TIME: 12:20 PM
PLACE: Basement
SUBJECT: Tessa in a dinosaur hat
I went down to the dungeon (the basement) to begin to clear a path and make room for items which need to be removed from the rental house.
While in the midst of getting a load of stuff together for the HH to take to the thrift store, I found a Halloween costume/cat hat and put it on Tessa.
She was not amused.
I was.
TIME: 8:18 PM
PLACE: Home
SUBJECT: Tessa
A Caturday photo from the archives…
Miss Tessa, age 2, sleeping in Stella’s Pack ‘n Play.
TIME: 8:41 PM
PLACE: Upstairs – Stella’s room
SUBJECT: Tessa
When you are almost 14 years old (that’s 72 in human yeas), you get a little grumpy at times.
Of course, she’s been grumpy pretty much her whole life, so `nothing much has changed.
Dust is a protective coating for fine furniture.
—Mario Buatta
TIME: 12:57
PLACE: Living room
SUBJECT: Tessa (& a dusty TV armoire)
Tessa made one of her rare appearances downstairs.
As you can see, I’ve better things to do than dust.
Like sleep.
TIME: 7:31 PM
PLACE: Claudia’s room
SUBJECT: Jack & Tessa
They don’t get along very well.
When they are in the same room, there is usually some underlying tension between them.
They don’t trust each other at all.
…And I don't like nobody touching my stuff. So just keep your meat-hooks off. If I catch any of you guys in my stuff, I'll kill you.
~Psycho, Stripes. Columbia Pictures Corp, 1981.
TIME: 11:15 AM
PLACE: Kitchen
SUBJECT: Tessa & cash
Just try and steal that money.
I dare you.
TIME: 1:28 PM
PLACE: Home
SUBJECT: Looking out the front door
And in weather news….
It snowed outside today.
“My cat is not insane, she's just a really good actress.”
― P.C. Cast, Untamed
TIME: 7:18 PM
PLACE: Pantry
SUBJECT: Tessa
Tessa is still alive and kicking and still crazy.
She will be 11 years old around April.
Because she doesn't like the dog, she usually spends the majority of her time hiding out upstairs.
However, she ventures down when the time is right.
Tonight, I found her warming herself by the heat register in the pantry.
The dog was nowhere in sight.
TIME: 1:22 PM
PLACE: My Desk
SUBJECT: Tessa
Tessa has no Christmas spirit.
I’m grumpy that I have to go back to work tomorrow.
We are made for each other.
“Cats are the ultimate narcissists. You can tell this because of all the time they spend on personal grooming.”
~James Gorman
TIME: 11:23 AM
PLACE: Basement
SUBJECT: Tessa and her tongue
We’ve been doing some major remodeling of the upstairs bathroom which has left the walls exposed down to the studs. Ms. Tessa has been taking advantage of the open access to the crawlspace. She’s been disappearing and then showing up a couple of hours later with filthy, sooty, dirty paws. It takes a lot of grooming to get her fur back to its original white.
Lyle Lanley: Throw up your hands and raise your voice!
All: Monorail!
Lyle Lanley: What's it called?
All: Monorail!
Lyle Lanley: Once again...
All: Monorail!
Marge: But Main Street's still all cracked and broken...
Bart: Sorry, Mom, the mob has spoken!
All: Monorail! Monorail! Monorail! Monorail!
Homer: Mono... D'oh!
"Marge vs. the Monorail." The Simpsons. 14 Jan. 1993. Television.
TIME: 8:59 PM
PLACE: Upstairs
SUBJECT: Tessa
Here is Tessa, lying “Monorail” style on the bannister in our upstairs hallway. The recipient of her evil glare was the dog, who happened to be sitting right beside me when I took the photo.
“If you hold a cat by the tail you learn things you cannot learn any other way.”
Mark Twain (American Humorist, Writer and Lecturer. 1835-1910)
TIME: 11:14 PM
PLACE: Kitchen
SUBJECT: Tessa on a kitchen chair
I just arrived home from a trivia night. We came in second place – Yea us. Our prize was $100, so basically we all received our entrance money back ($10). Sweet! As I walked into the door, all the animals greeted me – I am so loved. I was surprised that Tessa was part of the bunch. She usually stays upstairs when the dog is out and about. It’s only taken her 5 years, but she’s finally getting braver. Right after I took this photo, she hissed at Oreo (who had dared to walk under the kitchen table to get by my side), jumped off of the chair and disappeared into the basement.
“Now I thought I would observe how he spent his Sunday. While I and my companion were looking about at the trees and river, he went to sleep. Indeed, he improved every opportunity to get a nap, whatever the day.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. "The Allegash and East Branch" (1864) in The Maine Woods (1864), in The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, vol. 3, p. 223, Houghton Mifflin (1906).
TIME: 5:51 PM
PLACE: Basement
SUBJECT: Tessa, napping on the warm dryer
I spent my Sunday doing laundry. The cat spent her Sunday napping on the warm dryer. I think she enjoyed her day more than I did.
“I had been told that the training procedure with cats was difficult. It's not. Mine had me trained in two days.”
Bill Dana (American comedian, actor, and screenwriter, b1924)
TIME: 8:23 PM
PLACE: Bathroom tub
SUBJECT: Tessa and her water bucket
While Jack shares a water bowl with the dog, Tessa refuses to do so. Instead, she likes to drink out of a small, blue bucket that we keep in the bathtub. She prefers that it is filled to the top so she can drink without having her whiskers touch the bucket’s interior. If it isn’t filled up, and you just happen to be making use of the facilities, she will push her way through the bathroom door, jump on the tub and stare at you until you figure out that her bucket needs to be refilled. As you can see, I am trained well.
