Cat and Dog Behaviour Question

Samaris

I shall preface this with that the animals in question are not mine, rather they belong to a neighbour, but are often in front of the house. I'll also add that I don't know much about how cats and dogs interact, so I'm going to include detail in case anything is relevant.

There's a cat that's part of a rake of farmcats, so half-wild and breed every so often. She's a young cat still, probably less than a year old, much more socialised with the other cats of the litter than humans. There's also a small dog, a terrier-type creature who's also about a year old at this point, so still quite young (also female). The terrier has the sense to stay away from most of the cats, but this one she goes for constantly. They're apparently quite good friends, but today for instance, I was watching them, and the terrier was annoying the cat. But rather than running away or climbing up something, she was lying with her belly on the ground, but her back paws and rump up, tail twitching and growling every so often. The terrier kept going for her rear and nipping at her neck and ears. I went and intervened when the terrier grabbed her by the ear and dragged her, but I don't understand why the cat doesn't just leg it and clamber up somewhere. She certainly seemed cross. Eventually I wandered off again as both cat and dog were firmly staying put. (Watching them on other occasions, the cat will run off into a hedge fairly often, or sometimes dive out on the terrier, so she's isn't directly afraid of her.)

-Is- this just playing? The dog's neutered, the cat isn't spayed. The cat's ears are getting rather ragged from this though.

Cherry Blossom

The dog 'might' be playing, the cat certainly isn't.

volchitsa

The cat is on heat I think, and they generally don't run away in that case. They can be attracted to anything, including dogs. So I think she's displaying mating signs to the dog but then she's (the dog) biting her ears and stuff instead. Well, she can't do much else I guess!

The poor cat probably can't work out what's wrong.

Samaris

volchitsa wrote: »

The cat is on heat I think, and they generally don't run away in that case. They can be attracted to anything, including dogs. So I think she's displaying mating signs to the dog but then she's (the dog) biting her ears and stuff instead. Well, she can't do much else I guess!

The poor cat probably can't work out what's wrong.

I was wondering about that, although god knows what the cat thinks she's doing encouraging the female dog to mate with it! Although that particular cat has never had the most brain cells. Poor thing.

Oh god, not more kittens... Although at this rate, we're probably safe from kittens from this particular female!

Thanks for your responses.