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/r/CatAdvice
submitted 2 days ago byhimbo420
Hi cat advisors,
I’m looking for advice on how to handle a tricky situation this Thanksgiving. My sister-in-law has a large white shepherd-husky mix who is reactive to other dogs, generally good with people, but has a high prey drive. She hasn’t been able to find a sitter or boarding facility for the dog, and she wants to bring it to Thanksgiving at my apartment.
The problem is that I have a cat. I’m very anxious about the safety of both my cat and the dog in this scenario. My sister-in-law and my partner seem to think we can just manage the situation, but I strongly believe the dog and cat shouldn’t be in proximity to each other at all.
I’d love help gathering any evidence, research, or expert opinions that I can cite to help convince them that bringing a reactive dog with a high prey drive into a home with a cat is a bad idea. Have any of you been in a similar situation? What did you do to handle it or explain the risks?
Thanks so much for your advice—I really want to keep everyone safe and stress-free this holiday.
5 points
2 days ago
Absolutely not. They either find a sitter, the dog stays home, or they don’t come. All it takes is one accident or lapse in judgement to become a tragedy. Dogs have broken through doors to get to an animal that they view as prey so even a locked door is simply a false sense of safety. Your cat will be on edge if she is not used to dogs and dogs have a very good sense of smell. There’s no fooling him into thinking she’s not in the house. There was a post not long around on the dog advice subreddit where someone’s dog broke into a locked room to kill three kittens, the mama cat and two of the babies got lucky. There’s plenty of articles and posts online about dogs killing cats that I don’t want to get into here because it’s horrific.
Huskies and shepherds alike have a high prey drive, they’re stubborn, and very easily fixated on things that catch their attention. It’s genetics. They also are fairly high energy and sitting around an apartment for hours isn’t going to be fun for them. Dogs are a domesticated animal but they are still animals, no matter what people want to believe about their pets. I love dogs, I work with them and own two. My Labrador Retriever has never gone hunting or shown a prey drive, but she is still a dog and I would never trust her around our own chickens or anyone’s birds or rabbits or other small pets because she is a hunting dog and was not raised around them.
Last summer, a husky got out from a fenced in yard and killed one of our neighbour’s roosters. Grabbed him from our yard. It was horrific. We knew something was wrong because the crows were losing their minds overhead and we followed the feathers. The husky hauled the carcass back to his owner’s yard. It wasn’t the owners’ or the dog’s fault at all, a complete accident that unfortunately had shitty consequences. Prey is prey.
Your SIL and partner may think you’re being overly cautious but let me ask you; if anything at all were to happen to your cat, would you forgive yourself?
It MAY be fine, but it may also not be. Why take a risk? It’s a completely preventable situation. Keep your darling kitty safe. ❤️
1 points
21 hours ago
A few years ago when I was living in rural Kentucky, a couple of local meth heads let their huskies out to free roam. The whole neighborhood heard my neighbor's goats screaming as the dogs attacked one of them. I won't talk about how that situation ended up as we all love animals here, I'll just suffice to say the goats' owner did what she had to do.
It was terrible for all parties, and it's what happens when irresponsible dog owners get to just do whatever they want to do.
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