About Tess

Now I really think that a dormant gene I got from my Aunt Joan is coming out. Or I've have been with Ryan too long. Or my Mother-in-law is starting to ware off on me. I don't know maybe a little bit of everything because I have just turned into the biggest "suck" when it comes to animals.

We have another cat!

Yes that is three now. But let me start at the beginning...

The first part of July our across the street neighbours, the Kilboy's found two little kittens, one boy and one girls, in their garage abandoned by their mother. I have mentioned Patrick Kilboy before, he is Ethan and Holly's friend that is at our house all the time. Anyway the kittens couldn't have been more than two weeks old. Holly Kilboy, our neighbour/Patrick's Mom, came over and wanted to know what she should do. I guess she thought since we had cats we would know what to do. Well we told her to leave them where she found them and see if their mother would come back for them. 24 hours later the Mommy cat hadn't come back and the kittens where getting weak from lack of food. So Holly Kilboy called a shelter and they told her what to do to feed them. She didn't have the heart to take them to the shelter because they were already almost full.

So over the next couple of days they feed them goats milk with a bottle. The little girl kitten didn't look like she would make it because she was all bent up and even stopped breathing for a few minutes. But Holly and her kids were vigilant and nursed these two little kitten back to health. Since Holly didn't have the heart to take them to the shelter the kittens have lived in their garage all summer. We found out latter that their mother with the rest of the litter was two doors down, but since they had been at the Kilboy's so long the rest of the litter didn't accept them. So they became the Kilboy's cats with all the neighbourhood kids coming over to play with them.

Well the boy kitten we think was adopted by someone who was looking at the house two doors down because he was just gone one day. Which left the girl kitten, who they named Ta-coon. Strange name I know.

This past week it has been getting colder, especially at night so I told Patrick that they needed to put a blanket or some old towels out in their garage for Ta-coon so she could keep warm or they needed to bring her in at night. Well they didn't and I told him again. Patrick told me they didn't have any old blankets or towels to put out there and they couldn't bring her in because Andrew, his older brother was allergic to her.

This is where I turn into the big softy. I talked to Ryan and asked him what he thought. He didn't want to make the decision and just told me "do what you want". That night they were forecasting snow and freezing temperatures and I made the decision that I didn't want to be the one to see the cat freeze to death or to be taken to the shelter where she would probably be put down since all the shelters are overflowing now, so we took her in.

Holly Kilboy was very happy that we took her in because she didn't know how much longer they could keep her. Holly is a single Mom with three kids and a very big dog and has been trying to get her kids to agree to giving Ta-coon a better home. With the better home just across the street she hoped that it would make it easier on them. Patrick informed his Mom and I that he was Okay with it as long as he got visitation. LOL

The first thing we did was change her name. I'm sorry I just can't call a cat Ta-coon and that name just didn't seem to fit her anyway. So we named her Tessie or Tess.

She is now very happy to be warm and has fit right in. Since she has been around kids since birth and is very good with the kids, even Mason, who just loves her. He lights up whenever he sees her and tries to give her kisses. She loves to be held and has a really loud "purr".

She has been really good with the litter box, which I was a little worried about since she has been outside almost all her life, but she has been a lot better than even Toofer did. Tess doesn't really like the Indoor Cat formula food because it has a lot more roughage in it than regular cat food but she is eating it. She just is trying to eat off of our plates at dinner time. But she will learn how to be an indoor cat with time.

The other two cats have been really good and they are slowly starting to warm up to her. Tess has succeeded in melting Ryan's heart and he has taken her on as "his cat" now. Not that it was that hard to get Ryan to love a new cat. He says that she reminds him of a cross between two of his other cats he had growing up, Gracie and Radar. Two strays that he brought home to his parents house, by the way. See what I mean about me being around Ryan too long and turning into a "suck". Tess has Radar's coloring and she talks like Grace. She even talks in her sleep! Can you believe it a cat that talks in her sleep. Well I guess if a dog can kick it's legs while dreaming I guess a cat can talk.

Anyway now we have three kids (2 boys and a girl) and three cats (2 boys and a girl). So now I hope we are done! With the cats at least. Kids I'm not 100% but cats, yes. I don't want to turn into the crazy cat lady.