posted 09-29-2003 09:54 AM         

I have been told that when you see two animals sleeping together, you don't have to worry about them hurting each other anymore. I don't know if this holds with cats and dogs, though, since the dog could hurt or kill the cat without meaning to.

Also, I read a story of a dog who killed the cat he had lived happily with for years. They were outside and the cat ran by and the dog chased it down and killed it. It was just the dog's prey drive activated by the running cat, but a tragedy just the same.

I don't say this to scare you, but just to let you know that you should supervise them.

As far as the water goes - I have one cat that will drink from the dog's bowl. The other cat would never even think of doing that. In fact, the puppy drank from the cat's bowl before we put it up on the countertop, and the one cat wouldn't touch it for days even though I cleaned it out. It is one of those fountain bowls, which is the only thing the one cat will drink from. Before that, he would only drink from a running tap in the kitchen sink - highly inconvenient, especially when we went on vacation!