Dog and cats, living together - mass hysteria!

My poor dog. When her littermate died last month, she thought she was going to finally be the sole object of my family's love and affection. She could relax and enjoy her golden years. Then we got Smoky.

Smoky is a little gray kitten. He's three months old. We plan to keep him as an indoor/outdoor pet. The indoor part is the problem.

At first, Zelda (our dog) was just curious. She tried to sniff him. I'm sure she recognized him as a cat, and the sniff was more "I've gotta smell this thing 'cause I know my masters wouldn't bring a cat into my house!" But she's old, and she never tried to chase him or even bark at him. And Smoky tolerated her once-over with barely concealed terror. He even walked around her and sniffed at her a few times. All was going well.

But something has changed. Now, whenever Smoky sees Zelda, he freezes. His ears go back. His tail bends into some sort of weird crooked shape. His fur puffs up in that "must make myself look big" way. His cute little kitty mouth opens and a cute little kitty hiss comes out. And if Zelda gets too close, he spits, which makes a sound so loud that last night hubby said, "I think the cat just exploded."

And Zelda will not be deterred. She is just as determined to get close to that cat as she was the first day. Only now, she doesn't want to smell him - she wants to taste him. She has nipped at him several times, though she never actually bites down. It's sort of a "Look kid, I'm 10 times your size. Quit the macho act," kind of a nip.

So when the kids want Smoky to sleep in their room at night, we have to shut their door to keep the cat in and the dog out. Which is a whole other set of problems. "Mommy, we want the door open!" To which I reply, "Do you want Zelda to eat the cat while you're sleeping?"

I guess we just have to keep working at it until both animals accept that the other one isn't going anywhere. Or until Smoky gets so worked up that he actually does explode.