{"id":3248,"date":"2012-12-11T23:05:37","date_gmt":"2012-12-11T10:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dfmamea.com\/?p=3248"},"modified":"2012-12-11T23:05:37","modified_gmt":"2012-12-11T10:05:37","slug":"tessa-2000-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/tessa-2000-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Tessa 2000-2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The Cat<\/strong> – actual handle Countessa de Kitty-Kat – was buried in the fortress pet cemetery late last week.<\/p>\n

When I first met Tessa<\/strong> in 2002, she was a bit of a poor excuse for a feline – watching her climb a fence always made me flash on the unfortunate Private Pyle in Full Metal Jacket<\/a>. She wasn’t heavy or anything – just… out of practice with being a cat, or something like that. She was friendly enough (no random attacks received), well-mannered (when handled with care, she gave fair warning when enough was enough), and low maintenance (she always toileted outside).<\/p>\n

In 2003, Tessa went through a number of major life-events. The aiga, numbering three humans at that time, moved westward to what was to become Fortress Mamea. The new abode had its own resident cat, Pablo<\/strong> (full handle Pablo Ninja Cat), a large and gregarious chap. The aiga swelled with the sudden arrival of a fourth human, The Boy<\/strong>. And then The Dog<\/strong> was acquired.<\/p>\n

Each change was a challenge for Tessa. She sealed her place in the fortress hiearchy with the patient and successful stalking of a mouse under the oven. She shunned Pablo who enjoyed our company until the word ‘diet’ was mentioned, whereupon he adopted the lovely Gladys<\/strong> across the road (who feeds him – I shit you not – on a 24\/7 basis). Tessa’s relationships with late arrivals\u00a0The Boy and\u00a0The Dog could easily have been the final straws… but both boy and canine soon found their place in the fortress hierarchy (below the cat).<\/p>\n

The fortress grounds have ample trees and vegetation, and soon enough, Tessa learned how to scale fences and trees like a real cat. \u00a0The local fauna have provided other exercise, the past decade scattered with the remains of a mouse, bird or rat tastefully left outside the back door for the unsuspecting barefoot occupant. \u00a0In winter she loved the wood burner – curled whiskers a specialty – while in the summer she soaked in the sun like a four-legged black hole.<\/p>\n

Tessa will be missed. \u00a0She was loved by The Girl<\/strong> and The Goddess<\/strong>. \u00a0And although The Boy and I dreaded the racket she would make at the back door to be let into the house for —<\/p>\n

a). fuss,
\nb). food,
\nc). warmth,
\nd). company,
\ne). a). through to d).<\/p>\n

— we have found ourselves waiting to hear it in the morning, curses on the tips of our barely awake tongues – only to realise Tessa is no longer with us.<\/p>\n

May there be plentiful 1kg blocks of tasty cheddar cheese wherever she is now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Cat – actual handle Countessa de Kitty-Kat – was buried in the fortress pet cemetery late last week. When I first met Tessa in 2002, she was a bit of a poor excuse for a feline – watching her climb a fence always made me flash on the unfortunate Private Pyle in Full Metal … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Tessa 2000-2012”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[193],"tags":[775,315,331,330,316,287],"class_list":["post-3248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stuff","tag-tessa","tag-the-boy","tag-the-cat","tag-the-dog","tag-the-girl","tag-the-goddess"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3248"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3248\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3257,"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3248\/revisions\/3257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dfmamea.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}