According to 94-year-old Tess, she admits that her exquisite 14-year-old tortoiseshell, "Annie is no spring chicken. I named her Annie because she was a little orphan and the name suited her."
In her youth, Annie was livelier. "Two days after adopting her, I was ready to give her back," admitted Tess.
"She was wild! She'd climb and swing off my curtains, then run over and steal my knitting wool, leaping and swatting it like prey. I once came home to a ball of wool unwound into one long strand wrapped around all the living room furniture resembling the string game, ‘the cat's cradle'. Apparently, she ‘had a real ball' while I was away.
Forget making a bed! It's im-paws-ible. Somehow, she intuitively knows when I am about to make the bed. She leaps up onto the sheets like black and white on a skunk. She's also a diva who won't eat on the floor, instead, insisting to eat on the kitchen counter. Drinking water is also unique. She does not lick water up like a ‘normal cat' with her tongue, she dips her paw in and ladylike licks her wet paw like a raccoon."
Tess keeps her bedroom window open because it is Annie's cat door to her bathroom. The strong-minded kitty paw-furs the privacy of an outdoor facility. One night, they were sitting watching TV when two raccoons casually sauntered past their chair looking for Annie's food dish. The unperturbed and uninvited guests then left the way they came in to never be seen again.
"One summer, years ago, I was visiting my mother and we saw a desperately injured raccoon in her backyard," said Tess's daughter, Amahra.
"The poor animal was blind in one eye, couldn't use one back leg and her tail was missing! I was heartbroken for her. She was so weak that she trusted me to come close as I offered her cat food and fresh water. Unbelievably, and I would not recommend this, after a week she let me pat her. While she ate, I sprayed peroxide on her wounds and she gradually grew stronger and was able to put her hind leg down and limp on it.
In the summer, Annie sleeps outside on the patio on ‘her' mat. One day, the raccoon was sleeping on it. Another day we found both Annie and the raccoon amicably sleeping on it together.
We cared for the raccoon all summer and when the weather turned cold, we set a box with towels and a warm blanket up in the car port. She stayed until she deemed herself well and one morning she wandered back into the woods and never came back."
During the night, Annie comes back through the window and curls up on the bed next to Tess. "I love her purrs-onality and company," said Tess. "When my husband was alive, he did not allow pets on our bed, so it is a treat to wake up with Annie cuddling me."
