Adding a kitten to an household with two mature dachshunds ; My experience

Good morning!

Today I wanna share my experience of adding a kitten to an old dachshund pack- as it’s gonna be 2yrs since i’ve adopted majora in July already! My dogs were 8 & 7 years old back then, when introduced to this 16weeks old kitten.. my eldest having lived a time with a cat before, but my baby weein had NEVER seen a cat.

Related; Hommage to Grisette; Life with a 10mo kitten; first time kitten owner; Majora’s Theory

As I’ve said multiple times, I actually never intended to have a cat. In my head, I had my full family with my pair of dachshunds- however when I saw this kitten looking so much like the cat i’ve lost.. I just needed him. Ofcourse I did had the funds for the necessities of an added family member, but I didn’t even thought about the repercussions. The kitten picked me and I needed him in our lives.

Shortly afterward, I soon started to panic.. like what i’ve I done?? One more mouth, one more body to grab in case of a fire or emergency, etc. Flash forward to 2 years down the line, I don’t regret it one bit and could hardly live without either of them- we come as a trio.

While it’s prefereable to separate the newcomer for a couple days.. I wasn’t really prepared properly. In my mind, I could just leave the kitty in it’s kennel for a few days or something.. and that’s not what happened 😅 Now keep in mind only one of the two had already seen a cat in it’s life- my female had no idea what this thing was.

Everything turned out alright, the cat keeping away from the dogs and all that, exploring it’s new house – I just couldn’t keep the kitty inside the kennel, he was so adament of going and explore the place! At first, my male would try to play with him like he once did with the one I had lost- the poor soul most probably thinking it was the same one as they’re so similar color-wise. Majora definately picked his brother to be closer with right away; it had always been either my mother with the dogs & i’d have the cat, or my eldest & the cat.. rarely had I seen the three together laying somewhere. We sleep all in the same bed, but they clearly each have their own spot: Sheik between the pillows in my head, Kafei at the feet of my un-used side, and the cat being between my legs.

Just when all of us are in the patio chilling outside that Sheik come snuggling with her baby brother, but again, Kafei usually don’t like being in the gazebo so he’d stay inside the house.

Kitty unexpectedly grew quite jumbo sized.. he’s literally as big as my 20lb female standard dachshund, weighting 14,5lbs! Definately a momma’s kitten, he is starting to warm up to my mother & sheik in the last year or so- he’s been mainly my cat and mine only since I’ve adopted him. You can see he wanna join in whenever I bring the dogs with me in the car, despite not being a fan, and tag along whenever his sibling gets together.