Janet Boss wrote:

In article ,
"Shelly" wrote:

And make
sure that the dog is cat safe and trained *first*. If one of the two is
under control and obviously not a threat, it makes the job easier.

Ditto. A trained dog means that the cat is the only one needing work.
A dog who can leave the cat alone means a much swifter acclimation for
the cat.

I haven't brought a new cat into my home for almost 7 years. I brought
Skipjack home at about 12 weeks old, from the shelter. I put his
carrier on the floor and let everyone sniff. Then I brought it into the
laundry/cat room and opened it. The doorway had a gate that cats could
walk through, but dogs couldn't.

This was sort of my plan when I put the child gatte on the entrance to
the den. Roughly a dutch door the cat could get over, but the dogs
couldn't. I thought I put it very firmly in place, and was surprised the
dogs barged through it when I was not around. It seemed to work well on
the upstairs bathroom, but the fact that the door was on the side of a
corridor may not have allowed the dogs to build up their momentum the
way they did for the den.

Carey, 8+ at the time, immediately
came into the room and sniffed out this new little critter, and was
thrilled to see him. Skip approached the gate, as did Lucy and
Franklin, and there was no really big deal. The late afternoon and
evening progressed and Skip eventually climbed over a gate into the
office, and sat on the back of the loveseat where the 2 dogs were
napping. He growled the entire time. The dogs ignored him. By 10
p.m., he was asleep in a dog bed with Lucy.

The dogs make all the difference with many cats.