Wife and I are living with our 14 year-old mostly Lab mix who has become pretty set in her ways - not mean but more of a “get off my lawn” sort of dog. Our son adopted a kitten while away at college and will be spending a few weeks away this summer. He tried to get someone to take care of the cat but it now looks like we’ll have the 10 month-old for this period.
He’s brought the kitten over a few times and we tried short periods of interaction. I was hoping for one of those “dog befriends cute kitten” photos but not so much. No danger of physical harm to either but not the sort of interaction I’d like to leave unsupervised.
The cat is strictly indoors and we have owls and other creatures in the area that would prevent us from letting it outside.
I’d hate to keep the cat confined to a room but don’t have ideas on how to allow the two to share space. My first thought is to give the cat access to the house and supervise interaction with the assumption that the cat would find appropriate places to hang out and the dog would get tired of being on alert constantly.
Has anyone been successful getting older dogs to accept the cat house guest? Any suggestions are welcomed!