Dachshunds and cats Oh my gosh! We have had our male dachshund, Julian, for four years and our female, the princess, for three. If that wasn’t enough, my wife, Charlotte, and my 10-year-old stepdaughter Sydney told me that they really love cats and would like to have one. Because of the places they lived before we were married, they couldn’t have animals. I could take them or leave them. Don’t get me wrong, I love all animals, however I was never around cats except for some of my friends who had cats. I had grown up with dogs. I played with them on the outside and inside. They were fun. But being so easy to convince that I am when it comes to my wife and stepdaughter, I decided to let them have a cat. However, I told them I wanted to take care of him, I already took care of the dogs. No problem. Sydney rescued a kitten. He was with his sister and they didn’t take very good care of them.
He brought her home and the dogs didn’t know what to do with them. When I got home I made the mistake of suggesting that I probably needed a partner. When I did research on cats, I found that cats do best when there are two. Dogs, on the other hand, are fine on their own. I always thought it was the other way around. They went looking for Angels sister. However, it was adopted about two hours before they got there. Angel had a bro in the litter, yet he was still shy to be adoptable. So we got it a week later. So how did the dog fare? Princess wanted to jump on them. Julian really didn’t know what to do. We had friends staying with us who had cats for many years and they helped us. With their help, we brought them together bit by bit, stopping to separate them when it seemed they might get too close and start a problem. We also put a door in the hallway upstairs to keep dogs away from cats.
The cats were staying in Sydney’s room. Our female always wanted to come into the room to play with them. Time passed and keeping them separate but visible calmed the dogs. Then we let them get together and work it out. They did it very well. Cats tried to play with dogs as they play with cats and dogs tried to play with cats as they played with each other. The key was taking things slowly. Monitor them and then let them figure it out.