pushka. Guess who's the boss?

I'm hoping that as time goes on they might become friends... I'd love to see them all snuggled up in bed together and loving each other but for the meantime I'm just glad the Irish Setter-Devon Rex war is over and I'll end the post with a picture of Lola and Pushka proving who was the boss.