Expert: Dear Tabbi - 5/30/2008

Question
I don't know if you can help me but I don't know what to do. We have a 13 year old dog that my mom loves, a 7 month old kitten named Shadiah, and a year old cat named Basket who gave birth to 4 kittens 6 weeks ago. Normally Shadiah wants to play rough with basket because she's still a kitten and they rough house a lot. Our dog loves the cats and they get along well. When ever the cats play she sometimes gets upset and barks, but other than that they get along great. For the past 2 or three days, basket has been attacking the dog. When ever she walks into the room, she makes a beeline for her and starts fighting. No warning growls, she just pounces. This morning the dog was sleeping on the couch and basket jumped on her back and starting ripping up her face. Sugar, the dog, has several scratches that were bleeding. I don't know what to do. It's like basket just realized that sugar is a dog or something. Can you think of anything I can do? I'm not even sure how to dicipline basket. I've been shutting her up in the bathroom for 5 minutes after she does it, partially as punishment and partially just to separate her from sugar. I have no idea why she suddenly attacks the dog. If you have any suggestions to help I would greatly appreciate it.

Answer
Emily,

That IS odd behavior!

This sounds weird and morbid, but is the dog in good health? It's been proven that a cat can sense ill health and pending death (even in humans!) and they get upset by it. I sure hope not, but I wanted to inform you of the phenomenon.

Has the dog been to the vet or anywhere where he could have picked up strange smells on his fur? Cats go by smell and not by sight and if the dog smells 'different' the cat may think she is a different dog. Give the dog a bath, rub a towel all over the cat, then rub the dog with it (don't do it vise-versa though). That way you are putting familiar smells back on the dog.

Getting the cat spayed can help with emotional and behavioral problems.

You may want to take the cat to the vet for a checkup. Anytime you have sudden aggression in a cat it may be because of a medical issue or because the cat is in pain.

Tabbi