Can this situation be salvaged? Two street cats moved in with us some time ago. Then we adopted 2 dogs from the Tierheim, Newton the Pug and Lady the deaf German Shepherd. All went well, the cats even used to purr and rub themselves against the dogs, we all went walking together, etc. Until one night when Smudge the 1 cat took a swipe at Lady for no reason. Lady yelped and snapped at him but not seriously. Newton overreacted and pinned Smudge down. Lady decided to join. The whole family was yelling at them to stop and trying to separate the whole lot. My son finally got Newton to let go, Smudge fled onto the TV. Nobody was injured except for my son who had a nip on the hand when he pulled Newton off Smudge. But now Smudge hates/is terrified of the dogs. Whenever he sees them he goes into defence mode and hisses at them. That starts frenzied yapping from Newton who then tries to get to the cat. Smudge disappeared a couple of nights ago & we haven't seen him since. What to do? Would they ever settle down again if Smudge comes back?

when they fight let them. my dogs at home would until they were bleeding....then they would get tired and stop, yelling and screaming is only adding to the confusion.

get your cat one of those posts as a safe place, it can watch the dogs from there