[Question - xl] Malamute rescue sending VERY mixed messages on cats very early
Hey everyone.... was hoping for some help or if folks have any specific thoughts on what I am seeing. Evidently this is going to be long. Ok back story, my wife and I have had Huskies or Samoyeds off and on for 20+ years, so we arent fools, just new to Mals. Long story short we are currently dogless with 3x, 3ish year old cats each about 7-12 lbs (so not tiny, not huge). The cats were raised with our old, but scared of them, half German/half black lab (died about 10 months ago). So the cats are both relatively dog savvy and have experience with them, albeit an older clamer dog. Cut to now- after some looking, went to a shelter and met a really great Malamute female... about 3ish years old. She is pretty amazing in all dimensions, very calm, MOSTLY wants pets, wants snuggles and loves my kids. So we end up adopting her... bring her home and obviously are super worried about the cats. Lots of gates and high places in place from moment 1. One cat, weirdly, becomes aggressive and keeps coming to her to smell and then he (cat) growls and hisses, but keeps approaching and never swiped at dog, so mostly just warning, yet kept approaching slowly. She, the malamute, keeps ears forward and just stares... no lips, no growling, no lunging, no outward signs of aggression at all. This happens repeatedly and she(dog) shows more and more interest in terms of SMELLING the cat, mouth closed, but never uncontrolled lunging. So we got dog late thurs, friday we get her bathed so she doesn't smell like shelter. So she got groomed and bathed, we come home, a few things happen.
A) let dog out in a secure, backyard unattended for a few minutes and upon looking on the deck there is a new, dead, VERY little, baby bunny... bunny is mostly wet and likely was either shaken or crushed, but zero blood (i guess she could have not killed it and found it dead, all I know was wet [was snowing out] and not alive - but totally whole). bunny is maybe a 1/3 or smaller the size of the cats, so not really a 1:1 size analogy for "things she will chase"
B) cat no longer is instantly pissed at dog, best guess it was the shelter smell. now approaches with zero signs of aggression
C) cat now approaches dog and shockingly everyone goes nose to nose for smells, everyone is calm, ears forward, no growling, no crazy lunging, just slow smelling. Wife is holding dogs collar. Cat tries to rub dogs face, all still calm (no sign of dog coiling up for a strike)... until cat takes a partial turn and dog tries to full grab cat by back end mouth open. Wife intervenes and cat runs away. Dog is some cowed, but doesnt lunge to chase either
So we are in a bit confused. We have the house gated like crazy and obviously we are separating everyone even harder, but as my wife said, it was fine until it wasn't. We are at a whopping 36 total hours in our house, so it is very early and for all we know it could be just a reaction to a new scenario/world. She seems kinda goofy and unbothered by almost everything else and yet to have shown those, tensing to lunge, I'm hyper fixated with murder in my eyes scenarios. Obviously we aren't ready for that level of interaction between cat and dog, but going for a back end of a cat (like hips and spine) is not a great sign in general. We are currently continuing to monitor and are allowing very heavily curated distance interactions, but dont know if we are dealing with "new environment issues" or dealing with prey drive issues, both, space issue (totally no evidence for), or something else I know, no one can exactly tell me since it is dog individual, but thought I would ask. Cat health is a priority over keeping the dog, no one wants to come home to a dead cat.
Other tidbits:
* refusing basically all food, but is drinking... cannot sort out what this dog was fed - no yogurt, cheese, peanut butter, 5x different treats, pumpkin, tomato juice or a few other staples have enticed the dog to eat. Not stubborn just is like, meh, not interested
* not treat motivated, like at all, that we can find
* deathly afraid of a crate, if i get her near it she tucks tail and runs away. Dunno that plan yet
Obviously everything is new, but hoping for some advice since I have multiple other northern breeds and more, but this is completely new to be fine until we werent from the dog. Thanks for reading the novel, appreciate any thoughts. Before the obvious is stated, Yes i can return dog if I am so worried about the cats, as I said animal messages are deeply mixed, so not that cut and dried.