Expert: Tina - 5/10/2007

Question
Our Female cat has recently had kittes, they are now 9 weeks old, both kittes she had are staying at home.  There is also a Staffordshire dog in the house.  The dog and cat have always got on and evenn thought the cat was protective of the kittens there was never a problem between the xat ad the dog.  In the last 24 hours the cat and dog have both changed and the cat is attacking the dog and the dog is now worriyingly starting to retaileate, any suggestions on why this is or how it can be stopped?

Answer
Sian,

You must keep the dog separate from the cats at least until the kittens are grown. The mother cat is attaching to protect her kittens. In addition, I would never allow any dog to be around kittens unsupervised - they often kill them. When I was a child our family Irish setter (gentle dog) killed a kitten we had rescued, the kitten was staying in my brother's room and one day he left the door ajar, when we found the dog with the kitten dead in her mouth. Please do not let your dog near the kittens, and you can't let him near the mother cat until the kittens are old enough that she isn't as protective any more (maybe 6 months).