Cookie! Please Don’t Kill George!

My adorable furbaby is a very intelligent Jack Russell Terrier. Cookie is my baby. My spoiled child. PCOS made conceiving a child a near impossibility for me. I would have liked to have had a child of my own, but it wasn’t to be.

And, in retrospect, it probably was a blessing for all the children around me because I had so much more love to share with them. I love to spoil the children in my life, be it a grandchild, niece, nephew or just the child of a dear friend.

Dogs Or Cats?

But, I had no child of my own. When I was younger I had cats all over the yard. When I met Dan he had hunting dogs. I had to choose either the cats or the dogs. The natural instincts of the dogs made it murder to try to keep a cat. Sooner or later the dogs would figure out a way to chase and shake my treasured cat.

Of all the dogs we have had over the years I’ve really only bonded with three before Cookie. Snap was a little feist he had when we met. And Pat was a Stephens Cur we got after a couple of years together. After they each died we had dogs but none that I ever felt a connection with.

Then there was Cookie. We’ve had her now for three years. She was an adorable puppy. A friend had puppies, but lost the mother to milk fever and he was headed into the hospital and wouldn’t be able to care for the puppies. So Dan and I agreed to take a puppy to care for. Dan said if I liked it I could name it and we could keep it.

One look at her and the word “Cookie” crossed my mind. And Cookie was her name. She won my heart right from the beginning and has been my constant companion. She is one of the greatest treasures of my life.

Enter George

And, now there’s George. George is a stray kitten that has materialized at our house this winter. He made sporadic appearances off and on but never for very long and never too often. Knowing how much I missed my cats Dan decided he would see if we could at least try to tame it enough to make it a yard cat. He put out some food. And named him George.

George has been sticking around but hasn’t made himself my friend yet. Dan feeds him so he has warmed to Dan. Usually, when I go outside it’s with Cookie to take her to do her business. George and Cookie do not like each other. At first, I think they would have tried to play with each other.

But, George was not smart. George likes to sit on top of the four-wheeler overseeing everything. A couple of days ago he made the poor decision to jump down upon Cookie. And that was the end of any chance of a friendship between the two. Cookie could not accept that inconsiderate behavior.

I’m not sure how this is going to end. George is still sticking around although I can’t keep Cookie from chasing him all over the yard with death in her eyes. I try going out talking to George alone but Cookie seems to sense that’s what I’m doing and she barks at the door until I return to the house.

Why Can’t We Get Along?

I’ve tried talking to both of them together to help them understand they both belong here. George doesn’t seem to want to be scared away. He has already graced the front step with the mice he has hunted and killed for us. He has adopted us as his family.

But,  I’m worried about our birds. George will want to hunt them too, and I love to watch the bird feeders in the summer. We have a nice variety of songbirds that come and we keep the feeders filled so we can wake and listen to the morning song at 4 A.M.

I would love to be able to talk to the animals and say, “George, please don’t kill the birds but you are welcome to get rid of any varmints that would cause us harm. And please don’t tease Cookie.” And tell Cookie, “George is a welcomed friend too and he is allowed to stay here. Please don’t kill George.”

Nature being what it is, time alone will show me how this plays out.