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I was carrying around a tripe ration in an effort to keep my dog close, when I found a nice housecat that was in need of a good home.

So I fed it my tripe ration, and a very happy heart appeared over its head. I named him Katt, and he purred and snuggled against me because he was so happy to have a real home.

Then a few turns later, my dog attacked and ate him. I don't know if it was sibling rivalry or not, but he just got angry at the cat and went to town.

Do pets not like each other, or was it something else? Up until that point my dog had a nice and sunny disposition.


Aside from the bolded edit above, here are some more clarifications:

  1. The dog had just killed and eaten a black naga hatchling
  2. The cat was alive at the time, the dog simply started biting him.
  3. I'm pretty low level still, I'm not wearing any jewelry of any kind.
  4. The dog has eaten pretty well...I've been letting it take care of all lichens, jackals, etc so far.
  5. Also no traps within the immediate area either.
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  • 13
    @lilserf: i'm pretty sure ANY nethack question can be phrased into an amusing title
    – erik
    Feb 22, 2011 at 18:44
  • Are you playing somewhere that saves ttyrecs?
    – Wooble
    Feb 22, 2011 at 20:20
  • @Wooble: I'm playing the graphical client for Windows Mobile. That character actually died recently and I doubt I have any record left.
    – erik
    Feb 22, 2011 at 20:37
  • 1
    It's a dog and it's a cat. Nature tells dogs to eat cats. Nuff said.
    – user18072
    Jan 10, 2012 at 3:31
  • 3
    @NigelNquande: I'm sure I don't.
    – erik
    Mar 12, 2014 at 20:46

1 Answer 1

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Under normal conditions pets won't attack other pets. However they have no problem eating a former pet's corpse. So one of the following things might have happened:

  • Something else (a monster or a boulder trap for example) killed your cat and your dog ate the corpse.
  • Your dog became confused from hunger, randomly attacked your cat and then ate it.
  • You're wearing a ring of conflict which caused the dog to attack anything in its range including your cat.
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  • The dog attacked the cat with no provocation that I could see....and the dog had just previously eaten a black naga hatchling, and I'm wearing no rings yet. Would the hatchling have confused it?
    – erik
    Feb 22, 2011 at 18:38
  • @sepp2k: updated the question with some clarifications
    – erik
    Feb 22, 2011 at 18:41
  • @espais: Eating black naga corpses does not cause confusion. Did your dog fight an umber hulk recently or did it maybe get hit by a thrown potion of confusion? (I'm assuming that you neither attacked not cast a spell at it)
    – sepp2k
    Feb 22, 2011 at 18:50
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    Are you sure the cat was still tame?
    – Wooble
    Feb 22, 2011 at 20:17
  • 3
    Are you sure the dog was still tame? Apr 30, 2014 at 8:59

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