Cats and dogs, living together, mass adorableness

August 18, 2016 9:07 PM

Side effects of growing up with Bull Mastiffs, this cat thinks she is one. She's cute, but she's no Rosie. As a kitten, she was save by the maternal Lilo the Husky (Facebook), a cat-loving Husky (YouTube) who lives in a household (Instagram) with other feral cats that are trapped, neutered and released (TNR) or raised and a couple more Huskies. Now a much larger cat, Rosie likes to walk and hike with the Huskies.
posted by filthy light thief (26 comments total)

aaaaaah that is the craziest thing
posted by Going To Maine at 9:11 PM on August 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

the bull mastiff cat I mean. Other cat is great too.
posted by Going To Maine at 9:12 PM on August 18, 2016 [2 favorites]

Oh no, this is adorable.
posted by figurant at 9:17 PM on August 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

This is very sweet. But I thought Lilo was going to eat one of those kittens.
posted by shoesietart at 9:54 PM on August 18, 2016

Also, I believe, the source of this adorable picture.

Trying to look up the original source, I came across the inverse phenomenon: a husky raised by cats.
posted by a car full of lions at 10:11 PM on August 18, 2016 [10 favorites]

Madness! What's next, cats being walked on a leash?
posted by sebastienbailard at 1:03 AM on August 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

When the wife stated that she was getting a Husky puppy, I was convinced it would eat one or all five of the resident cats. But, I reluctantly went along with the plan and we picked up 8 week old Lara on a saturday... Unlike the situation with Lilo and Rosie, we had the reverse, a Husky raised by five cats. 7 years later she continues to prove me wrong by not eating any of the cats. The day we brought her home.

Now (note, that's a 65 lb Husky, wanna guess how much Clyde Benjamin Franklin Kat weighs? Yeah, neither do I, and he's too big for the cat scale..)

Bottom line, although everyone says that cats and Huskies don't do well together, that's not always the case.
posted by HuronBob at 4:01 AM on August 19, 2016 [13 favorites]

My cat, Beatrix Kitters (photo) was originally raised with a dog and has some doggy mannerisms, like wagging her tail when she's happy. We are thinking of getting a second cat and are a little worried that her body language might be a little off-putting to the new cat. Like she'll be the friend that always sounds angry, no matter how happy or excited or what.
posted by dinty_moore at 5:04 AM on August 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

guess how much Clyde Benjamin Franklin Kat weighs?

That's a 25 pounder. We're going to need a bigger boat.
posted by thelonius at 5:36 AM on August 19, 2016 [5 favorites]

Yeah, I sort of have this at home. Except they aren't totally packed up because Toby wanted to be pack leader and spent the first few weeks being a bit of a jerk (and occasionally goes into scratch-bite-play mode unexpectedly still) and Nanuk is old enough to be tired a lot and not up for the shenanigans of getting occasionally clawed in the face after Toby tries to cuddle up to him. So yeah, they'll hang out, and they almost always have to be in the same room, but usually like 2 feet away from one another... (and of course now is one of the rare times that they are on separate floors).
posted by Nanukthedog at 6:44 AM on August 19, 2016

That first cat might just be panting because it's overheated, either from playing hard or hot weather or both. It can be a sign of something serious, but isn't always. Our cat used to pant after running around in hot weather, and complained if we put him in the air-conditioned bedroom to cool down. Cats are dumb not always very good at acting in their best interests.

Or, as one of the imgur comments puts it: insert generic comment about how this behavior actually means something else and isn't funny
posted by Metroid Baby at 7:11 AM on August 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

Like she'll be the friend that always sounds angry, no matter how happy or excited or what.

I have a kitty like that. She was much more energetic than her kitty family and stayed outside the first three months of her life. Like she'd nurse with her mama cat and then dash off to be all Miss Wilderness Explorer. When she meets cats she's like, "HEY CAT! LET'S PLAY!" and the other cat is like wtf no dude i'm from a low context culture man you are impinging upon my prerequisites to intimacy wait did you just boop my nose what omigod whatwhatwhat. It's worked out well with my older cat, I think because he's Maine Coon and they're a bit more dog-like in that higher context way. Also he sits verrrry patiently while she's all "I'M BEING FRIENDLY! LOOK AT MY SWOOSHY FRIENDLY TAIL! NOSE BOOP HAHA!" and then tackles her.

Love all the fluffy Huskies!
posted by fraula at 7:15 AM on August 19, 2016 [9 favorites]

thanks to comments on the internet i basically assume any cute cat behavior is actually a sign of imminent kitty death :(
posted by entropicamericana at 7:18 AM on August 19, 2016 [7 favorites]

I adopted a strangely aggressive but not unfriendly rabbit from someone. When I asked them later what the deal was with this rabbit, they said, "Oh, that's the one that always liked to play with the cats when she was little!"
posted by lagomorphius at 7:33 AM on August 19, 2016 [12 favorites]

I got Detective Kima a few months ago, we already have 4 rescue cats and there's been a bit of dominance-assertion. Ava Pufflestein has been the dominant pet for years and she and Kima have had a few staring contests where Kima ends up slinking away, tail between her legs.

Last night I watched as Kima purposefully went to her toy bin, picked up a bone or her squeaky cheeseburger and gently placed the toys in front of Ava and then sat quietly, watching her reaction. Every now and again she made a chuffy, "WOOF!" sound, not like a usual bark but more like, "Hello friend!"

When Ava just sat there, Kima went back to her bin and repeated the process, emptying out her entire toy basket.

I've never seen anything like it but it was truly one of the cutest things I've ever witnessed.
posted by yes I said yes I will Yes at 8:31 AM on August 19, 2016 [27 favorites]

Proof of sharing.
posted by yes I said yes I will Yes at 10:07 AM on August 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

[Direct link - your other link goes to your general Flickr account page]
posted by filthy light thief at 11:06 AM on August 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

That's great but when is Rosie going to pull a sled?
posted by AFABulous at 12:48 PM on August 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

I had a friend with a husky years ago; she'd gotten him as an adult stray, but somewhere in his past there had been friendly cats. He LOVED cats, and always wanted to play with them and snuggle them and whatnot.

Very few cats are into this, least of all the cat I had at the time, who wanted NO part of the 65-pound interloper. The poor dog would do all manner of things to try and convince the cat he was harmless, friendly, etc. -- belly crawling across the floor ("look how small I am!"), rolling over on his back, etc., but the cat was never convinced.
posted by uberchet at 1:55 PM on August 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

Younger cat when she was 12 weeks old managed to scoot, on her back, a foot or so towards older cat in an attempt to elicit play.

These days she's more sensible and just gently tackles her when she's in the mood for play.
posted by sebastienbailard at 2:33 PM on August 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

flt, you do good work, always! love your posts, and this one doesn't disappoint! thanks for sharing
posted by bologna on wry at 3:30 PM on August 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yeah, filthy light thief is one of our best.
posted by JHarris at 4:37 PM on August 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

btw, keep cats far away from improperly-socialized huskies.

(source: my neighbor, who's very nice but whose husky has the prey drive typical of the breed.)
posted by sebastienbailard at 5:30 PM on August 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

Keeping cats away from any husky is excellent advice. In the early days of the internet I was on the Malamute listserv with people all over the world. It was generally agreed that:

1. Huskies have a very strong prey drive and will kill cats.
2. Huskies who were raised with cats may not kill cats that they know, but will kill other cats.
3. A very few huskies love cats but won't kill them.


I now have a Siberian rescue who is in category #3. I am visiting my mom and her previously feral cat next week. The cat is stressed, my mom is stressed, I'm stressed and the damn Siberian will take any abuse from the cat to try and get close to it. Last visit I had to lift a bed up because the Siberian had crawled under it to get near the cat and couldn't get out. Her nose was shredded from cat scratches.
posted by ITravelMontana at 7:09 PM on August 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

Let me tell you a tale of a cat who learned to love her malamute. Yukon was a big old dog we rescued as a middle aged fella. He was the gentlest soul you ever saw, but was more or less indifferent to our cat, Winifred. She shared this indifference.

Until one day, when Winifred was attacked by a woodpecker. (No, you read that right: Winifred was quite literally attacked by a woodpecker mama who swooped down on her and pecked her bloody right between the eyes. To this day, she is afraid of woodpeckers.) She spent hours huddled under the bed nursing her facial wound, and Yukon the Brave stayed right by her, even trying to push his bulk beneath the bed to comfort the cat. After this traumatic event, Winifred and Yukon were fast friends, and Winifred treated him like her giant bodyguard, insisting on tagging along on whenever we went on walks around the neighborhood.

Then Yukon had a heart attack and died, and Winifred was left alone. Until we adopted Dorothy the Husky Dog. The first day Dorothy joined our family, I took her for her first walk around the neighborhood. The neighbors pointed behind me and I turned around to find that Winifred had promptly adopted Dorothy as her new neighborhood bodyguard, and always wants to accompany us on our walks. They get along pretty well, though Dorothy does like to chase the old cat once in awhile. There is no danger of Dorothy attacking Winifred.
posted by RedEmma at 4:10 PM on August 20, 2016 [5 favorites]

Winifred sleeps on a blanket atop Dorothy's kennel. They are a pair, though it could be said that Winifred loves Dorothy way more than Dorothy loves Winifred.
posted by RedEmma at 4:15 PM on August 20, 2016 [2 favorites]