Siblings

By Janet Quinn Cornelow

Chewbaca, my dog, has been an only child since January when Teddi, the cat, passed away. She was very old and very sick. We tried bringing a kitten into the house a year and a half ago, but it upset Teddi. She was the nervous type.

Now, my oldest son Tom wants to get a kitten. He wants to get a Maine Coon, which turned out to be an expensive proposition. We had a Maine Coon before, but he just came to us and was not a pure breed. He was the sweetest cat though and the alpha male in the house. We are also going to rescue a kitten from the animal shelter. Hopefully, they will bond and play together.

Getting a pure breed cat means the cat stays in the house, which is a bit of a problem because Chewbaca has a giant dog door. The door is big enough for a person to go through. A kitten would have no problem, except Chewbaca hates it when the cats used his dog door.

To start with, I decided that Chewbaca needed to learn to use the door with the plastic sheet in it. We have tried before and he has just sat on which ever side he was on and wouldn’t go through it. So, on Sunday, my daughter-in-law Loki and my youngest son Rob came over to work with him.

Chewbaca is a drama queen. You’d have thought we were trying to kill him. He went out, then he followed Loki back through it, but he kept eyeing the plastic like some strange monster that was going to get him. He jumped up into the recliner nearest the door and cowered. Rob chased him out of the chair and he immediately jumped into the other chair. He tried his cute look. It took awhile, but we got him to go through several times with a lot of treats.

Tom and I spent the rest of the night telling him what a good dog he was every time he went through the door. I still don’t know why Chewbaca suddenly decided to use the door with the plastic after all these years of refusing. At least it is a step in keeping the kittens in. We have to do something more when they get older.

I looked at electronic dog doors where the dog wears a collar that opens the door. I figure once Chewbaca masters the plastic, we could get an electronic dog door. The problem is, the biggest one I can find is only 7 ¼ inches wide and Chewbaca’s door is 15 inches wide. There is no way he is going to fit through the smaller one.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day.