Meeting existing pets

First introductions are important, for dogs and cats to live together

Staff observing two dogs greeting

If you already have a pet in the house, we want to help them be happy to make a new friend and share their space. 

If you already own a cat, and are adopting a cat

Our team will explain how best to set up your home for the best introductions. There is also more advice about cats living together in our Pet care advice section (below).

If you already own a cat, and are adopting a dog

Our team will explain how to introduce the two gradually, and how to arrange your home layout so that the cat has a safe space and doesn’t feel pushed out. As scent is important to cats, we may give you the dog's blanket to take home to introduce their smell. There is also more advice about cats and dogs living together in our Pet care advice section (below).

If you already own a dog, and are adopting a cat

Our team will explain how to introduce the two gradually, and how to arrange your home layout so that the cat has a safe space. There is also more advice about cats and dogs living together in our Pet care advice section (below).

If you already own a dog, and are adopting a dog 

We will invite you by appointment for a ‘mix’. This will be supervised by at least two members of our Animal Care team, incuding one of our Behaviour Assessors. First of all, we will ask you more about how your current dog might react to, and prefers to meet with, other dogs. 

Most commonly, we meet first with both dogs on the lead and go for a walk. If this goes well, we will move to an off-lead meeting in a secure paddock. Again this will be supervised by at least two members of our team. Depending on how it goes, we might ask to repeat the mix on another day – asking dogs to share is a big step and we want to give them both a good start to their friendship.


 

Pet care advice

Settling in and advice

What to expect on adoption day

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