HELP! Cat attacked our yorkie
 

We have had a horrible weekend. Our adult cat (age 4) attacked our 4 month old yorkie this weekend and tried to kill him. We had to take, Joey (yorkie) to the ER vet. we didn't not see this: Our cat, death gripped him around his neck until he passed out... He has 4 puncture wounds on his throat and top of neck. He is better today, THANK GOD! We have an adult collie and our cat has been around dogs his whole life and had been an amazing cat. We are completely perplexed... We isolated the cat since the incident and when I let him out, with in 30 minutes hunted down our yorkie again... We watched him hide, tail twitch and he tried to pounce again. We can't trust our cat now near our yorkie.....EVER.

Have any of you heard of a cat doing this? Does he think our little 4 pound yorkie is a bunny or some kind of prey?? Feeling horrible that we can't all live happy together :(

Love,
our once happy cat, collie, yorkie family........ :(

Good bye cat!!!! Was the puppy unattended and alone with the cat? I do not trust other pets of ANY kind with a new puppy, especially one that is smaller than they are. Animals are very territorial and possive....sweet little fluffy that has never attacked anyone or anything in her intire life, can easily become a killer if some interloper intrudes what Fluffy considers HERS....HER house, HER bed, HER food, HER family, HER yard....cats instinctively strangle their pray until it collapses, then they DISEMBOWEL the pray with their back feet.

Do not ever trust that cat around your Yorkie again....you will find your Yorkie dead.....or blinded, as they also go for the eyes....I am glad your Yorkie survived this vicious attack.....hopefully there will not be any spinal issues as far as infections go, from the cat bite to the top of his neck.

What a horrible story. Poor little baby probably had no idea what hit him. Please protect him. They cannot ever be together again.

Oh how sad and awful! What a terrible start to your Yorkie ownership :( I see this is your first post too- I welcome you to Yorkie talk but am so sorry your visit started here. All things said about cats, territory and prey are so very true. I think you need to rehome your Yorkie or your cat. It sounds like your cat is a long term family member and perhaps a Yorkie doesn't fit in with your household? I know that is a painful thought but there are many excellent rescues if that is the case or perhaps the breeder would be willing to work with you also. I hope your little guy is healing well and if it's the cat that goes I will look forward to seeing pics of your little buddy- yorkies really are amazing and special dogs. :yorkiesar

Need to decide. You can't keep both. Yorkies are more like prey to larger animals. Its a whole different dog world vs having a Collie or larger dog.

Has your cat been checked out by the vet lately?

OMGosh that poor baby! It would be a hard decision to make - your cat or your yorkie but it is one that really needs made. I am so sorry.

This is so sad. I feel really sorry and scared for the Yorkie, and it sounds like the two should never be alone together. Hard choice.

Hi. Sorry for the situation you are in. It's not a good one. My first yorkie, Max was attacked by my boyfriend's cat. The cat was an outdoor cat. I saw his tail twitching and went to protect Max. My boyfriend said, ah let them be, they will be fine. :/ The cat went for the jugular death kill. Max had a punctured artery with blood everywhere. I applied pressure and we raced to the hospital. Max lived and did fine thank god after that but I never let him be around a strange cat again. I think this cat was a hunter and just didn't equate dog, to Max.


Today, we have three yorkies and two cats. The cats have been indoor cats for the most part and are not hunters. They have all been introduced as kittens or puppies. The dogs and cats all play together. The dogs occasionally chase the cats and they tolerate it. We haven't had any incidents, they sleep together sometimes and kiss each other. I feel confident with the safety of all.... so it just depends.


My one thought to you is that now that your cat has shown aggression/hunting instinct with regard to the pup, you may not be able to do anything outside of keeping them apart at all times.

My cat is the most loving, docile cat ever. When I got Teddy, this did not change but my cat did start to hunt Teddy and what starts out as play quickly gets very serious. Yes, I think cats are hunters and little dogs walk with targets on their backs. The fact that Teddy defers to my cat makes it worse. My cat is now a bully and, therefore, they are NEVER left alone together. All play is supervised and if one becomes too excited or agitated, they are split up and that is the end of it..


I'm not sure getting rid of the cat is the answer. It was, after all, there first..


Only you can decide about that..


However, DEFINITELY DO NOT allow these two to be together unsupervised EVER. As you have just unfortunately learned, leaving them in this type of situation can result in the death of your puppy.

So sorry i know this is very hard and scary. When my twodogs started fighting. I thought i would have to get rid of one. So hard when you love both. Gonna be a lot more work for you to keep them. But as you have seen kitty is out to get the newcommer.

I agree that you can never trust the cat with your puppy. Unfortunately, now that she sees him as prey, she will just be waiting for her chance to catch him. I hope he recovers well. Cat bites can get horribly infected not to mention the damage they already did. If you choose to keep the cat and the puppy, you need a way to insure they are never alone.

OMG how tragic, that poor little puppy. Thank GOD the cat didn't harm the babies eyes. Just absolutely horrific. Terrifying for you as well as lil pup. Please keep us up dated on Joey's recovery. Keeping little boy in my prayers for a full recovery.(((HUGS)))

I am so sorry you have gone through this. Can you tell me a bit about your kitty. How did he come to your home was his or her mom a feral cat or a house cat? I have breed and showed cats in the past.

Do you let you cat out and is it a hunter in the great outdoors?

What I'm thinking is your cat must have alot of feral still in it and thats not going to change. You will have to rehome one or the other. If you choose to keep the cat you will never be able to bring in another puppy maybe a large dog.

Don't feel guilty choose the one you want the most its ok.

Cats do rehome quite well , if it is a hunter maybe a farm were it can hunt mice and make the farmer very happy.

I would find it hard to see the cat in any other way but a hunter even though it is nature.

I hope this helps a bit lots of hugs to you.

I have fostered various animals for years while always having at least one small dog. When Gracie was still a very small pup I was fostering a litter of kittens that had a feral mother. Gracie loved playing with those kittens as she had the previous litter that had since been found homes but the feral mother did not take kindly to Gracie's attentions to her babies. One day when I had allowed the kittens out for some free time the mother went after Gracie for real. Gracie ran under the rocking chair to hide but the mother cat went in after her. Fortunately I was right there and shooed the mother cat out of there and grabbed Gracie. She was unharmed but after that she was never allowed in the room with the mother cat present.

It sounds like your cat is accustomed to hunting and sees the small pup as prey. Many terrier pups are so bouncy and full of energy that they scare cats off but maybe your pup is more reserved? I would defiantly keep the pup separated from your cat until he/she is bigger.

I still have cats and we have never had any other issues. Gracie actually likes to sleep with them when it is a bit chilly around her in the winter. (the floors get cold) She is such a heat seeker! Because Gracie is so much smaller than a full grown cat and any other dog around here I am really careful about which fosters I let her mix with. My own cats are very used to her.

THANK you
 

Thank you for all the messages. Yes we are new to yorkies but it took us about 1 hour to fall for him. Our family, which includes myself, my husband and three kids, ages 11, 9 & 7 LOVE him to pieces. Our collie, LOVES Joey too. They because fast BFF's. :)

Joey, had been left gated in our kitchen while we were gone at my sons basketball tournament. He is usually kenneled but I knew this would be longer than he could hold it and I wanted him to have his potty pad.

We came home and found him upstairs (he had escaped from the kitchen, which he has never done). My daughter carried him down stairs. I hadn't noticed the blood right away on his neck but he was really out of it and whimpering. When I noticed the blood on his neck and the puncture wounds, I knew the cat had gotten him. The ER vet said that Joey must have passed out and the cat let go.... It was horrible. I felt like I failed Joey. Can't even imagine how scary that was for him. He is such a lover.

The cat has not been near Joey since. Yes, the cat has been part of our family longer but he has crossed the line. Jasper, our cat, will be going to a new home tomorrow (one with out small dogs). Our family is so sad, my kids are devastated as we all LOVE our cat. But we will not have a cat in the house that puts our yorkie at danger.

I sincerely appreciate all your posts. I am new to yorkietalk and it feels so good to have gotten so many honest responses so quickly. THANK YOU.

I hope my next posts are not so dramatic. This picture is of our three year old collie, Finley and her new BFF, Joey (4 months old)

Forgot to update on Joey's condition. His puncture wounds are healing well, he is antibiotics for infection purposes. He is acting normal today for the first time and yesterday he finally made his little noises again. The follow up appt. yesterday went great, vet sees no reason he won't make a full recovery.

for people asking about our cat- He has never been outside, always been an indoor cat......

You just never know with cats and dogs. I had two cats when I got Gina. My hunting cat never paid any attention to her but my playful boy cat wanted to play with Gina all the time. One day out in the yard the boy cat grabbed Gina with all fours and started doing the two back legged dig to her tummy. I yelled at him and swatted his behind and he let go. No harm was done but I never trusted him with her again. Luckily, that was the only bad experience I had. I agree with others here - one of them needs to be rehomed. So sad.

I, for one, disagree that one pet needs to be rehomed. There are cat trainers out there who can teach you to train your cat so that attention is not on the dog. I think people underestimate the ability of a cat to learn correct behavior. If you can't be bothered with cat training, can't afford it or genuinely are not interested in training the cat, then re-home it. However, cats are affectionate and love humans just as much as dogs do. Therefore, it seems a shame just to give up on a beloved pet out of desperation when there are potentially different options.

Glad to learn that Joey is ok, though. That must have been a very stressful experience.

I disagree. When a cat see prey you can't retrain that. Behavior problems yes. But not instinct.

I agree I couldn't just give up my cat that easily. I would look into finding a trainer. But I'm glad you found a home for your cat and the puppy is doing better.

That is a beautiful picture of Finley and Joey, Mutt & Jeff lol, so very cute together.

Just to be clear, not trying to sound bitchy either, but we are not "just giving up our cat that easily..." This has been a horrible 4 days and I am sickened by the events that have taken place. Sickened that I need to make a decision between two pets who I love completely and so so saddened by our decision. I LOVE our cat. My kids LOVE our cat. We have cried for 4 days..... and our hearts are broken. It is one thing to try to train a cat and if it we have slips, no big deal. If our cat "slips" our 4 pound helpless yorkie will be killed. No one saw what we did and saw the poor shape that Joey was in.... I completely understand everyone has an opinion and I truly appreciate each one. I just want everyone to be clear that this has been a horrible incident and a horrible decision to have to make. I hope none of you are faced with that.

Thanks for the support and your advice & opinions. I really appreciate all of it. I hope my next post is much less intense. Like maybe some grooming questions. . . I have ordered several brushes and combs already . . . :) Thanks again.

I'm sorry you are faced with such a heartbreaking decisions. I honestly don't know enough about cat behavior to comment whether they can safely stay together in the same home. I understand your need to protect Joey, though. I hope Jasper finds happiness in his new home. Finley and Joey are both beautiful, and they look so cute together. All of my Yorkies through the years quickly stole my heart. I had two collies as a teenager, and they are also very special dogs.

I am so happy to hear that Joey is doing well - but I am very sorry you needed to re-home your cat. I owned a Maine Coone through 4 sets of puppies over the years - one a Yorkie - but he was an indoor cat - and very kind and calm.


I never allowed either one to play a game of chase with each other - and puppies will always want to chase the cat...lol But I do agree cats are much more close to feral than dogs and for me I could never have allowed the cat n puppy together again.


I am so sorry such a hard decision you needed to make. I hope that your cat thrives in their new home!

I am sorry that you had to rehome your cat, but honestly, I think I would have made the same choice in this type of situation. You would never forgive yourself if there was another attack on Joey, and I don't know how you could ever trust the cat after this.

Joey is adorable, and I am so happy he is recovering. Good that you are looking out for him, even when it is difficult.

I think rehoming is the right thing to do. If it was a minor thing like a little scratch or scuffle that's one thing, but like you've said, another slip could mean the yorkie baby's death. I wouldn't dare risk it and at least you're doing the responsible thing and finding another good home for the kitty. That poor sweet baby I'm glad to hear he's doing better ; ;

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:
The bottom line is , worse case scenerio, cat sees a trainer, gets "trained", you are gone one day, pup gets loose again and prey drive in cat kicks in and you come home to find your Yorkie dead. I can appreciate people having love for a cat (not a condition I am afflicted with since I was attacked by a rabid cat when I was 2 years old!) but you have no reason to feel guilty about your decision. One of them has to go, or they must not ever be allowed to cross paths again. You love your cat, but you have to do what is best for both animals....you have found a wonderful home for the cat.....and your Yorkie will be safe. There are some life lessons we do not get a do over....the first encounter/event is a tragic one. You do not want to risk your Yorkie again....you are fortunate you didnt loose your Yorkie....dont tempt fate again now that you are fully aware of the issue at hand.....I think they call that little game "Russian Roulette".

Being a big animal lover I know the decision to re-home the cat had to be horrific, especially since you had kitty longer, and there are children's emotions involved. I have to agree with others, keep the kitty and
"what if"!!!! To big of a chance to take. You made the right decision, as I see it, the only decision for the safety of the puppy, and a happy contented life for kitty. (((HUGS)))

I'm sorry that I made you feel that way. I'm sure it was a very hard decision to make. I'm happy that you were able to find a new home for your cat and your puppy is making a recovery.