Did I botch a dog and cat’s first meeting?
Hello all.
Me and my gf are thinking about moving in together sometime next year. Long story short, she has a somewhat big dog (goldendoodle, 2F) who is a massive sweetheart, curious, and playful. She’s the babiest and was probably the happiest party in this exchange lol.
On my end, I have a standard-issue cat (2F) who has always had a somewhat anxious temperament (doesn’t like being held for too long, hides when strangers come in to my place, etc). She’s been introduced to other cats and small dogs at my mom’s place since she was a kitten, and she’s never been aggressive to them. For the most part she just keeps a distance and does her own thing.
However, my cat has never been around a big dog before and that’s been raising concerns about potential hostility/defensiveness on my cat’s part.
So we decided to do a slow series of experimental meets where we’d slowly introduce them to each other at her place, first in separate rooms, then with a gate between them, and finally with her dog on a leash in the same room.
First meeting was last night and my cat appeared very relaxed. 679
Honestly it was going great, she was being curious and exploring the whole place and new smells with confidence. We got excited about this and then came the overconfidence on our part.
We skipped straight to the seeing each other through the gate part, and well. My cat reacted as you may expect. Hissed a couple of times at her dog and immediately went and hid under a couch. We gave her space to relax and she did come out to check where I was at a couple times but we cut it short and went back home since I could tell she was stressed.
I know these things probably take time but now I’m worried we hurt our chances of my cat not hating her dog by rushing things.
Thoughts? 679