Adopting Kitten with 2 other dogs

Question
Hello Teresa.  I hope you are able to help me with my small dilemma.  I recently found a stray kitten in my yard, and have adopted her because my local humane society shelter is saturated.  She is staying at my boyfriend's house and has been with him for the past 4 weeks.  We have provided for her first round of vaccinations and she is scheduled for more plus spaying when she is old enough.  The cat organization we are using is stressing that we keep her until she is spayed and then give her up for adoption.  The thing is that we have lost two great chances of placing her because the network has been very inflexible about this.  We have never owned cats, and I believe we may have lost a great opportunity, because one lady just lost a cat, and the other cat she has has never been alone.  Now the plot thickens.  While caring for Chloe, we have absolutely fallen in love with her.  She is just so adorable and playful and very brave kitten.  She was overwhelmed us in so many ways, we are considering just keeping her.  However, I have to Jack Russell Terriers (one female and one male) I rescued them many years ago and they are part of my family now.  Unfortunately, the male is kind of aggressive with anything that moves and I am nervous about introducing them. He has picked up fights with the stray cats in my neighborhood.  My female JRT seems ok with the kitten, we have already try to introduce them and she just ignored Chloe and the kitten was playful with her.

Now the hard part:  My boyfriend and I are torn because we believed we might have created a special bond with Chloe and absolutely will be heartbroken if we have to give her up.  But, we are planning our wedding and eventually moveing in together and if we keep her then she would have to live with my dogs.  How can I make this stressfree for all of them?  I have very little experience with this new situation.  I have read hundreds of stories over the web about JRT's and cats and most of them are not encouraging.  However, I am determined to make this happen and need the best possible advise you can give so that we are one happy family.

I appreciate any help.

Thanks,
Patricia

Answer
Hi Patricia, there are two options you can look at here.
Decide you want this kitten and make it work with the dogs (this is not all that hard)
or decide that you want her to have a home of her own and let her go to someone like the lady who's cat recently died.
It is easiest to make this decision without any input from anyone else except your fiance.
I am surprised this humane society is being so bossy with you and not thinking of the well being of the kitten first.Do you have to follow their suggestions? After all you found the kitten so I would imagine you have some rights also. You also might want to check out an early spay option for her. Some vets will spay a kitten at 8 weeks old and then the kitten would be ready to go to a new home! So, that is something you should consider if you decide to let her go.
If you decide to keep her what I would do is get a muzzle for your male JRT for him to wear when he is in the house with the kitten. This way you can relax when they are all together and they can start establishing boundaries with each other. JRT's are very smart dogs. It is not impossible to teach them that they cannot go after a cat. I know many people that live with them and with cats and kittens and NO PROBLEMS ! Keep the muzzle on him until he realizes that CHASING the kitten is a NO NO NO !! and until she is about 7-8 months old. This is not cruel. Don't let anyone tell you it is. Your male can play and run and breath and with some muzzles they can even drink and eat !! They just cannot catch a ball so take him outside muzzle free to play catch and wear off some of his energy. I think you will be surprised how quickly dogs, of any breed, can figure out which cats are ok to chase and which ones are NOT !! Plus as Chloe ages she has a good set of claws and teeth that will serve her well. Most dogs just need a cat to threaten them and they will back off. Sometimes they may do some annoying barking at the cat but they will not move forward. They value their nose !!
Good luck, Teresa