I used to have a cat named Bailey and a dog named Jasmine that leaved each other alone. To this mix we added Mickey, another dog. Mickey, being a puppy decided to play with Bailey. Bailey loved it. They would chase each other up and down the stairs all day.
Bailey ran away
We got a new cat, Brat. Being used to cats, Mickey would chase Brat and lo and behold, Brat loved it. Now these two chase each other and wrestle all the time. Sometimes Brat will walk up to Mickey and smack him then run away. Mickey sometimes won’t play, so she’ll do it again and again until he gets up or she gets bored.
We have an Australian Shepherd cross who weighs over 70 lbs. He always liked the cats, but none of them would really play with him until we got our latest kitten (now grown). So now we have a rather large dog trying desperately to roughhouse with an 11-lb cat. They have loads of fun (including the running up and down stairs you mentioned) until one of their humans gets annoyed and puts the dog outside.
Now and then, he tries to play with one of the older cats. They don’t take kindly to the effort.
My cat and dog are about the same size. I would think that they might get along but since they weren’t raised together they never quite got the hang of playing together. The dog loves to harass the cat though, by slobbering all over her and sitting on her and things like that.
Dolly and Eponine wrestle, and it’s terribly cute. Eppy lays on her back, swatting and hissing and making all these horrible noises like she’s being killed while Dolly paws and roots her, spins her around in circles, gnaws on her head, etc. Then Dolly stops to scratch or otherwise gets distracted, and Eponine lays there batting until she starts playing again. Claudia’s not so into playing with the kitty, since Eponine used to slap her around quite a lot, and the MooCat doesn’t play well with others at all.
But playing together’s nothing, really. When I was a kid we had a dog and cat that hunted together. The cat would lead the dog around, then one of them would stop and listen for a second. The dog would dig up a mouse or similar, and the cat would kill it. Then one of them would eat it, and the other one got the next kill. Killing aside, they were a cute pair–they were both black and white, and had perfectly matching markings.
We have 2 dogs, Bobby Ranger and Gideon Louis (males, about 25 lbs each), and three cats, Goldelle Goblin (big male), Skunk Marilyn (tiny female) and Cleo Rose (huge female).
The dogs and Goldelle Goblin are buds. They like to hang out on the bed together and watch TV with me. Bobby Ranger will lick Goldie’s head and will try to make him rub his belly although he never does. Last night the two dogs and Goldie were outside my son’s bedroom door waiting to bark at the guinea pig. Someone needs to tell Goldie he doesn’t bark and he’s not a dog. Skunk Marilyn is afraid of the dogs and avoids them. Cleo Rose is afraid of nothing, but the dogs don’t like her and bark at her and corner her.
My folks used to have an Irish Setter and a Siamese cat. (It was kind of like Pinky and the Brain.) They would occasionally play head games with each other for posession of the beat-up chair in the cornet (the cat usually won).
I don’t know if it’s playing as such - but when my cat Mischief was a kitten, she used to grab on to our Pomeranian Snuffles’ fur , and Snuffles would start walking and drag the cat along the floor. Very funny! Sadly, both Snuffles & Mischief are gone now.
We have two siamese attack kittens and one very surly rhodesian ridgeback…Oh the kittens are not kittens anymore, but the names sounds good and it fits their demeanor.
Anyway, we waited to get the dog as a puppy so he was the same size as the cats…not being declawed they quickly showed the young buck who was boss, or who his royalty were. However, one thing the siamese kitties didn’t expect was the puppy to grow to a whopping 90 pounds. They quickly realized they were going to have a challenge. lo and behold they all get along, but it was work when they were establishing their hierarchy.
We have a 70 pound Golden Retriever and a 6 pound cat. They are both female and the cat ADORES that dog. The dog pretty much likes the cat because of what she will allow the cat to do.
If the cat is in the dog’s bed, the dog sleeps on the cold floor. The cat will rear up on her hind legs and headbutt the dog on the chin. The dog just stands there allowing the cat to rub all over her.
If the dog starts to get playful, the cat runs under something. I mean seriously, 75 pounds of hyper dog is a lot for a tiny 6 pound cat to handle. I don’t blame the cat for seeking a body block from the dog.
One of our cats and our dog play. It’s nice, because we can distract the kitten from trying to play with the other cat (who wants nothing to do with him) and sic the dog on him.
The dog runs up to the kitten and pushes him with her nose, paws at him softly on the back and barks. The kitten runs up to the dog on his back legs and smacks the sides of her face (claws in) to get her to chase him.
When we first got the kitten, he weighed 5 pounds. The dog weighs 60 pounds. They’re extremely cute.
We had a cat and dog. The dog had been around for awhile when we got the cat. The cat would “nurse” on one of the dogs’ front toes. It did this to the point that there was no hair on that toe. The dog finally got sick of it and “weaned” her off of it.
In addition, the cat seemed to think it was a dog. It didn’t meow like other cats. It did a sort of cat-bark. A short, sharp sound that you’d imagine hearing from a cat when you gave it the Heimlich maneuver.
Both of these things came from getting the cat at too young an age.
We have two cats, Phoebe and Midnight, and a dog, Auggie. Phoebe is almost 20 years old and a little grumpy, to say the least. Midnight is about 12, and still pretty playful. Auggie is only 2 years old, and tries really hard to play with both of them. He brings his toys to them. They say, “Ew, it’s got dog spit on it!” and turn up their little kitty noses. He follows them around, and I think he tries to herd them sometimes (he’s a Jack Russell / Aussie mix, according to the vet). Sometimes they all sleep on the couch together, which is cute as the dickens.
So, the short answer is, the dog tries to play with the cats, but the cats think the dog is a drooling barbarian.
We got Bailey the black lab puppy and Roscoe the weird orange kitten only days apart. They were inseparable. Bailey is now much larger and plays way too rough for Roscoe. They still sleep together. Our 3 other cats avoid the dog and she keeps her distance after having Leo the wussy cat scratch her nose.
My dog really really really wants to play with the cats, and just doesn’t understand that when they bat at her face, they’re not playing! We were hoping that the dog would learn some respect for the twelve-pound balls of fury, but she just doesn’t get it.
My friend’s dog selected their cat for them. (Came into the pet store and went straight to the one he wanted). The cat used to be about the size of my fist, but is now much bigger.
While kitty was still small, I came over one day and told the happy, prancing dog to bring me a toy! He ran off and came back with the kitty in his mouth.
The dog has raised the cat, and the cat acts more like a dog than a feline.
Once upon a time in DeHouse, there lived 3 declawed cats. (Don’t start - that’s how the Pound Fairy brought them.) Then one day, when DeVena was still on massive pain medication, someone brought her a puppy they had found in the middle of the interstate. Puppy, immediately named Tippy, snuggled and had to be part of the family. The cats did not appreciate Tippy. Tippy was some weird sort of slobbery critter that had to be popped on the nose to stay away. Popped on the nose by very soft, declawed kitty feet. As the days went by, Tippy grew. And Grew. And the cats were not happy. So the 75 lb dog started to live outside with occasional forays into DeHouse to play with the kitties. Tippy thinks they are strange, stunted puppies that need to be cleaned. So she will very gently hold the cat down with her big paw and proceed to lick them all over. The offended cat just lies there and tolerates it until Tippy moves on to the next cat. Then the slick cat will sit still, with every hair sticking out all over it’s body, and very clearly think, “Ugh. Dog slobber.”
Before my cat died, she thought the dog was the devil incarnate. I got the dog as a puppy when the cat was advancing in years. That was probably the wrong way to do it.
The puppy did try to play with the cat. Like other posters’ dogs, mine never realized that the hissing, hair-puffed, spitting kitty wasn’t playing. She’d swipe at the dog with the intent to maim. The dog was too quick for her though. I don’t think the cat ever connected with the dog’s nose, much to the cat’s chagrin. She’d also lie in wait for the dog. She’d sit on top of the counter or other perch then dive onto the dog as she walked by, claws splayed. She’d land on the dog and try to scratch her and bite her neck. Lucky for the dog, she had enough thick fur (she’s a sheltie), that the cat couldn’t get close to the dog’s skin.
I did manage to teach the dog to avoid the cat, which cut down on the kitty’s attempts at dog murder. But they never did become friends. Even with all that, when the cat died, my dog moped for days. I still don’t know why she missed the cat that was always trying to kill her. I ended up getting another puppy and the two dogs play incessantly.
