Theres actually a few things you can do to be able to see how your dog might react to a cat or kitten. Firstly there are some shelters that will allow you to bring your dog around a cat or kitten that you are interested in rescuing to see if they will get along or not. Others will allow you an overnight, to be able to bring the cat or kitten (or dog in other situations) back if anything is not right i.e. aggression towards other animals in the house, etc.
I have 3 cats, all of which are adults. 9+ in age. 2 from the same litter a boy and a girl tabby that are my moms, and then the third is actually mine is a grey and pink calico. She does not get along with the female tabby, but they live somewhat peacefully in the same house and have for the past 3 or 4 years.
Now about my little yorkie, well she is 7 years old I adopted her about 1 month ago now, and she had been around cats at her previous home but MY cats had NOT been around dogs (my calico was around dogs when I first adopted her for about a year but not since then and probably doesnt remember).
None of the cats care, they just sort of pass her by. They don't hiss at her or get mad, they just don't want to play with her. And my yorkie doesn't seem to mind them or really care to play with them either.
As far as litter boxes that's all on the owners part on how bad it smells. I don't have stinky boxes ever, but that's because we keep them clean and I'd hate to have someone walk into the house and smell cat junk. Honestly using the poo scoop to clean litter seems better than using bags to pick up fresh warm poo off the ground from my yorkie since litter is usually scented, but that's just me!
Anyway, it's all dependant on what you like or don't. There are bad stories everywhere but it is only one SMALL fraction of the experiences of the world with people having cats and dogs in the same house. I don't think I know one person in real life that has both cats and dogs (and that's a lot! almost everyone I know has both) and had bad experiences. If the dogs and cats don't play together they just leave each other alone. It's all situational and also I do believe some of it has to do with how you actually introduce the animals, too. |