It turns out my friend Dave from college has a cat also named Gus.
After I recovered from my overwhelming anger, I asked for a photo.
And…it turns out that this Gus is damn cute too. Gus really is a good cat name, isn’t it?
I have a cat named the Guster
Someone who likes getting up early. (And also one that wasn’t such an OCD crazy person when it comes to living with people. That one sucks. But it must be noted, also keeps a very tidy and wonderful house 
)
This morning I intended to get up at the same time as my boyfriend (6 a.m.!). I’ve always wished that I enjoyed the mornings…but I don’t. I’ve toyed with the idea that in 2012 I will get up at 6 a.m. every day.
Get up, do some yoga, read a book and head to work by 8am. If I were to get up at 6 every morning, then t hose 7 a.m. meetings I might have won’t be such a horrible shock to the system.
But 6 a.m.! It’s still dark! You can’t even tell what the weather is going to be like. Today I looked out at 6 a.m. when I was up making my boyfriend a heart-shaped egg in a pan I got him for Christmas, and I wondered, will it rain? Will it be sunny? Will it be cold or temperate? I don’t even know!!
How is a person supposed to get dressed with such a scarcity of information?! How is one supposed to enjoy the mornings when there’s no sunshine and that bed is so damn warm and a cat so fluffy to cuddle??
Really, I need to know. I want to enjoy mornings in 2012! Any advice for someone trying desperately to become a morning person? What do you wish you could change about yourself?
Look at what a cutie he is!
Lately, he’s been looking to me like a crawfish:
You can see the resemblance right?
I suppose that means I want to eat him. I mean, he is pretty cute.
The boyfriend mentioned last night that to him Gus looks a lot like Louis CK.
Now, there is no way that Gus looks more like a man than a crayfish. Sure he’s got the right coloring, but where are the whiskers?? They are both fairly crotchety old men, though. I have to concede a resemblance there.
What do you think that means about us? Who (or what) does your pet look like?
Like I did.
Really, really coveting.
You see, even my cat loves electronics. The proof is in the photo.
iPads are good for cats*. They can play that one game with the fish in the pond and never actually catch a fish. Eleven is too old to have that hurt his self esteem, right? It would only give him hours and hours of amusement.
And me too. Also, it’s a justifiable expense. How can I possibly be operating a web business without an iPad to test websites on? For instance, this one looks awesome on an iPad. Or so I think…
Ah the many justifications of life. Who will win? The battle of indulgence verses sensibility wages on…
*What do you think of the capitalization here? Does Apple have a protocol for when you start sentences with “iPod”, “iPad” or “iPhone”?? Twenty-first century problems, man. I tell you.
The Guster was really, really great in our movie Hanging with the Gus Man. What? You haven’t seen it?? Watch it now; you won’t be sorry. Seen it? Watch it again! It’s so brilliant*.
He popped up right when we needed him too. A little bit of cat treat on my fingers was all I needed to get him to approach at just the right moment.
All in all, it was an amazing filming experience.
So, I said to Will the other day, “Let’s hitch our wagons to this star. We’ll become cat handlers, move to LA. Get Gus an agent. It’s our destiny.” What could be wrong with this idea?
He wouldn’t admit it, but Will loves the Guster. After so many guys told me that one of the cardinal rules of dating was never talking about your cat, I am evidence that the right person will put up with it, even participate, and grow to feel the same way.
An adorable pair.
And if you’re someone who loves animals, you shouldn’t be with someone who doesn’t love animals. It’s just not natural. Have you ever heard that you shouldn’t talk about your animals on dates?
It is a rare moment when my main man the Guster isn’t close to mind. He was close to mind yesterday as we wandered throughout the Oakland Zoo. I was entranced. Apparently–and I blame my parents– I had never been to a zoo. Perhaps my memory fails, but I embraced the zoo with a child-like glee. Maybe it was actually taking a full day off of work.
I thought I would have been saddened to see these animals in captivity, but instead they struck me as having a pretty good life. I understand they’re not as active as they would be in the wild, but they’re safe and many appeared to be having a really great time. Especially those Squirrel Monkeys. I’d really love to be a Squirrel Monkey.
I also pondered what animals my animals, the Guster and our roommate Shawn, would want to be if they were another animal.
Guster likes to lay around and wishes he could eat all day.
The Guster turned sixty-five last year (or 11 in human years). We might not have taken out the cat book and looked up his cat age if the occasion hadn’t brought with it an extreme change in his behavior.
He went from moderately annoyed by our antics to down right grumpy.
To commemorate his new lifestyle, Will found this awesome t-shirt at Thrifttown last weekend.
We put it on him to see if he liked it.
He didn't particularly.
But ultimately admitted that it makes a darn good pillow.
The best part of my day yesterday was how adorable our two cats, Shawn and Gus were.
Shawn moved in last summer and gave the Guster a hell of a run for his money. At one point I resorted to consulting a pet psychic (old family secret for dealing with pet woes) to know how to deal with their frequent disagreements and the ensuing cat mess on my bed.
It turned out that Guster didn’t feel safe using the litter box because Shawn would attack him. What a little rascal! Gus resorted to my bed because my bed is shaped like a litter box and it smelled like me and the smell of me makes him feel safe. What a compliment!
Well, we’ve come a long way since that house divided, and these photos are proof:
