I haven't posted here for a long while. Cat life has been rough. This August, after 12 wonderful years, our darling Meatball died. A few weeks later, we were "adopted" by a charming young stray. Augie was loving and sociable, but after months of living rough, he was also very sick. We treated one ailment after another, but never could get ahead of things. We lost Augie after only a few months.

Now we've brought a new young man into our home. About two years old (the shelter estimated), he's friendly and curious. He's a formidable house-fly hunter. In our old country house, we're hoping he'll keep an eye on the mice, too. But we've got a big problem and I'm hoping you all can help.

Our dog, Pilot, is four years old. He and Meatball never forged a friendship. Pi is aggressively affectionate (ugh, he's a chaser) and the cat hated him. If the dog was downstairs, the cat stayed upstairs.

When Augie came, Pilot seemed to be relax a little--mostly because Aug didn't run from him--but we never had time to sort things out. Now Bert's here and Pilot is beside himself. He's already scared the crap out of the cat and we fear we'll never have any kind of harmony.

So here's the question: Do you have experience with dogs and cats at odds? Were you able to socialise them? How??!