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- Jul 10, 2015
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Well it’s been a minute but we have successfully introduced my adopted duo Dolly and Otis to the dogs, Otto and Pablo! It took a lot of time and patience but it has paid off tenfold.
I will be honest as I wasn’t sure how Pablo was going to react to the two nekkids. He has a bit of a prey drive especially with squirrels and his history was unknown as he was abandoned by his previous owner. Literally he was tied to a fence at a veterinary clinic and left. I fostered him through the rescue that I work with and had to adopt him. He was such a love and he was attached to Otto I couldn’t imagine splitting him up to a new home.
Anyway this was how I did it. We started with the kitties in the bedroom with door closed. We did that for about a month they could hear/smell each other but no interaction. Then we moved to door opened for brief periods of time and a tall dog gate. They could see each other and I would feed the kitties while the dogs were on the other side of the gate. We did that for about 3-4 weeks. Then we moved the baby gate to the end of the hallway and the kitties had the hallway and the bedroom. The dogs had the living room. We spent weeks like that I was sitting on the floor on the side with the kitties and watch tv or read and let the dogs get used to them in their space. Then lastly the introduction without baby gates… the dogs were separated during this part. We would have one in a different bedroom and the other on a leash and the cats had freedom to roam from the living room to their bedroom which is their space no dogs allowed. We now have completely integrated them!
I will be honest as I wasn’t sure how Pablo was going to react to the two nekkids. He has a bit of a prey drive especially with squirrels and his history was unknown as he was abandoned by his previous owner. Literally he was tied to a fence at a veterinary clinic and left. I fostered him through the rescue that I work with and had to adopt him. He was such a love and he was attached to Otto I couldn’t imagine splitting him up to a new home.
Anyway this was how I did it. We started with the kitties in the bedroom with door closed. We did that for about a month they could hear/smell each other but no interaction. Then we moved to door opened for brief periods of time and a tall dog gate. They could see each other and I would feed the kitties while the dogs were on the other side of the gate. We did that for about 3-4 weeks. Then we moved the baby gate to the end of the hallway and the kitties had the hallway and the bedroom. The dogs had the living room. We spent weeks like that I was sitting on the floor on the side with the kitties and watch tv or read and let the dogs get used to them in their space. Then lastly the introduction without baby gates… the dogs were separated during this part. We would have one in a different bedroom and the other on a leash and the cats had freedom to roam from the living room to their bedroom which is their space no dogs allowed. We now have completely integrated them!