Considering a yorkie,but have a Siamese cat in the house
 

Hello,

I am considering adopting a 12 month old yorkie. We are excited to welcome the yorkie into our family.

Around 2 years ago, we adopted a Siamese cat. The cat is now 10 years old. Her original owner had a hard time placing her in a home. One family had to return her because she would poop and pee all over the place. This family also had a dog. The original owner believes that her behavior was due to being placed in a new environment. Our cat has no experience with other pets with the exception of my daughter's turtle. She stares at the turtle and walks away.

We are concerned about our cat getting along with the yorkie. The yorkie we are adopting currently lives with two other cats. Would we create an unhealthy and uncomfortable environment for both? My plan is to separate them as much as possible and slowly introduce the to each other. Our cat is a pretty big cat and loves being the center of attention. We often have to step over her as she would not move out of our walking path. Help!!! We need to make a decision fairly soon.

Welcome to Yorkie Talk.

It's hard to say what could happen. If you are planning on seperating and introducing slowly then I say that's a good idea. Is the cat de-clawed? I cannot tell you whether you should or shouldn't adopt this little one. I would hate for you to do that and then a major problem arises then you would be in the position to rehome the yorkie.

From experience my mother has a cat who has not been around dogs. She babysat my Elsa when I went out of town one time and though they did not like each other they made distance between themselves. When Elsa left the cat was kind of distant and a little pissed at my mother.

I wish you the best and keep us posted.

Well it could go well or not shes an older cat. I have a older cat that didnt like my yorkies at first but later accepted them so it can work but sometimes takes time. The older cat would hiss and growl at them everytime they were near her for a good 2 months before she accepted them.

Speaking of a person with 15 cats and 5 puppies one of them being a yorkie I think it could work if you give it time. We had the cats awhile before getting the dogs and I agree it was an adjustment on both sides. Do you have a home where the cat can get away from the dog and have a private place for itself. We also have a Siamese cat that came with the house when we bought it. The cat is about 7 years old but she spends her time in the closet down in the basement. Some cats stay downstairs because of the dogs (btw) it's a finished basement with air conditioning in the summer and heat in the winter. The cats that come upstairs get along fine with the dogs and when they get disguested they go downstairs. We never seperated the dogs and cats. We show the cats and the dogs equal love and attention and it seems to work. That's why I asked if you have a big enough place for everybody.

When I got my yorkie, my cat was 10 yrs old and while they are not the best of friends, they are able to co-exist peacefully together. It did take some time to get a adjusted but for the most part they tolerate each other.

I will say this, Brandi my yorkie is very possessive. The only time they do get into a fight is when they both want my attention at the same time. Zoey the cat is capable of sharing me with Brandi, however Brandi is not. She gets very possesive and jealous if I show the cat too much attention or if the cat wants to lay on my lap. You'll just have to make sure to try and correct that behavior should it arise. Other than that, they just sort of exist in the same space without any fighting at all.

Your yorkie is still a puppy so just make sure the kitty has a place to escape that's all her own when she's not in the mood to deal with the playfulness of a puppy.

One other thing, make sure you place the kitty's food dish somewhere up high. My cat for the first 3 days almost starved before I realized Brandi was eating her food too.lol

I think you have a lot of things going in your favor. The Yorkie is older. At 12 months, still very playful, but not as much so as an unrelenting younger pup. The Yorkie is also used to being around cats which is good. As long as the cat can get up and away from the dog, and the dog is not get between the cat and it's litterbox/food, I think you'll be fine. Cats are generally social and inquisitive creatures. There will obviously be an adjustment time for all, but I think it can work.

I have a 10 yr old Sim. cat and 2 Yorkies...... they are all great buddies. Before we got out youngest (5 mos old) the cat and our other Yorkie were always playing with each other.........

AHAHAHA that is hilarious!

Thanks everyone for your quick responses. I really am torn on making this decision. My cat's previous owner does not think that she will do well in this situation ;(

My co-workers are trying to talk me out of it because they believe that my home will become a war zone. I REALLY would like to adopt this dog however, perhaps the timing is not right.

So confused!!!!

My cat Zoey was an "only child" before I got my yorkie and I thought she was gonna have some issues too but she really didn't. When I brought Brandi home, she basically just walked up to her and sniffed her and that was it. If Brandi got on her nerves, Zoey would just give her a few "love" taps (claws in) and Brandi would leave her alone.

Personally I think it would be okay unless your cat has some behavioral or health issues. Turns out it wasn't as big of a deal as I thought it was going to be. I was so worried about how Zoey was going to act but she hardly pays my yorkie any attention and both of them are very happy.

15 cats and 5 dogs?

Now that is a lot of furbabies...how do you do it?:eek:

Now back on topic (:D)...I had my three Yorkie:aimeeyorkGirls before I adopted a Persian Cat, Miss Tallulah and what I did was gave her a gated bathroom in the hallway to "observe" the little Girls to get used to them especially, since she had come from a home of 150+ cats....she had no clue what Yorkies were! She observed, the Girls observed and then about a week later, I removed one of the gates for her to explore and the rest is history...everyone tolerates eachother.

My one concern for the OP is to make sure that you do not rush into getting this Yorkie especially if it is not old enough to leave its Momma & littermates. The recommended age is 10 weeks minimum and 14 weeks ideal.

Thanks! the yorkie we are adopting is 12 months old.

Thanks everyone. The dog we are adopting is 12 months old.

Well I have three dogs and one cat. Karma the cat was here first, my two blackies, do not chase the cat at all and they co-exist peacefully. Razz our Yorkie terrorizes our Maine Coone. He continually jumps on him, tries to play with him, and so far, despite repetitive corrections he still does. Karma is however a very gentle cat, and will untangle, or swat Razz and then go to his tower, to get out of Razz's way.

Make sure you keep the litter box up out of the Yorkies way, for some reason cat poo, seems especially tasty.

I agree with another poster, you have some good things going, the yorkie is one year old and lives with two cats already, so he is used to cats. How long have you had your Siamese? And do you have a tower he can climb to get out of doggie paws?

Thanks for the advice. I will make sure that we keep the litter box out of the yorkies way. Question: Wouldn't this make the cat confused as to the location of her food and litter box?

We have had our Siamese for 2 years now. We do have a tower that she can climb on as well as use it for a scratching post.

We are meeting the owner of the yorkie this evening and will bring her to our home. I am praying that things work out well. Thanks again.

To keep the doggies out of Tallulah's litter igloo box, I put it in my master bathroom with a sliding doggie gate up. Keeps the doggies away from nibbling on the wheat litter (yes, they will eat it if they could:rolleyes:) and she can zoom over that gate in seconds flat!

I keep her food & water in that room also so, my doggies don't eat her food, too! They're naughty that way...:aimeeyork

Almost scammed!
 

Words cannot express the amount of thanks that I have for the members and information on this site.

Yesterday, we made the decision to adopt a 12 month female yorkie while dealing with interaction concerns regarding our cat to a new pet in the house. The owner of the yorkie had placed an ad and said that she was releasing the dog up for adoption. I spoke with the owner numerous times asking her questions about the dog such as its medical history, temperament, daily routine, etc. She told me that the yorkie was up to date on all shots, microchipped, and housebroken. She provided a photo of the dog, but it was only a headshot. I realized that we needed to meet the owner and dog in person.

The owner lives about 100 miles away so we agreed to meet at a petstore that she said would lessen some of the travel time. The reason she was putting the dog up for adoption was due to a move to California with her kids (husband not included). They were moving in with a family that already had a number of pets and it was going to be a small apartment. She had also mentioned that they had lost their home and she was a former veterinary technician.

After the very long drive through rain and traffic we finally met around 8:45pm. I looked at the dog and something did not feel right. The dog was wrapped in a pink blanket and did not look like the dog in the photo. Although the dog was cute, the looks were just a little off for being a yorkie. The coat of this dog was nothing like a yorkie. The hair of this dog was chopped up terribly with scissors. This was clearly a scissors cut. She said that the previous owner of the dog had shaved the dogs coat really low and it was just growing back in. I am smart enough to know that even if you shaved a dog, the coat would not come back in the lengths in which they were layered. This was clearly a fresh scissor cut to further confused the breed of the dog.

Along with the owner were her two kids AND her Husband?? We found it strange that there were no emotions showed by either family member towards this dog. We talked and walked around the store discussing the items that we would need for the dog: crate, type of food, etc. Very odd that she was putting this dog up for adoption without any of the dogs personal items. She finally put the dog down and this dog was VERY TALL for a yorkie. This dog would not fit into any carry on carrier or portable purse carrier. I asked her for the vet records and guess what she said, "I left them at home, however I can mail them to you." This is when the encounter ended. I told her no that would not do. Then one of the cashiers at Petsmart said "this a cute dog, what kind of dog is it?" Really, a petstore employee did not even know what kind of dog she was trying to sale. She said it was a yorkie, just a tall one. Then she suggested that we follow her to their house. NO WAY - I was putting myself or my family in danger. That's when she said, we are only 7 minutes away from my house if we take the freeway. I grew extremely angry at this point - she only shaved 7 minutes off of her time and I drove over 90 miles:mad: to see a MUTT and had to drive over 90 miles to get back home! Just as we were driving off, the owner walked up to my window and said, "I found the records, my son had them in the back seat". Now, I have own dogs before and I know what vet records look like. The entire top part of the sheets were cut off without any indications for what type of animal the shots were for. There was only a listing of the type of shots received. She said that I could call the vet if I had any questions. Right- I was going to call a vet's office after they close to dig up records. I told her no and that I would call her tomorrow to discuss. She said that she had 4 other people interested which did not matter to me. We were done and wanted to end this without any altercations.

I have been carefully researching yorkies which led me to this site. I am so thankful for the information you have shared. The sad part of this is that my 0 year old daughter REALLY wanted a yorkie. She took money out of your savings to buy the dog toys and a special welcome gift. We were devastated and also relieved that we had done our research on yorkies and listened to our instincts and left that dog with its' owner. In thinking about the features of the dog that she was trying to sale it looked like a cross between a West Highland Terrier or Carin Terrier and something else. The dog we looked at last night was clearly not a yorkie and was probably a lot older than 12 months, along with several unknown health or behavior issues.

So long story short, we do not have a yorkie and this experience has left us very uneasy about purchasing dogs that do not come from a breeder. We were truly trying to give this dog a good home. We are a family that gives tremendously to those in need. If this family would have been honest, we would have happily given them some money to help their situation rather than trying to scam families and break the hearts of little girls. For now, we are going to enjoy our cat until the right Yorkie comes along and to continue to do our research on reputable breeders in the area. My daughter is heartbroken but this was a tough lesson in learning that the world can be a cruel place and there are some people who will do dishonest things for money.