- Joined
- Jul 26, 2021
- Messages
- 4
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Hi! I'm Lau! I believe I asked for help here once a while ago about my kitten Pirilampo (Firefly) who was new to my home and needed some help adjusting. After the help I received here, she adjusted wonderfully and she and my senior dog got along amazingly.
Recently, we lost our dog to cancer and old age, and after a bit, decided to try adopting a new puppy. Ben is a 7 month old rescue, very docile, but curious and playful, which scares Firefly a lot - she is very shy and any big movement or noise scares her. After Ben got home, she immediately hid inside our closet and has been avoiding coming out since unless we're (puppy included) sleeping, meaning she'll only go out to eat and use her litterbox late at night - I'm scared she'll not adjust to the puppy and will end up sick.
I've read about introductions, as we had done for our older dog, and we're starting from zero now - we're feeding her and giving her water on the closet and giving her the chance to go out on her own terms late at night when it's quieter.
The puppy is not aggressive or has a prey drive - he's just curious and noisy, but I'm having a hard time refocusing him when he looks at her. He whines, wants to go up and smell her, cries when we crate him. She'll not be in the same room as him at all, and freezes/trembles until we take her back to the closet. There are many hide-able and tall places for her to climb on and hide on common living places (we have cat towers and shelves for cats), but she won't budge at all and we don't want to physically move her as to not scare her more.
I don't expect them to be best friends, as I'm sure they have very different personalities - but I really want them to be able to get along and live together ): She had a hard time with we recent moving states and with our older dog dying, so I'm sure it's very stressful for her. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
Recently, we lost our dog to cancer and old age, and after a bit, decided to try adopting a new puppy. Ben is a 7 month old rescue, very docile, but curious and playful, which scares Firefly a lot - she is very shy and any big movement or noise scares her. After Ben got home, she immediately hid inside our closet and has been avoiding coming out since unless we're (puppy included) sleeping, meaning she'll only go out to eat and use her litterbox late at night - I'm scared she'll not adjust to the puppy and will end up sick.
I've read about introductions, as we had done for our older dog, and we're starting from zero now - we're feeding her and giving her water on the closet and giving her the chance to go out on her own terms late at night when it's quieter.
The puppy is not aggressive or has a prey drive - he's just curious and noisy, but I'm having a hard time refocusing him when he looks at her. He whines, wants to go up and smell her, cries when we crate him. She'll not be in the same room as him at all, and freezes/trembles until we take her back to the closet. There are many hide-able and tall places for her to climb on and hide on common living places (we have cat towers and shelves for cats), but she won't budge at all and we don't want to physically move her as to not scare her more.
I don't expect them to be best friends, as I'm sure they have very different personalities - but I really want them to be able to get along and live together ): She had a hard time with we recent moving states and with our older dog dying, so I'm sure it's very stressful for her. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.