Once upon a time in 2012, a couple of young girls came to our door with a squirming gray and white kitten in their hands.

“Can you take this kitten?” they asked without telling us where, exactly, said kitten might have come from. “We found it,” is all they would say other than, “We heard you like cats.”

Oh, really… What would you have said to that? And to this?

Baby Tessa with her Secret Stripes, 2012 – © Colehauscats.com

Tessa’s baby eyes, 2012 – © Colehauscats.com

Baby Tessa is coy, 2012 – © Colehauscats.com

Sneaky Baby Tessa is sneaky, 2012 – © Colehauscats.com

We never did get a straight answer out of the girls or their parents so we had to take them at their word. Within the hour we had made up and plastered found kitten posters all over the neighborhood and surrounding areas and made calls to the local humane society who added this kitten, whom the girls had named Angel, to their lost and found listing.

“Angel” went into a carrier – she really was quite squirmy, and immediately to a closed bathroom where Mom proceeded to comb countless fleas out of the kitten’s fur. Mom also noticed the kitten had very soft paw pads, making her unlikely to have been outside very long, if at all.

“Where did you come from, kitten?” Mom asked. “Angel” had suddenly taken a vow of silence, and we don’t care what the fleas had to say because, ugh, fleas!

The kitten stayed in “quarantine,” our bedroom, through three weeks and two vet trips to ensure she was healthy, and yes, she was very squirmy there, too.

This cat ate the hat, 2012 – © Colehauscats.com

After three weeks without a single phone call or inquiry to our found kitten poster, we went back to the girls’ parents homes and told them we wished to adopt “Angel.” We had fallen in love. Was that the plan all along? Whose plan? The girls, or the kitten’s plan? The parents were more than happy to hear we loved the kitten and would care for it always, and the girls wanted to come visit often, which they did until their families moved out of state. They still called the kitten “Angel” even though we named her Tessa.

Kitten yoga, Tessa-style, 2012 – © Colehauscats.com

Baby Tessa at rest, 2012 – © Colehauscats.com

Tessa has been a handful, to be sure. Always looking for trouble, always into this and that and with no aversion to danger, she’s also been a joy and a love-heart. Must be a Tuxie thing. Tuxies sure do know how to wrap their humans around their paws.

Tessa, 2018 – © Colehauscats.com

You can read more about Tessa and the rest of the Colehaus Cats on our About page here. Have a good weekend!

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Here’s a fun online jigsaw puzzle of baby Tessa at rest care of JigsawPlanet.com. And, per request, here’s a puzzle of Viola’s Big Eyes from Wednesday’s post. Have fun!

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A Colehaus Cats flashback:

2017 – No post
2016 – No post
2015 – Mondays
2014 – No post
2013 – No post
2012 – No post