Someone, namely KeeKee (a neighbor’s cat formerly known to us as Mr. MewMew), has a catnip habit, but, that catnip habit has allowed Mom to pet him a reasonable amount of time whenever she brings out the goods. A word of warning however: NO AMOUNT of catnip is EVER going to allow touching of the forbidden belly, in case you might be curious. Just don’t.
This is Tippy! We haven’t seen Tippy since last March or maybe earlier than that. He looks very good and his fur is so shiny. Someone’s taking very good care of him. Of course, he didn’t let Mom come up to him but he didn’t run away either. Good to see you again, Tippy. Until the next time . . . be a good, safe boy. You can visit our feeding stations any time.
We’ve gotten a lot of rain lately, and while Mom LOVES rain, she’s getting nervous and antsy. You see, this is about the time of year she checks her holiday light design plan for 2024 that she drew up last April and pulls boxes of Christmas lights out from storage.
But, but, but . . . what about celebrating one holiday at a time, Mom? You’re always complaining about people jumping the gun on that.
Yes, yes, Mom poo-poos Tessa while waving a hand. Thanksgiving comes late this year leaving one less week to get strings of light tossed seemingly willy-nilly over bushes (she swears they are carefully tossed) and wrapped around tree trunks while muttering/swearing over sections of lights that worked perfectly fine in the garage and go out permanently the instant it sees the light of day.
I wouldn’t expect you to understand, Tessa. Don’t worry your pretty head over it. Rain or, well, more rain, those lights are going up out there and soon!
Today, we’re flashbacking with baby Tessa. What can we say about our tuxie girl that we haven’t already shared? She’s been rowdy and prone to trouble since the very moment Mom took her by her scruff from the 2 young girls the 3-pound Tessa was attempted to maul. One small kitten carrier and a few band-aids later, the girls asked if we’d take her in. Nothing much has changed since that April day in 2012. Occasionally, Tessa has to go into a carrier (vet checkups) and she doesn’t mind when Mom grabs her by the scruff of her neck to do it.
The story back in 2012 was Tessa was found crying and wandering the streets and the girls were looking for her home. Tessa had remarkably clean and soft paw pads for a kitten wandering the streets, Mom remarked, and then, girls’ story evolved so much, we never got a straight answer. Weeks we spent earnestly looking for her real home was never found and most likely, to those girls and probably Tessa too, the only thing found was that we were suckers for “lost” kittens.
And so, that wild gray and white tuxie girl joined our family and became the tuxie terror other cat owners warned us about.
The odd thing was, that for the briefest of moments weeks before, Mom thought she might want to look for a black and white tuxie kitten/cat to adopt and odder still, there didn’t seem to be any black and white tuxie cats or kittens available to adopt at the time in our area or across the river in another state. It was like tuxies were the IT cat at the moment and every single one had been adopted. “Just wait until kitten season,” we were told and so we sighed and Mom thought maybe she’d wait or not and maybe she’d look for an orange girl kitten instead. That’s another story for another time.
Three weeks later, not black and white, but a gray and white tuxie was plopped into our lives and weaseled her way into our hearts. Today, Tessa’s still a handful and something tells us that was her plan all along.
