Cats vs. Dogs

[WhiskeyLullaby]

I am going to be honest I do Not own a mastiff of any variety. I own a four Year old St. Bernard named Vex. Unfortunately I can't find any good St. Bernard forums with as much activity as this site and according to my AKC book St. Bernards are 'matiff like' and 'likely descended from mastiffs' so I'm going to call it good enough! So here is my 'problem'

Recently my parents have found that their (and my since we got him when I was 8) 13 year old Orange cat will no longer 'go' outside. He is an old cat, unreasonably skinny despite how much we feed him, and my dad was giving serious thought to putting him down so I told them to give him to me, I would take the cat. So they did and I have. As far as the cat is concerned things are going splendidly. I am well on the way to successfully re-Housetraining him and he has adapted well to the house and Vex except... Huh.

Recently I have noticed that Vex has taken to using the cat as his own personal drool rag--something which that cat surprisingly doesn't seem to mind but that leads to tiny slobbery feline pawprints on every table, chair, rug, and floorboard he ventures across. The best I can figure Vex saw my cat grooming himself and thought 'well hell, I can do that and in half the time!' and so he did :/

In all honesty it's quite endearing and the cat seems to enjoy it (though admittedly he never initiates the 'grooming sessions') but I still can't help but think that it would be better if he stopped. (not all cats are as patient and well-tempered as Berkley after all).

If you have any advice on how to remedy this situation (short of dousing my cat in hot sauce) I'd be extremely appreciative of any and all help you can offer!

 

[Smokeycat]

I have a slobbery cat too! My EM puppy is 21 weeks and he does the same thing to my 10 month old kitten. I'm not worried about it because I know that if she didn't like it she would let him know, she's not afraid of using her claws if needed. Also the four year old cat stopped him after only one time. The only solution that I can come up with barring training him to stay away from the cat is to wipe his mouth to "try" and limit the slobber on the cat. Sorry I'm not more help.

 

[WhiskeyLullaby]

Well I'm glad I'm not the only one who has this problem! Our old cat doesn't have front claws and to be honest he's every bit as assertive as a snowflake. It's more the fact that I'm worried he'll get into the habit of licking small animals and the next time we are at the dog park some lady with her tea-cup chihuahua will come screaming over and accusing poor Vex of attacking her dog (though I suppose considering the amount he drools and the size of the chihuahua he may well drown the thing in all the slobber ) Im considering teaching Vex to lick on command so I can then teach him 'no lick' which I think wil be effective. The trouble is the training will likely leave my cat covered in drool for a least a week straight lol

 

[Smokeycat]

Taffy, the four year old cat, is the sweetest cat I have ever met. I have never seen her use her claws on anything but the scratching post and I never heard her hiss until after I got my IS mix Jiggers. (He loves her, she tolerates him)
Kryten (EM) likes Skreea better so that maybe why a cat without a backbone was able to stop the 'slimeing' after one round. I have noticed that Kryten is little too fascinated by Pomeranians likely due to the fact that both cats are about that size with long hair so I have started to teach him to 'ignore' on command. It is like leave it only over a greater distance.
This photo shows both dogs and an unslimed Skreea.

 

[metaldad904]

It's not a cat but Greta uses my daughter's shorkie as her personal drool rag, poor little thing always seems to have some on her...i end up having to give her a bath quite often b/c of it, drives me crazy lol

 

[AKBull]

I wish I had that problem. My cat is a complete and utter B****, and Junior is not allowed with within 5 feet of her. Her rules, not mine.
Where is her favorite place to sleep though? In or on his kennel...

 

[Gunny]

I wish I had that problem. My cat is a complete and utter B****, and Junior is not allowed with within 5 feet of her. Her rules, not mine.
Where is her favorite place to sleep though? In or on his kennel...

:lolbangtable: We have two cats and I've never heard them hiss at anyone/anything until we brought Gunny home. One of them, the bigger one (20 lbs) ironically, is scared of his shadow so it was expected. Our smaller female is the brave one but even she isn't quite ready to get very close to him.

 

[stephanieb]

I hear ya AKBull. Lucky loved our lab/rottie cross but the mastiff puppies are beyond him. He retreated to our bedroom (especially the dog bed in it) with his smoking jacket and kleenex boxes on his paws last July when Stonewall came home and came out often enough to eat and sh*t. He is slooooowly starting to make an appearance again almost a year later. We now call him Howard (as in Hughes) instead of Lucky.

 

[WhiskeyLullaby]

Well I must admit that Vex isn't the first dog that Berkley has had to put up with. My spaniel mix was a bit obsessive when it came to insects! He instinctually alerted us to a massive tree in our backyard that was CRAWLING with termites by chewing on the trees bark for MONTHS everytime I stepped outside until he finally made it through the trunks surface--about 2 inches of solid wood chewed threw too--and he did the whole polar bear ice breaking dive on an above ground root to alert us to the start of termites in our pecan tree which we were able to erraticaticate before the tree was compromised. He regularly 'steped'' on cockroaches to kill them (ever so careful to kill them without crushing them) and he OBSESSIVELY and METICULOUSLY groomed the aforementioned cat Berkley. ever so carefully chewing on the edge of the cats fur and weeding out fleas (spitting them out as he found them).

As a result of the efforts of my spaniel mix Travis Berkley is well versed in the attentions of an overly-enthusiastic but well meaning dog in their efforts to help him 'clean up'. I guess I am lucky Berkley is such a well-tempered (or Perhaps more precisely 'careworn') cat. But I have to say nothing quite prepare you for the site of your cat sitting resentfully with a tired but resigned look on his face as a big old spat of drool rolls down his head.

I do feel relieved though, you all are right Vex is big enough to be told to stop by a cat or dog without much fear of harm and he is intelligent enough and stop when asked (or told) by the creature in question. so I guess my cat will just have to get used to sliding through the kitchen (which he has in fact done twice today) and living with relatively little dignity. On the bright side he has figured out that if he picks fights with other cats (and YES my clawless, skin and bones cat who is missing most of his teeth and is approaching 15 years old PICKS the FIGHTS) that he can go dashing back to my dog and (provided he is more willing to endure an impromptu bath than his rival)!can enjoy a fleeting victory!

 

[Duetsche_Doggen]

i wish i had that problem. My cat is a complete and utter b****, and junior is not allowed with within 5 feet of her. Her rules, not mine.
Where is her favorite place to sleep though? In or on his kennel...

lol!

 

[Jeri]

Camo slimes our three cats any and every time he can catch them! Either they take care of themselves, or I wipe them down with a baby wipe ( the non scented, sensitive skin kind) Why they haven't torn into him I'll never know,,but they all tolerate him.

 

[WhiskeyLullaby]

Well Berkley confirmed what you all have been saying about an hour ago. I was watching Vex give Berkley a nice bath when Berkley gave a loud yip because Vex was being too rough and Vexed eased up immidiatly and I had a friend brig by their yorkie earlier to make sure the behavior didn't extend to dogs and I'm pleased to say he didn't make any attempt to lick it!!

 

[ruthcatrin]

Apollo grooms my youngest cat on occasion, and she actually seems to like it. Though he's not slobbery, so she just ends up damp instead of slimed.