[mousepod]

Nephy,

Our little family has had several combinations of dogs and cats throughout the years. When Heather and I first got together, she had two boy cats and I had a new shelter puppy (a medium-sized lab mix).

Our experience was that dogs and cats can get along fine as long as there are ground rules.

Make sure to diligently train your dog. A dog who sees you as the boss will respect the cats.

Don't get mad at the cats for being territorial. They're cats. As long as they don't claw at the puppy, they're just training him, too.

Feed the cats on the counter - that way, they won't gobble their food in a panic in fear of the dog. There are no tricks to doing this. If the cats get hungry, they'll eat as long as they know where their food is.

Keep the litter box in a place the dog can't reach. If he develops a taste for cat poop (or "almond roca" as Heather and I referred to it), he'll keep coming back. We put a little doggie gate at the bottom of the basement steps and the litter box was right on the other side. The cats had no problem clearing the fence, but the dogs couldn't.

When we moved to SF, our dog was full grown and we had a chihuahua puppy along with the two cats. They all got along great (if I was home, I'd post some pictures of them cuddling).

Congratulations and good luck!