Community Corner

How Do You Introduce Your Cat to a New Dog?

For more than seven years, my wife and I have enjoyed the companionship of our cat, Tux. He’s become like one of the family during that time—and we’ve become crazy cat people. We even took Tux to the Mall of America to get his photo taken with Santa.

But last weekend, we decided it was time to grow our family and adopted a 1-year-old boxer mix we’ve christened Raspberry (as in, Hopkins raspberries). We let the in-laws spoil Tux for a few days while Raspberry got acclimated to her new home.

On Thursday, we brought Tux home, hoping for the best. Raspberry was a little overly friendly but otherwise did fine.

Tux did not.

He hissed. He puffed his tail. He slunk past the kennel we kept Raspberry in. And then he ran into the basement to hide.

I’m hoping there are some local pet whisperers out there who can help my wife and I. How did you introduce a new pet to one that was already part of your family? How do you keep your dog and cat from going at it like, well, dogs and cats? Share your advice in the comments section below.

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