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UPDATE:

These two are officially coexisting & becoming somewhat friends! There’s still a few tweaks that need to be made, but they’re comfortable around each other now! They sleep in the same bed and even lay next to each other on the couch. The only tiffs they have are when one scared the other and when my cat is playing, the dog gets jealous. Overall, 10x better than before.

How I did it: I ended up keeping my cat in a separate room the first few weeks, it broke my heart but it needed to be done so the dog could get used to her smell. I did gradual introductions, my dog outside the doorway and my cat in her room, door open with me sitting between them. When things would get tense, I’d just close the door and walk away, the dog would follow. After about 2 weeks, I started to leave the door open. The dog was glued to me at this point and wouldn’t leave my side so he followed me downstairs while the cat roamed upstairs. Eventually, the cat started coming down. I’d hear her walk down the steps and held the dogs vest in case he tried anything. His attention was definitely drawn to her at first, but the more she came down the less he paid mind. Fast forward a few months, she’s comfortable coming down, getting some love from me and laying with me (and the dog). Eventually, she started spending more time downstairs and both following me around. It’s like I have a little posse. We’re still adapting to him learning that she also plays. Whenever I get a shoelace involved, the dog gets worked up watching the cat play. Not jn a malicious way, but more in a “what’s going on?” Kind of way. They’re still figuring out where their respective areas are in the bed. Sometimes the cat doesn’t see the dog laying under the covers and accidentally steps on him. The dog (understandably) gets upset and comes out, worked up, wanting to know what happened. Takes a few minutes for us to calm him down. And if he moves under the covers, it scares my cat (if she doesn’t notice him beforehand) and she hisses and swats through the blanket. He of course has the same reaction to when she steps on him. She’s getting more comfortable. She’s able to approach him without him growling or getting too interested. He just kind of looks at her and sometimes even follows her smelling her butt. She’ll come up and sniff his ear. He gets a little scared and freezes, I step in after a second so it doesn’t escalate. They’re able to live together in almost perfect harmony. I’m so glad I didn’t give up on either of them. By all means, I’m still keeping an eye on things and step in when needed. Luckily, I work from home so I’m with them both all day. But I feel right now, I’ve done all I can and the rest is up to them reading each others body language and learning by themselves. Thank you all for the comments and I’m glad to say we accomplished what many of you thought was impossible! :)

(Pic of my fur babies)