my moms boyfriends dog killed my cat today

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today when i got home with some more cat food for my 8 week old kitten Star i went to my garage to feed her and she wasnt there i first noticed she wasnt crying, when i leave she will literally cry until i get back because she loves me that much, and i realized she wasnt in my garage and thats when i really started to get really worried because my moms boyfriend owns an Alaskan Malamute/Timber Wolf mix(her name is Niko) which incidentally is a very big dog and Star is 8 weeks old and literally the length of my hand so she is a small cat. i found Star in my living room her body was covered in dog saliva, her body was in a very out of place position indicating her neck was most likely broken, her neck has several wide gashes in it and her face, god it wont leave my mind, her face was frozen and twisted in terror and i ranted on facebook about how i was gonna kill Niko to get revenge for killing Star and i had my mom threatening to call the cops and on facebook i stupidly had several local cops in my friends list and they were threatening to arrest me because it was obvious Niko tortured Star before killing her and so i said i was gonna torture and kill Niko.

i have a natural affinity for cats, they are my most favorite animal and we get attached(me and the cats) to each other VERY easily and back before i acquired my eye disease Keritoconus i would never stand up for myself when im being picked on but if you f****d with a cat and i heard about it back in the day i fought anyone that even looked at a cat wrong but ever since my eye surgeries i cant fight anymore or i risk going blind

im normally a very passive(pushover, submissive) person i hate violence and these thoughts are scaring me because they are serious thoughts, so my question is: Are these thoughts justified because of what happened?

Thoughts are just thoughts as long as you don't act on them. One of my nieces lost a kitten in much the same way you did to my grandmother's dog, and one of my other nieces was ready to kill the dog over it (although she didn't). When the neighbor dog killed one of my cats, I was prepared to find a gun and shoot the dog - and I hate guns and can't stand to point them at living things. But I didn't act on it, and no one threatened to call the police because I was so upset that I wanted to do something in the moment.

Lots of sympathies for losing your kitten.

Your thoughts are normal. You're grieving. Be careful not to act on them because, no matter how reasonable and justified you feel in these acts now, you will realize they are not reasonable or justified when your grief passes this anger stage. By that time, you would not be able to undo what you had done.

Niko is an animal. In no way did he torture the kitten. This very thing happened to a kitten of mine by a dog I was sitting. He was no older than 10 weeks. The dog grabbed his entire body in his mouth and shook him violently, as dogs will do with prey (and I'm sure you've seen Niko do this with toys). This does kill the animal they have in their mouth by causing internal damage and also breaking the neck. While Star died with a terrified look on her face, that is probably all she felt... the terror of a large animal chasing her. Niko's attack was probably too quick for her to feel any of the physical pain.

I am so sorry for your loss. It doesn't seem fair or right. These things happen with animals and there's no way to feel better about them happening or find logic in it. They're animals. My golden retrievers were very gentle with my daughter's kitten because we introduced them slowly. Now, at almost a year old, this cat owns these dogs (as well as my husband). I would not recommend having another cat around that dog unless there was a significant division of the house where the cat could live without the dog's interference, simply because Niko has already demonstrated aggressive behavior toward a cat and it would be even more difficult to train him otherwise. I think the important thing to remember is that Niko did not know, nor does he have the capacity to understand, that Star was very important to you and it was wrong of him to treat her like live prey running in the house. So hurting Niko will accomplish nothing and, since you do love animals, it's likely this action would just make you feel worse, especially after you passed the anger stage of grief.

That's awful what his dog did to your kitten. I understand the anger that you feel, but it's probably better to remove the facebook comments. Apologize and explain that in the heat of the moment and seeing how the dog mutilated your kitten you "lost your head," (aka stopped thinking rationally); that you'd never abuse another animal like the dog did to your kitten. Abusing the dog won't bring back your kitten.

That's not to say there isn't anything that you can do. On the contrary there are laws to help prevent and punish animal abuse. Here's some info from the humane society on how to handle such an awful situation, http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/abu ... bused.html.

Didn't your mom at least say she was sorry about what happened? The expression of understanding about the situation, rather than threatening to call the cops, might have gone a long way here. In any case it seems your mom may not have forseen that the dog would kill the cat. People can be surprisingly ignorant about taking incompatibilities into consideration when getting multiple pets, so a dog ends up killing a cat or a cat kills a bird. I once turned down a request by a friend to keep her cats for some time because I didn't want my bird to get eaten. My obligation is to prioritize the protection any animals I already have, over animals I might otherwise get or temporarily shelter.

In your case, it might not have been forseen that the dog would kill the cat because dogs don't always kill cats, so the incompatibility isn't as clear as it would be with cats and birds. Given the variables of large dog and small cat, though, it seems the dog should not have been brought into the home if you already had your cat, or you should not have been allowed to get the cat if the dog was already in the home.

I'm very sorry to hear about your cat. You shouldn't be mad at the dog, however, because the dog is a dog, and was just acting how dogs (and cats) are wired to act. The dog likely saw the cat as prey, just like a cat might see a pet bird as prey.

Dogs should not be left alone with kittens, babies, or young children, and generally have to be taught how to act around cats, and still, most of the time, they need to be supervised when together because they've both very impulsive.

Generally how one introduces a dog and kitten is (providing the dog isn't openly aggressive towards the kitten) to keep them generally apart and allow the dog to see and sniff the kitten from a few inches distance with the kitten in a place where the dog can't actually get to it (such as in your hands). If you have the kitten and the dog in the same room, for example, the kitten on a table and the dog in the room, you can have the dog lay somewhere and as it watches the kitten (which should be out of reach), reward the dog for exhibiting good behavior. If the dog tries to get up or get closer to the kitten, the dog gets reprimanded. You might want to have the dog on a leash as you do this to give it a yank when the dog needs to be reprimanded.

The dog needs to be trained to know that it is not allowed to chase the kitten, and while it can sniff the kitten with your supervision, it has to keep a distance.

Our dog used to stay back about a foot and a half and then lean in to about three inches to sniff the cat. She knew she wasn't allowed to get close to the cat. Occasionally though she would herd the cats around because she was a herding dog, but we had the cats when we got her so she learned about cats as a puppy.

No matter how well trained the dog is to act around cats, there were still some things to be vigilant of. Food should never be down where both of them can get to it. Dogs frequently have some degree of food aggression and tend to be materialistic and will frequently try to bite a cat for eating a piece of food the dog actually didn't even want. Cat food should be kept up where the cat can get it but the dog can't.

No matter how well trained the dog, as I previously said, they shouldn't be left alone in the same room together while you're out of the house because dogs have a concept of their owners being gone and will try to get away with things. With our last dog this wasn't much of an issue. The house was big and the cats usually stayed upstairs or outside and the dog preferred the couch in the living room and they generally didn't bother eachother, but I wouldn't have closed them in the same room together and left them alone.

I'm sorry about the death of your cat.

Well, your quick defense of Niko in these posts - as we simply try to explain that she's an animal capable of very instinctual behavior and lacks the capacity to be human-like with emotions - shows that you're not seeking to harm her anymore. This is good. This was the point of your post, after all. And now that you're beyond that phase in your grief, I'm sure you can see what a disaster it would have been to have acted on those violent impulses, especially as unusual as they are for you to experience. You would've hated yourself.

What are your plans now for Star? Will you get to bury her somewhere and/or have a memorial service?

Like in Moby Dick: You cannot get revenge on animals. You have my sincerest condolences, your loss is terrible, and believe it or not, you described it so graphically that it almost made me cry, and I have not cried for more than 10 years. I like animals more than humans, so I can understand your desire to get revenge, but it shouldn't be on the dog (like you have already acknowledged). The dog's gotta go, no question. From my perspective, there is no way that dog can live with you in the same house anymore, and I would tell my mother if I feel that way.

I'm so sorry
That poor little soul.. I hope Star is in a happy place now with no pain.

If I found my kittens or pets like that I would be as distraught as you. It's horrible.
Why doesn't the stupid boyfriend keep an eye on his dog?

I can understand wny you were angry and as others have said threatening to do something and actually doing it are two different things. Just make sure you dont do it and you should be ok.