Meet Keiko at 6 wks old

[Aoine]

Hi everyone, I have been looking through this forum for about 3 months now and have finally got round to joining it! After 8 years of looking into and considering cavaliers I have eventually decided the time is right to get a wee cavalier puppy. I wanted to wait until my boys were up a wee bit ( they are now 8 and 11). This is my wee tricolour Keiko at 6 1/2 weeks old, and he will be coming home in two weeks woohoo!!. The past 6 weeks seem to have dragged in and the excitement in my house is just unbelievable waiting for the new arrival. I think I have everything in and organised so I am all set for the big day. I know im biased but I think he is absolutly gorgeous and has a personality to match, I just cant wait to get him home....Roll on the 20th of Sept!!!!!!

[Karlin]

and what fun to be waiting for a puppy! The time will drag by til the day I'm afraid... . Love the pic and look forward to more.

[matties mum]

Hi and welcome you have fun to come I hope you enjoy your self on here Aileen

[Denise G.]

Welcome! Your little one is adorable!! Please post more pics when he comes home!!

[Charleen]

Congratulations to Keiko for getting so a great family. Can't wait to hear your stories once he gets home.

[Lani]

Isn't it soooo great that we ALL have the best puppies in the world!!!

I am so happy for you & welcome to the board. I'm fairly new too, but already I've learned so much from everyone and everyone is so interesting, helpful and just really good people. I'm happy to be a part of this group & I'm sure you will be too!

[Aoine]

Thank you everybody for making us feel so welcome!! I know I will have a lot of questions to ask in the future as this is our first dog. At present we have a 17 month old hamster called Holly and a 3 1/2 year old female cat called Kaiba. My main concern is how we introduce our new puppy to Kaiba - who is the original Boss Cat, very sweet and gentle but very jealous. She rules not only this house but the entire neighbourhood.
We have left a blanket with the breeders, Mr & Mrs Lamont, Moorfields Cavaliers Ballymena who we cannot recommend highly enough, and we will bring it home on Monday to get Kaiba used to a new scent. Not sure what else to do but to shower both of them with affection! Does anybody have any suggestions or advice as the puppy seems fine with cats but its Kaiba's reaction that worries us.

[Remali]

Hi Aoine! Your puppy is so cute, I can't wait to see more pictures!! And what an adorable name for your puppy, I really like it!

I don't have any experience with cats, but perhaps there are others on here that do? I do have a pet houserabbit though, and my when I got my Cavalier puppy I made sure that all interactions together were supervised by me, and I did keep a leash on him the first couple meetings. They get along great though, altho I still like to keep an eye on them.

[goldcountryrose]

Congratulations on your baby. I've only had my Cav for a month after waiting more than 10 years, and I just can't tell you how much these babies get right to your heart. I'd already mortgage my house and car to get him anything he needs.

I've only been on this board for a couple of days, but boy oh boy do I have a ton of experience with cats (I have 11, tho not intentionally, ppl keep dumping cats out here.) And with introducing new dogs to cats.

My Cav, Rudy, was easilly frightened at first. All of my cats are very accustomed to dogs, so tho a couple of them hissed at Rudy for a couple of days, they really weren't a threat to him. But it scared him, nontheless.

I really don't want to cause you undue concern, but I think you are going to have to take this introduction seriously. Your cat is old enough to be very mad about the puppy. Unless your cat has had some prior interaction with dogs, it is not going to be easy. Puppy is likely to want to play with Kitty like he did with his littermates. First thing puppy will probably do is run at the kitty like a big dumb floppy puppy. First thing your cat will probably do is knock puppy on his behind. Hissing and lunging, with claws bared.

It would be much better to bring puppy in in his crate, leave him there, and let cat walk around and check him out. Kinda ignore puppy and give lots of attention to cat. Then if you can, put cat in another room and pay attention to puppy. Re-crate puppy, let cat back in to observe puppy some more. I would let this process go for a full day.

Second day, have a family member, but not cat's primary family member, hold puppy and let cat sniff him, etc. Don't let puppy charge at cat. I'd do this for this full day.

Third day, let puppy on floor with cat in room, but restrain puppy. Let cat come to him. If you observe some comfort level, you can let puppy go and see what happens. Bear in mind that the cat could actually attack the puppy and hurt him, scratch his eyes, ect. And puppy could be really frightened and feel insecure. If cat demonstrates seriously hostile behavior toward puppy, put the cat in another room, letting it know that this behavior is not acceptable.

Do not feed at same time and don't leave cat food where puppy can get it. I actually feed my cats outside on the deck, on my patio table. Or on my kitchen counter.

Now all of the above is worst case. It is possible that your kitty will immediately take to the little guy and mother him. You will get a feel for that the first day when puppy is in crate. Is kitty hissing or is kitty reaching paws into crate to try to "cuddle" or play with puppy.

But if kitty is very hostile, and is a danger to puppy, always remove cat from the room. Let him know you will not allow this behavior. And always keep puppy in a situation where he feels safe. You may even need to keep puppy in crate while kitty is in room for several days.

Basically, you know what to look for and you will know when it is safe to let the two of them "touch" one another.

Of course a lot of things are unknown to me, like how affectionate your kitty is and how much time he spends with his humans. Weather or not kitty goes outside or is strictly an inside cat. And, of course, what kitty's basic temprament is.

One of my cats, who was one of the most affectionate of the lot, simply walked out the door the day the puppy came, and never came back. She was really done with dogs, I guess. She moved in with one of the neighbors, and is doing fine. Since she was a beautiful 6-toed cat, she wasn't at a loss for people who wanted her.

I hope that you find this helpful.

[goldcountryrose]

OOPS