Name: Tess
Location: Whiskey City
What makes Tess so mean?
Sorry I don’t have a better photo of Tess. She doesn’t care much for posing.
My wife got Tess when she was my fiancee (my wife, not Tess). I would visit her at her apartment and this cute little black kitten always attacked me, always drawing blood. The landlady decided cats weren’t allowed so I agreed to keep Tess. Tess showed me what she thought of her new home by knocking one item off a shelf each night, usually breaking it. But she did restrain herself on attacking me, limiting the attacks to only a couple a day.
After the marriage Tess was due for her shots. My wife asked me to go with her to the vet, explaining that Tess’s first shots a year before were a total disaster. I agreed. At the vet’s I took Tess into the exam room and took her out of her carrier and held her. Tess seemed rather well behaved lying in my arms, purring, and only occasionally looking around the room and hissing. Then the vet came in. Tess remembered him. Let me just say that blood flowed, but not Tess’s. The vet informed us that we were never to bring Tess back. Tess has not had shots since.
After about three years we moved to a bigger home. Tess did not approve. She kept trying to move back. After about a dozen trips back to the old house to get her she finally seemed resigned to the fact that we weren’t moving back.
Over the years Tess and I have developed a sort of truce. I would not pet her unless she insisted. And then I would read her mind and stop petting her before she attacked me. The problem is the other cats. Over the years we have collected a few more cats. Tess hates them all. For about two years Tess had actually moved in with a neighbor, only occasionally visiting us. During those visits she was very affectionate towards my wife and me, not attacking us once. But she didn’t show the other cats the same tolerance. Apparently Tess and the neighbor had a falling out because Tess has moved back. The other cats are not happy about that.
Photo submitted by: James
Meankitty 