The life of a homemade treats baker

If you're an animal lover like me you probably want to make sure that you know everything that is going into your dogs body. Every month my dog and cat food gets delivered and another +$80 dollars comes out of the account. Don't forget those monthly heartworm and flea medications. I knew that I needed to find a way to not only save money but to also help my family out in the meantime. I would do anything for my animals (ask my college friends as I ate ramen and beer bread for a summer when my dog Bunny needed a special diet), and so was born, Treats by Tess.

I am a teacher, a wife, and a pet mom. It all started two weeks before I moved from my parents house to pursue my college degree in North Carolina. I went to a nearby farm and took in an abandoned kitty that had been dropped off. Twenty years old and the tiny 6 week old Chloe the tabby was my first baby. Next I adopted my first pup Bunny the lab mix a short 6 months later. They became my family and were always there for me since I had moved geographically far from my human family.

After graduation I moved my fur family of two to graduate school with me in New Orleans and we adopted Pancake. Pancake is a special dog, she suffers from brain damage from abuse but you'd never know someone hurt her upon meeting her. You will never meet a happier dog in the world than this crazy girl, 8 years old now but still mentally 6 months, she will forever be a puppy at heart.

Soon after adopting Pancake I met my husband, Joey. We moved in together and received a call from a friend about a kitten he found. To which upon telling my husband he replied "We are getting another cat aren't we?" He knows me well. So came the adoption of Waffles the orange three week old tabby. He's a big cat with an even bigger personality and fit right into our family.

Now at this point my husband said no more animals, we have a full house and so for a while we stayed a family of 6 with our four furbabies. That was until I started teaching and soon took in three classroom pets; two guinea pigs (Crepe and Cinnamon roll), and a bearded dragon (Captain Crunch). We were now up to seven animals with three only being temporary residents as they spend a good portion of their year in a classroom. We thought we were done for a while, that was until the week before Thanksgiving when our neighbor found the little bobtail tabby with an aptitude for snuggling and a plethora of health issues, that we added in our latest baby Grits. Once I had named him it was game over and he became a part of the family.

With eight animals I knew we would need an extra income so I took the three things that I loved doing most and started a small business. Baking, Building, and Loving on animals lead to Treats by Tess. Our goal is to create homemade treats and decor that both you and your pet will love. We want you to feel good about the treats you are feeding your pets because we know if its important to us, chances are its important to other pet parents as well!

We hope you enjoyed reading our story and we can't wait to share our baked treats and homemade farmhouse style builds with you!