When I was in college in Illinois one of my friends lived in a house with five cats and one ferret. He said that the cats couldn’t quite figure it out and came to some sort of group decision that while it wasn’t eatable it wasn’t another cat either and they kind of left it alone.
A quick Googling of “cat and ferret” turns up plenty of pages like this:
It makes sense for both animals. Cats run from dogs because it makes sense to run from predators that are bigger and stronger than you, and dogs chase cats because something small that’s running is probably prey, and therefore killable and edible.
I haven’t ever had cats living with us, but with the various cats my ferrets have met, the reaction has been more like a cat meeting a dog. The cats go “wtf is that?!” The ferrets go, “Whee, a playmate! Let’s play chase!” and do so. The cats run in terror, maybe stop to smack the ferret in the head with full claws out, ferret rolls, pops up (thick skin), and keeps going, and the cats run more. Then the ferrets try to chew on the cats like ferrets will do to their littermates, and the cats don’t like being bitten.
That’s just for short meetings, though. I assume most cats and ferrets would work out some sort of at least non-lethal arrangement, if not entirely sunshine-filled. I’m sure it depends on cat and ferret individual personality too.
Remember, ferrets may be small but they’re not rodents. They’re carnivores with sharp pointy teeth.
I have had dogs and cats all my life, they don’t hate each other. I have been in the backyard when it’s dark and the dog will look see a cat and start barking and run only to stop dead in his tracks as soon as he realizes the cat belongs to him.
If you think about it the dog will chase and bark at another dog. As soon as the dog gets to accept the cat or whatever into his world he stops annoying it. Sometimes it takes a good claw from the cat before the dog stops bullying him, and while there are always viscious dogs, eventually the cat and dog form a mutal understanding and leave each other be
I have three very spoiled cats who ruled the roost until we got the two dogs. We keep the dogs confined to the living room/dining room/kitchen section during the day (mostly to keep them from eating our shoes and my bras and the sheets - they’re still very much puppies at seven months and one and a half). The cats mostly segregate themselves in the bedrooms/bathrooms/(finished) basement during that time. They’re capable of fighting the dogs off if they really want to, but seldom bother because they know that they’ll get barked at either way. Max sometimes comes out to sit on top of the lizard tank (which is too high for the dogs to reach the top) and watch the birds through the french doors.
We take down the gate at night, and both groups go all over the place. (Except for the basement - for some reason, the dogs won’t go down the stairs. shrug) The cats kind of linger out of reach when possible, but otherwise they pretty much ignore each other now that the dogs are too tired to bother with trying to play with them. I’ve woken many a time at night to find both dogs sacked out on the bed and the three cats asleep on top of various pieces of bedroom furniture.
The poor lizard hardly ever gets to roam around outside of his cage anymore though. We used to lock the cats in the basement when he was out, because they most definitely think that he’s prey. It’s just that much harder to also lock the dogs away at the same time.
Dogs are merely trying to frighten the cats into releasing the tasty, tasty doggie snacks that cats have concealed within their butts.