Farewell to Cookie, 2008 – 2023
Updated by Kathryne Taylor on August 6, 2024
I don’t want to tell you this because I don’t want it to be true, but we said goodbye to my beloved Cookie last week. Her smile and spunk lit up my days for over thirteen years and I miss her terribly. Thirteen years! I am the luckiest, and what I would give for more.
Cookie was my sidekick, my frontman, my best friend, my real-life teddy bear, my soul pup. As long as Cookie was there, I was never alone. I can almost feel her snuggled up by my side now. Cookie got me through the darkest of days and brightened the best. She kept me company through countless long days and long nights as we built this website from scratch. She taste tested nearly every recipe, too, whether I wanted her to or not.
In her earlier years, Cookie had a terrifying tendency to shoot out the front door like a rocket, which inspired immense gratitude for every day that we got together. Then she received a terminal cancer diagnosis, lymphoma, and defied the odds by living another two-and-a-half years. I always dreamed of taking care of her in her old age, and that’s what I got to do. Over the past year, she lost her hearing and her health declined, which felt more difficult and complicated than I ever anticipated. She died of old age, and while I’ll always wonder if I made the right decisions every step of the way, I am finding some peace and comfort in knowing that we spent all of her best days together. A dog could not have been more loved.
Cookie came into my life at the perfect moment, when I was fresh out of college and learning to live on my own. She walked with me all the way to marriage and motherhood. She left me exactly where I want to be in my upper thirties, with my loving husband and our baby girl. My heart is so full and so broken at the same time.
Cookie was extraordinary and so was our bond. I spent much of our time together wishing for what I have now, yet I’m feeling so sentimental about our special time together as Cookie and Kate. May this be your gentle reminder to appreciate what you have when you have it.
Thank you for cooking along with us and for finding joy in her antics. I’ll be back soon to share more photos and some of my favorite Cookie memories with you. She was truly the greatest.
Kate, I am just now seeing this writing, obviously quite a bit later. I am so, so sorry for your loss. I follow your blog, and often when I’m looking for a recipe online, I look for the Cookie and Kate link, because I trust your choices of food, and I love how you don’t make your recipes over complicated. I am vegan. I am also an animal lover, and have had many furry kid companions over the years. It always hurts so much when they leave a void in our life. I still tear up over a couple of the ones that I lost several years ago when I see their pictures. What a blessing they are to have in our life, to enrich our days, and share unconditional love with us. And I know we have been blessings to them as we have loved them to the best of our ability and I believe they know that. Thank you for sharing your heart. ❤️ Even though it made me wanna cry as I was reading, I know that all of us dog lovers have such a heart connection when we are missing our furry companions. So again, thank you for sharing. God bless you and your family!
Hi Cindy, thank you for your kind words.