Tess
Tess has her own ritual at meal time. First she performs a pirouette. Then she sits politely while mom brings the bowl. Mom asks her to wait and puts the bowl down. Tess gives mom a big slurpy kiss on her cheek and when mom tells her “OK” Tess dives into her food.
When Tess does the kiss thing it makes mom a little sad. She says once upon a time somebody cared enough about Tess to teach her to kiss.
Mom says there might be somebody out there who still misses Tess and wonders what happened to her.
But when Tess was picked up as a stray she didn’t have a collar or a microchip. Maybe Tess pulled out of her collar when she got scared. She’s done that with us a few times. She’s a master at bolting out the door. Then she goes insane, running around like a little mouse.
I’ve asked Tess to tell me about her past, but she says she can’t remember. She says the panic of being lost and the horror of the shelter made her forget everything except the kissy thing.
I’m sure glad mom found Tess for me. I want Tess to forget how scared she was in the shelter and just be happy that she has a home at Asherpark. I want mom to stop feeling sad about what might have happened to Tess before we got her. The past is behind her and Tess says she’s really happy with her new life.
I think humans are goofy to worry about the past. Time to move on and enjoy life now. Me and Tess start over each morning. We never stay mad at each other over some silly thing that happened yesterday. People should try living each day with a dog’s mind. It’s much more fun. Gotta run!