I pick up my new kitties next week (eeeek!) and really want to try and integrate them with Bruno and Harvey. Bruno isn't so much of a problem because he's probably smaller than the kittens are now - or not far off it. Harvey, on the other hand, is a whole different kettle of biggness!

Does anyone have any advice as to how I can introduce them without the kittens running off, and Harvey chasing after them. We do have a large dog crate that we were thinking of putting them in whilst they get used to eachother but then I'm not sure if thats a little unfair on them???

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Benny is big and quite boisterous when excited. The kittens were in a separate room anyway (as recommended they are restricted to one room til they settle in) so what I did was after letting them settle for a couple of days I took Benny in a few times on his lead but fuss him, make him sit quiet etc and not let him approach the kittens. This meant they could approach him if they wanted. I only stayed in there with Benny for a few minutes then went back to normal with them being kept separate.

After a few days when the kittens were more at ease I put a baby gate on the door of the room the cats were in meaning they could see Benny and he could see them but he couldn't get to them. It also meant the kittens could come out when they felt ready to face Benny

Skye came out first but Spencer needed a bit more encouragement although I think it was more he couldn't fit through the gate and hadn't realised he could jump over it

I still kept them separate when I wasn't there to supervise for a while until Benny's excitement around them eased.

The dog crate was also mentioned to me but I too felt it would be mean to restrict the kittens to such a small space with a dog staring at them!

Good luck and hope everything goes well, just remember patience is the key - don't rush anything

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Thanks. That sounds like a really good plan! We have a spare room, that's a little full of tat at the moment, so I'll get that cleared this weekend and make it the kittens room for now.

I'll probably have to keep asking for advice as we progress.

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We have a large crate & used that when we got Louie then Tango, they had all there gear in it & could meet the pensioners & the large spotty cats safely they were'nt in the crate for long but the spots are used to cats

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All my children have paws!

Lol. They do usually get on fine. In fact it's the poor dogs that get teased to death by the kittens:



This was our MC Dexter before we collected him from the breeders 'playing' with their dog. Look at the look on his poor face!

Ian.

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"Always turn and look when your cat gazes behind you with that intent look in her eyes. Some day there might actually be something there." - T.S. Eliot

LOL that poor dog! hehe

I can imagine Harvey being like that!

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That's how it is in our house, persecuted pooches!!
I think we made sure the cats started off in one room and then supervised interactions only. It was helpful to walk the dogs a little longer than usual and wear them out.

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