Sorry that this got long, brevity is not my strong suit.
I have had two cats, Memphis and Tails, for 10 years. Outside of a betta fish a few years ago, they have been the only pets in my apartment. I recently adopted a mini australian shepherd, Cassie, from the shelter that I volunteer at and have been keeping her separated from the cats. Cassie gets the living room and front bedroom, and the cats get the kitchen, dining room, and back bedroom.
Memphis has been reacting normally, only hissing at Cassie when she's close to him and being extra bouncy and loud, and I'm pretty confident that he will come around eventually. Tails is not reacting so well. He often sits by the baby gate in the hallway and hisses/angry meows at Cassie whenever he sees her. He will also rush at the gate and swat at Cassie if she gets too close. There's a blanket over the gate so they can't see each other, and that's helping to limit how often they see each other. I did some light introductions by having my sister come over and hold/pet Cassie to keep her calm while I hold Tails in my lap a few feet away, since I'm sure Cassie's boundless energy and wiggliness are adding to the stress. Tails wasn't able to swat because of the way I was holding him, but he was constantly making angry meows and shedding profusely (he's already a shedding machine).
Tails' general behavior has gotten a little better over time, but only marginally. The first day that he saw Cassie, he was extremely upset for the next 30 minutes. He was growling and hissing at me, and even swiping at me a bit, which is not normal for him at all. This was all after I had put Cassie back in her bedroom and closed the door. Since then, he seems to be fine as soon as he stops seeing her, but his reaction to her is still very bad when he does see her.
Tails has always been a bit skittish of new situations, starting as soon as he grew out of his kitten phase. He still growls and runs away when he hears my front door buzzer, and even scares himself when he sees his own shadow on the ground. I live alone and am a very quiet person, so he must have gotten used to that over the last decade.
I have a feliway plugin and a thundershirt, but neither seem to be working that well. Tails is still angry and swatty when he has the shirt on, and the feliway plugin doesn't seem to be working as well as it did when I introduced the cats to each other 10 years ago. I adopted Cassie at the end of February, so it's been 7 weeks. My goal is to have three pets who get along well enough that I can remove the baby gate and let them interact freely while I'm home. I understand that there's a good chance they will never be friends, but I don't want them attacking each other all day (it would be a pretty even fight, Tails is 16lbs and Cassie is only 21lbs).
Does anybody have tips/tricks/advice for how to deal with this? When I search for "resident cat attacking new dog," I only get results about dogs attacking cats. Apparently the world doesn't recognize how viscous our little kitties can get when they're upset about something!
I have had two cats, Memphis and Tails, for 10 years. Outside of a betta fish a few years ago, they have been the only pets in my apartment. I recently adopted a mini australian shepherd, Cassie, from the shelter that I volunteer at and have been keeping her separated from the cats. Cassie gets the living room and front bedroom, and the cats get the kitchen, dining room, and back bedroom.
Memphis has been reacting normally, only hissing at Cassie when she's close to him and being extra bouncy and loud, and I'm pretty confident that he will come around eventually. Tails is not reacting so well. He often sits by the baby gate in the hallway and hisses/angry meows at Cassie whenever he sees her. He will also rush at the gate and swat at Cassie if she gets too close. There's a blanket over the gate so they can't see each other, and that's helping to limit how often they see each other. I did some light introductions by having my sister come over and hold/pet Cassie to keep her calm while I hold Tails in my lap a few feet away, since I'm sure Cassie's boundless energy and wiggliness are adding to the stress. Tails wasn't able to swat because of the way I was holding him, but he was constantly making angry meows and shedding profusely (he's already a shedding machine).
Tails' general behavior has gotten a little better over time, but only marginally. The first day that he saw Cassie, he was extremely upset for the next 30 minutes. He was growling and hissing at me, and even swiping at me a bit, which is not normal for him at all. This was all after I had put Cassie back in her bedroom and closed the door. Since then, he seems to be fine as soon as he stops seeing her, but his reaction to her is still very bad when he does see her.
Tails has always been a bit skittish of new situations, starting as soon as he grew out of his kitten phase. He still growls and runs away when he hears my front door buzzer, and even scares himself when he sees his own shadow on the ground. I live alone and am a very quiet person, so he must have gotten used to that over the last decade.
I have a feliway plugin and a thundershirt, but neither seem to be working that well. Tails is still angry and swatty when he has the shirt on, and the feliway plugin doesn't seem to be working as well as it did when I introduced the cats to each other 10 years ago. I adopted Cassie at the end of February, so it's been 7 weeks. My goal is to have three pets who get along well enough that I can remove the baby gate and let them interact freely while I'm home. I understand that there's a good chance they will never be friends, but I don't want them attacking each other all day (it would be a pretty even fight, Tails is 16lbs and Cassie is only 21lbs).
Does anybody have tips/tricks/advice for how to deal with this? When I search for "resident cat attacking new dog," I only get results about dogs attacking cats. Apparently the world doesn't recognize how viscous our little kitties can get when they're upset about something!