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We live in the country. The neighbor is not very close by, like he would be in a suburb. He has a couple of cats that wandered onto his property from a farm. They live outside, he feeds them, and they sleep in his outbuildings. He is not going to keep the cats inside the house.
One of the cats is about a year old. She has come to our place a few times to greet my husband and my teenage sons when they come home. If my daughter weren't severely allergic to cats, my husband would have asked the neighbor if we could have this one, before we got Aidan.
I saw her for the first time the other day. I went out to put Aidan in the fenced area and then went down to my car. There were two cats sitting in the middle of the acre of lawn on the other side of the driveway. One ran away into the woods immediately. The female made a beeline for me, at top speed, and jumped up on me to be petted. I disengaged her claws from my pants leg, petted her, and shooed her away.
Aidan, meanwhile, was barking, running, jumping, twirling, and hopping because he saw the cats. I didn't know this, but Aidan can stand on his hind legs and hop backwards several steps and forwards, then twirl around and do it again, all while remaining upright on his hind legs.
Aidan is fixated on this cat. She visits us many times a day now. She comes onto our porch and walks around the yard and the fenced-area we have for Aidan. When Aidan is in the house, I know she is there because he starts hopping, twirling, and barking, and he is desperately eager to go outside. He must hear her, because when I look outside, no cat is there.
Aidan's only interest when going outside is in finding her. He pulls heartily on the leash and refuses to go into the fenced area (which I don't let him get away with) because all he wants to do is sniff around for the cat. He won't go for a walk.
The cat comes to sit on our porch wall while Aidan is in the fenced area, which begins 3' away from the wall. She just sits there, staring at him while he go nuts. The whole purpose of having the fenced area is for him to do his business when the weather is bad, and for us to have a place to play with him off leash when the weather is good. It was just installed a couple of weeks ago. He isn't out there very long at all, but the cat shows up every single time.
How would you handle this situation? It is driving me crazy. This is a very sweet, affectionate, friendly, and tiny cat. I do not want to scare her. Even though Aidan wags his tail when he barks at her, I do not want to introduce them. Aidan is a strong dog, and I don't want to take any chance that he would grab the cat. I've seen how hard he shakes toys and if he got ahold of that little cat, he could break her neck in a jiffy.
I've been through a cat being fascinated with a dog before. For years, our collie was visited frequently by a neighbor's cat, Rosie. Teddy would lie in the yard, and the cat would lie across his front legs on her back, wiggling around. She'd suddenly run at him from outside the fence just to watch him jump back. She'd follow him into the house and prance around like she owned the place. Rosie liked to tease Teddy, and Teddy just put up with her. I always rescued Teddy from Rosie because he was not happy about her attention.
Aidan is not anything like Teddy. Aidan has a real strong prey drive, while Ted had none. Frogs, shrews, chipmunks, lizards, birds, and cats were perfectly safe with Ted.
If anyone has any ideas, please give them to me. Except for cayenne pepper -- I don't want to sprinkle anything to keep the cat away because Aidan will sniff it for sure.
Thanks,
RC
One of the cats is about a year old. She has come to our place a few times to greet my husband and my teenage sons when they come home. If my daughter weren't severely allergic to cats, my husband would have asked the neighbor if we could have this one, before we got Aidan.
I saw her for the first time the other day. I went out to put Aidan in the fenced area and then went down to my car. There were two cats sitting in the middle of the acre of lawn on the other side of the driveway. One ran away into the woods immediately. The female made a beeline for me, at top speed, and jumped up on me to be petted. I disengaged her claws from my pants leg, petted her, and shooed her away.
Aidan, meanwhile, was barking, running, jumping, twirling, and hopping because he saw the cats. I didn't know this, but Aidan can stand on his hind legs and hop backwards several steps and forwards, then twirl around and do it again, all while remaining upright on his hind legs.
Aidan is fixated on this cat. She visits us many times a day now. She comes onto our porch and walks around the yard and the fenced-area we have for Aidan. When Aidan is in the house, I know she is there because he starts hopping, twirling, and barking, and he is desperately eager to go outside. He must hear her, because when I look outside, no cat is there.
Aidan's only interest when going outside is in finding her. He pulls heartily on the leash and refuses to go into the fenced area (which I don't let him get away with) because all he wants to do is sniff around for the cat. He won't go for a walk.
The cat comes to sit on our porch wall while Aidan is in the fenced area, which begins 3' away from the wall. She just sits there, staring at him while he go nuts. The whole purpose of having the fenced area is for him to do his business when the weather is bad, and for us to have a place to play with him off leash when the weather is good. It was just installed a couple of weeks ago. He isn't out there very long at all, but the cat shows up every single time.
How would you handle this situation? It is driving me crazy. This is a very sweet, affectionate, friendly, and tiny cat. I do not want to scare her. Even though Aidan wags his tail when he barks at her, I do not want to introduce them. Aidan is a strong dog, and I don't want to take any chance that he would grab the cat. I've seen how hard he shakes toys and if he got ahold of that little cat, he could break her neck in a jiffy.
I've been through a cat being fascinated with a dog before. For years, our collie was visited frequently by a neighbor's cat, Rosie. Teddy would lie in the yard, and the cat would lie across his front legs on her back, wiggling around. She'd suddenly run at him from outside the fence just to watch him jump back. She'd follow him into the house and prance around like she owned the place. Rosie liked to tease Teddy, and Teddy just put up with her. I always rescued Teddy from Rosie because he was not happy about her attention.
Aidan is not anything like Teddy. Aidan has a real strong prey drive, while Ted had none. Frogs, shrews, chipmunks, lizards, birds, and cats were perfectly safe with Ted.
If anyone has any ideas, please give them to me. Except for cayenne pepper -- I don't want to sprinkle anything to keep the cat away because Aidan will sniff it for sure.
Thanks,
RC