Pet Cemetery (not scary)

Post by **joni** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 11:55 am

My grandpa Norm worked a plywood mill. One day a friendly black cat starting showing up and he and his friends would feed it scraps from their lunches. After a few weeks he became very fond of the cat and decided to take it home and named him Gus. My grandma washed Gus and it turned out he was an orange cat that had been covered in plywood mill exhaust or something. They loved Gus and he outlived my grandma. When they wanted to present him as a fancy lad they called him "Gustopher."

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 11:58 am

Thank god this isn’t scary!

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 12:13 pm

This is a very Dickensian story. From coal dust to fancy ladding!

Post by **joni** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 12:56 pm

ritchey wrote: ↑Mon Apr 20, 2020 12:13 pm This is a very Dickensian story. From coal dust to fancy ladding!

Can we get the story of Nose?

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 1:06 pm

Nosey Nose! He was a good boy. He lived a raw-dog outdoor Colorado lifestyle, no collar no leash/no gods no masters, one bath a year and covered in filth the rest of the time, very loving and beloved. He had a weird lonely life, staying alone outside in our deeply rural homestead all day while we were at work/school. He had his "rounds"--he'd disappear after breakfast and be gone for hours, who knows what he was up to. Checking out the home place, chasing voles, rolling in dead cows. As a child I was psychotically scared of the dark and I'd sometimes sneak him from the greenhouse where he slept into my actual bed, and we both loved it, and my parents would get mad because he genuinely was beyond filthy, filth of a level no contemporary urban dog could ever dream of being. I didn't care and thought he was great. One time he ate a frozen turkey that was thawing on the counter. One time he found a year-old Easter egg and ate it. We liked to dress him up in clothes and take pictures of him and get the pictures developed and then write word-bubbles on the pictures of what he was saying in the picture ("I belong in hell"). As an old man he became both blind and deaf but it didn't slow him down at all, he still headed off after breakfast and was gone for hours on his rounds; truly a testament to the power of a dog's titular Nose. One winter day my mom was home alone with the kids off at college and my dad living in a rental apartment in a different town trying to start a newspaper there, and she was headed off to work and he was making a weird guttural howling sound out on the deck that she'd never heard before, and she thought maybe she should take him with her to work but then decided against it. When she got home that night he was gone, no smiling snorting dog greeting the car as it pulled into the driveway. She called and called and walked all around and night fell and a heavy snow started falling and she went to bed but kept getting up all night long to check and see if he was shivering out on the deck but he never came back, and we never found his bones.

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 1:15 pm

Nose, no!

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 1:31 pm

Nothing Sadder Than A Dog Dying Outside

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 1:35 pm

Tell us about Whiskers AKA Ol Mean Eye

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 1:38 pm

I am digging the "tell me a story" structure of this thread!

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 2:22 pm

Tell about Whisky

Post by **joni** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 2:47 pm

I already told one! I'll wait for a:

- tell about bird (Duckula)

- tell about David

- tell about Grunty

- tell about Cotton and/or Wiki

- tell about Baz

- tell about any dog

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 3:05 pm

I have a good Whiskers story!

One night, long ago... It was my first month in a new city. The guy I was dating was a total A-hole, and somehow he had picked a fight with me and I ended up alone at his BoHo loft dorm, every light off. It was a pretty spring night to be on the town and the place was as quiet as a mouse.

But I felt so sad and far from home that I cried! Just a little sniffin and sobbing from a sad little baby. SUDDENLY, a fine whisker grazed my hand... It was Whiskers, who frantically cooed, kissed, and comforted me. I was so surprised that I laughed and just pet her.

After a few minutes my mind wandered to my hurt feelings and I cried again. And again Ms Whisky would NOT let that be! She stood on her legs to kiss my face, busily rubbed against me, murmured the dearest comfort. She convinced me to collect myself and I went to sleep.

From that day on, I knew that Whiskers was not only her Lord's hero, but mine as well.

How cute is that??

morgan · Post by **morgan** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 3:05 pm

"Mister Cat" was a kitten raised by me, at 13 years-old, for an entire summer without leaving my room once. He swiftly became the friendliest cat in the world. You could pet him and he would purr instantaneously, almost before you even touched him. He loved to be around people and would never hide when folks came over. He'd seek you out and demand pets. He'd come into my room (when he had left my room, which was rarely) and lay down on top of my neck when I went to sleep. I never moved him. He would purr the entire night like a sentient airplane neck pillow. When we moved into a bigger home he started going outside but you could just open the front door and yell his name and he'd come right back, ready to hang out. Later, when I moved to New York, and then later Los Angeles, I would come home for things like Christmas or Thanksgiving and he seemingly had learned how to speak. I'd wake up in the middle of the night to him outside the door of my parent's new guest room saying "HEEEEWWWOOOOO!!!" and "MAAAMAAAA". I swear he started to call me mama. MY mama called me a couple years ago and told me he got sick. We put him down shortly thereafter. Two days ago I found this video of me in my basement just zooming in and out on him on my new camera. He must've been about three/four years old. Here it is.

https://youtu.be/BlK68EIg4l8

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 3:09 pm

Mister Cat was gorgeous, Morgan. We love him

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 4:13 pm

@RCH, Whiskers HATED tears and emotional scenes of any kind. Sometimes when Jona wanted to snuggle with her and she wasn’t immediately in the mood he would pretend to cry and she’d come running. He’s tried this on other cats of ours since and it never works quite the same.

Tell about David!

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 4:26 pm

I love Mister Cat so much.

I want to hear about David, also Grunty (Sarah once again you need to post the pic of Grunty seeing pizza)

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Tue Apr 21, 2020 4:21 am

Morgan, if we came to your house on tour in (Jona, what year?) did we MEET Mister Cat?? I would feel so blessed.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Tue Apr 21, 2020 9:54 am

That’s gonna be 2006-2007

Remember Eggos in the pool?!

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Tue Apr 21, 2020 10:07 am

HOW COULD I FORGET?

Post by **joni** » Tue Apr 21, 2020 11:48 am

Check this out:

: F118E234-648E-4661-B6A2-246D83324E52.jpeg (88.58 KiB) Viewed 64776 times

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Tue Apr 21, 2020 12:08 pm

WHAT?!??

Boom! Eggos in the pool!

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Tue Apr 21, 2020 12:14 pm

Hahahaha wonderful

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Tue Apr 21, 2020 12:18 pm

p.s. I found that photo on the Thunder Sundress MYSPACE PAGE.

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Tue Apr 21, 2020 2:34 pm

Grunty seeing pizza:

it's the correct response, right?

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Tue Apr 21, 2020 2:42 pm

NEVER FORGETTTT

Post by **joni** » Tue Apr 21, 2020 4:32 pm

Similar to the Grunty pic, here's Whiskers looking at a chip.

GARY-19 · Post by **GARY-19** » Tue Apr 21, 2020 4:37 pm

I love Grunty seeing pizza

morgan · Post by **morgan** » Tue Apr 21, 2020 4:54 pm

m o l l y wrote: ↑Tue Apr 21, 2020 12:18 pm p.s. I found that photo on the Thunder Sundress MYSPACE PAGE.

OMG!!! Yes you all absolutely met Mister Cat.

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Tue Apr 21, 2020 6:03 pm

David is my little blessing! Today marks 12 weeks of recovery after an injury; I accidentally broke her left arm above the elbow when I stepped on her in the dark. She was laying in a place she never had been before. I'd even had a habit of slowly pushing my toe in front of me when I walked in the dark, just in case she was there, but that night I just didn't.

Every day is an extra gift. She uses her broken arm to make wild gestures while demanding things from me. Her arm can hang at an odd angle and it swings around. I call her "Swingy."

Last year, she pulled out her own tooth. It was the most metal thing I've ever seen.

She loves to wake me up by pushing her head into my shoulder with all her might while snorting and by yanking my hair with her teeth. Sometimes she says "WAKEUP!" I love to fall asleep while holding her hand or her tail.

I love to remember how David chose me to be her caregiver. A month or two prior, I decided to adopt a cat but hadn't found a love match. One day, I thought, David's a cat. She had been around but I hadn't paid much notice to her until then.

She caught on fast to my sudden interest and unceremoniously walked into Steve's, leaped on to my lap, and pawed my chest while staring deeply into my eyes and drooling. When I got my apartment all ready for her she was instantly at home and stuck to my side like glue, as if it had been her plan all along.

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Wed Apr 22, 2020 5:18 am

The story of you and David is one that brings so much warmth and pleasure to my heart. David needed you so bad and was so ready for you and you have never let her down since. I think David has unusually expressive whiskers and is a little walrus. I'm so sorry about her broken arm!!!! That must have felt awful for you both.

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Wed Apr 22, 2020 5:22 am

morgan wrote: ↑Tue Apr 21, 2020 4:54 pm
m o l l y wrote: ↑Tue Apr 21, 2020 12:18 pm p.s. I found that photo on the Thunder Sundress MYSPACE PAGE.
OMG!!! Yes you all absolutely met Mister Cat.

Hurray! Mister Cat!

I love all of your cats. They are crazy about snacks. Do they know each other?

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Wed Apr 22, 2020 11:17 am

Thank you Ritchey!! It was super rough. I got through it by leaning on my friends and therapist (thank you again Sally and Wilowowow)! David didn't hold a single grudge against me and her pain has been carefully managed. I am so grateful that it wasn't worse and that I can still look after little Dieter.

She loves so many foods and treats and enjoys many throughout the day. If she knows she will get a treat afterward, she lets me give her medicine and trim her nails so patiently!!

PS Molly, Grunty and David knew each other quite well! Grunty introduced Steve to her. David met Susan (Willow's easygoing angel cat) but David was a mean girl. David also met Wiki but she was also a brat about it then, too.

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Wed Apr 22, 2020 11:39 am

David was a cat that just hung out on Steve's porch, yelling at everyone, until RCH took her in!
You two are a really wonderful pair, perfect yin and yang.

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Wed Apr 22, 2020 11:40 am

RCH, please post the picture of David wearing a doll's wig? I can't find it right now!

Post by **joni** » Wed Apr 22, 2020 12:05 pm

RCH, thank you so much for sharing both of these tells. Whiskers' radical empathy is something I think about a lot. It seems like a million years ago when David appeared out of thin air and is still touching our lives.

kmikeym · Post by **kmikeym** » Wed Apr 22, 2020 12:07 pm

My first cat was THE ADMIRAL, a regal cat who came to Fiona and I declawed, which is awful but he was an adult cat and some previous owner was clearly a dillhole. THE ADMIRAL would "scrabble" with his little front clawless paws, which was very adorable. i always felt bad at feeling relief that he wasn't scratching the furniture "for real".

He was a BIG BOY. When it was hot he would get in the bathroom sink and FILL IT UP. And he'd open the cupboard doors and go hide in there.

RCH · Post by **RCH** » Wed Apr 22, 2020 12:33 pm

The Admiral!! What a hunk!

Here is David enjoying the glamorous life. She was just purring and feeling smug while we put actual clothes on her. She responds extremely well to praise.

I like that David is so old she's in the nice cemetery thread, just lounging about and being smug. "My bones are half dust."

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Wed Apr 22, 2020 1:07 pm

LOOK AT HER! She is an absolute doll. And hey, nice bed.

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 4:31 am

I remember Sally sending me this picture and saying you all were "sobbing" with laughter and I thought it sounded so nice. And I also laughed very hard at the picture.

THE ADMIRAL was SUCH a hunk. After Fiona moved to Minneapolis I actually saw him one last time! I had this horrible travel day where I was trying to fly to see Gary who was in Iowa, and we hadn't seen each other in two months and everything was feeling very dire and stressful, and I was flying out there for like only two days and then I had to fly back to grad school, so anyway I was very "keyed up," as my dad would say, and then my flight was late and when I landed in Minn I missed my connection. And it was like eleven p.m. and I was having a complete meltdown in the airport but I called Fiona and she came and got me like a champ even though she was doing her residency and was exactly as exhausted and harried as you would expect. On the drive back to her house I sat there crying like an asshole, and she ate the old stale half-sandwich I had brought to eat on the plane but then not eaten. Then when we walked into her living room......HE WAS THERE. The Admiral!!!!!!!! He was just the same as always, AND he slept on the couch with me. It was like sleeping with a lion. I swear that cat weighed 20 pounds. So anyway I really seized victory from the jaws of defeat that day, or rather Fiona and the Admiral seized it for me.

Post by **joni** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 10:01 am

The Admiral was so cool. Our cat Chip reminds me of him because Chip is huge.

Sidebar: I’m gonna start a new thread, @ritchey please add “keyed up.”

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 11:46 am

Molly, tell about Baz!

ritchey · Post by **ritchey** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 11:59 am

Claire also tell about Bug! Do you know, I think about Bug regularly because when I very first met you you talked about how weird and awkward it is when you run into your own cat out on the street and I thought it was so funny. Wasn't that Bug?

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 12:12 pm

David loved wearing that goddamn doll wig and sweater! She was cool as a cucumber!

m o l l y · Post by **m o l l y** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 1:50 pm

Baz Baz Baz. God, there is a hole in my little heart and soul that Baz left that will never be filled. What do I even say?

He was raised in our studio apartment so he was needy and weird as hell as all good apartment cats should be. He did so many weird non-cat things. He was my first cat so I didn't know any better. He played fetch!
He would climb up my body when I was doing the dishes, all the way up and sit on my shoulder/head. He would claw at my legs endlessly when I was writing papers for class at my giant beige computer which was on a table in the kitchen. By the time the paper was done, my legs looked like Sally's from Nightmare Before Christmas.
Sometimes we would get home and not be able to find him and he was stuck balanced on top of the open window afraid to move.
He loved being in the fridge. The moment you opened the fridge door he would sprint across the apartment and dart into the fridge before you could close it. Luc would leave him in there "to teach him a lesson" but then get super stoned, forget him in there and leave the house. I'd get home from Santa Monica College and find my cat just casually sleeping in the fridge and when I took him out (against his will) he smelled all crisper fresh.
Then we lived in a house and he became an outdoor cat, he would run to the door from wherever he was when I got home from wherever I was. I would carry him around the house the way a 3 year old carries a cat in a cartoon. Just head and front legs all stretched up and the rest of him dangling below my arm.
We (everyone) liked to imagine that Baz talked about the farmer's market, but he would call it the "firmer murmur." Later, when I was in the band Weirdo Begeirdo with yourfriendclaire, we named one of our releases "firmer murmur" with the cover being a drawing of a cat with a word bubble saying "firmer murmur."
He is dead because someone's litter of pitbull puppies got out and killed him. It is crazy to think how different my life would be if that had not happened. Like, I guess I wouldn't have moved to Crete or Spain or Belgium? Cause, Baz? I mean I loved Baz so much it was irritating (I assume).

This is a drawing EvanVNSJ made of Baz.

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tomcarroll.online · Post by **tomcarroll.online** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 6:36 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIgBF4A8fm4

Relevant to this thread, Gates of Heaven is currently on YT and is well worth your time.

sashaburchuk · Post by **sashaburchuk** » Thu Apr 23, 2020 10:37 pm

Here is a picture of Benny lurking by some pizza that I was eating in bed and would not let him lick and he is obviously pretty miffed and sitting as close to the pizza as he can without crossing any boundaries but he is hoping he can get closer and lick the pizza.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 9:16 am

Molly, remember that time Baz got out of the apartment via the window, and we ran out to get him and then locked ourselves out of the building in the process? I can’t remember how we got out of that particular pickle but I have a distinct memory of finding Baz and putting him in the car and him doing that uncanny things cats do when they’re stressed where they kind of open their mouths and...smile?

meadows · Post by **meadows** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 9:25 am

Benny always looks elegant and regal, even when desperate for a slice!
His face reads as pure disappointment, he's really let down by your choices.

yourfriendclaire · Post by **yourfriendclaire** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 9:26 am

Ritchey, timeline-wise, it must have been Bug I was talking about running into in the street, but our friend crew also had a string of nearly identical cats in college who were all big neighborhood roamers—there was a tabby, Oscar, who died and was immediately replaced by his doppelgänger, Roscoe, and then Bug came along (also a tabby). Bug was one of a litter of three kittens our friends mrbrown and lake adopted one summer while they were working at a gem and turquoise store in Durango. They drove these kittens (Bug, Gunnisson, and Polly Jean Harvey) to Los Angeles via my parents’ house in Portland. Gunnisson and PJ stayed with them and Bug became the house cat at our college house, The Compound (or Batcave, depending on who you asked) where he was raised by five (?) roommates in an atmosphere of total chaos. He was socialized by being handled and passed around by so many chain-smoking college kids, survived many a rager, and would walk me the four blocks to campus every morning. When we all graduated I got Bug, and drove him to Portland where we briefly tried to get him and old Whisker to live together (unsuccessfully). He then went to my parents, who griped at the time about taking care of “my cat” but who have since become obsessed with him, and he still lives with them, and every time we talk I’m submitted to long explanations of what Bug has “insisted” on having for lunch, because they give him very premium table scraps and serve him a saucer of milk every morning like a cat in a 1920s-era cartoon. For a while my Dad would send my Mom and I videos he called “the Daily Bug.” Anyway he’s had a good life. He’s 15 now and looks a little scraggly but otherwise is holding up well. He’s outlived both his siblings.

Post by **joni** » Fri Apr 24, 2020 9:31 am

Evidence from last week:

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