ali's dog weighs 48 pounds. to get the answer you would use "x" for the cat and "8x" for the dog. combine like terms to get "9x". then set 9x equal to 54 because that is how much the two weigh together. so 9x=54. now divide by 9 on each side to get x=6. that means that ali's cat weighs 6 pounds. now subtract 54-6 to get 48 pounds which is the weight of ali's dog