Tessa has always been very protective of her loved ones, and she is still the same at 20 years old.
The terrier mix adores her mother, but nothing compares to her toy banana. It's simply padding and yellow cloth, but it's special to Tessa—and she's making sure everyone else recognises it as such.
.jpg)
Shanna Loren, Tessa's mother, purchased the banana five years ago after a dog destroyed Tessa's beloved toy. "I found it in a trash can at a pet store, but I knew it was the size of a toy she liked," Loren told the newspaper. "As soon as I gave her the banana, she took it."
Tessa now proudly displays her bananas to visitors and demands that they pay homage to her precious toy.
"She wants people to acknowledge it before she puts it down," he said. "When she puts it down, she puts it in what she thinks is the best bed."
Puppies are obstinate when it comes to bananas; don't allow their age or hearing loss get in the way of their purpose. "We instructed the guests to tell her they saw her bananas so she could lie down," Loren went on to say. "It's funny that now that she's deaf, our friends are yelling at her, 'I love your bananas, Tessa!'"
Tessa believes that you are never too old to sleep with your favourite cuddly toy.
.jpg)
"She never made it a'toy,'" Loren explained. "It's her only small possession, and it's her life."