I have a 9 year old chow dog (Turbo) and a 12 year old cat (Spaz) at home.
In November, my fiance & I purchased a ferret kit.  When I first brought
Slinky home, my Spaz was not to happy (Turbo could care less, but I keep
them separated, anyway--I don't know how Turbo would react, if Slinky
were to playfully nip him, and I don't have any interest in finding out).
Anyway, Slinky constantly wanted (and still does) to play with Spaz, so
Spaz hissed at Slinky a lot, and ran away from him, cowering into the
corners, trying to keep him a safe distance away.  Of course, Slinky viewed
this as a game and wanted to play more.  Well, Slinky has learned to
imitate him, and now, whenever he sees Spaz, he runs over and hisses at
him.  Spaz has, for the most part, accepted Slinky, by this point.  He's
more amused by him, than anything else, but when Slinky hisses at him, Spaz
isn't quite sure how to take it.  He looks at him, then at me (for advice)
and by that time, Slinky has inched all the way up to Spaz, and proceeded
to hiss into his ear.
 
Yesterday, when he did this, Spaz reacted with a "meow--hiss--swat",
behaviour.  The cat is declawed in the front, so Slinky was not hurt by
the swat, but I still immediately separated them, before it turned into a
fight, as both of them have very sharp teeth.  I get the feeling from both
of them that they'd both like to be friends, but neither one knows quite
how to deal with the other.  Slinky wants to "play, play, play" (as any
self-respecting ferret would), but he's learning to approach Spaz with a
little bit of caution.  Spaz doesn't run from Slinky, as much, and even
cries at the door, wanting to come into the room with us, when I take
slinky out for his supervised "play time"; but when they actually get
together, it's like friendship for a couple of minutes, as they sniff &
greet each other, until Slinky either jumps on Spaz' back, or hisses at
Spaz in hopes of getting him to play.  Has anyone else had a similar
exprience, and do you have any suggestions on how to help these two
"understand" each other better?
[Posted in FML issue 3088]