Caturday in Valhalla

poor beleaguered, yet slightly devilish appearing, Gus

It’s unanimous -- no one likes Gus (nee Greta).

The heat’s finally broken and, now that we can all breathe easier, one thing’s become clear. Even Coco, who doesn’t go outside, isn’t keen on our tiny boy. She fetches me when Gaston and Rocco come around, herds me to the front door -- ‘my friends are here and they’re hungry!’ When Gus arrives she just sits in her window seat staring daggers.

An obviously stoned Gaston

Sargent Rocco

steely eyed Coco

  Rocco and Gaston, who’ve had an uneasy but evolving truce since last summer when Rocco put our fluffy Maine Coon cat in his place, seem to have banded together in their Let’s-Get-Rid-of-Gus campaign.

Gaston goes with his strength -- Industrial Caterwauling. Rocco employs the Glare of Certain Doom and, if that, oddly and unaccountably, fails he goes into angry panther mode and chases our small grey boy off.

Now, I was feeling all sorry for Gus until:

1) The Amazing Bob told me that he witnessed Gus doing the cat version of picking a fight. What’s that look like? Gus crouched down, swiftly moving into Gaston’s personal space, saying 'What'd you say? Why you lookin' at me cross eyed?' and the ever popular 'So you think you're a tough guy, do ya?'. 

Jen said she saw him, possibly, being the instigating intimidator once too.

Is Gus just defending himself? Standing his ground? I’m happy as fuck that my herd isn’t armed!

2) I witnessed Gus attempting to eat out of Gaston’s bowl while our fluffy boy was RIGHT THERE! 

An act of aggression? Naked hunger? Poor social skills? Dunno.

OK, clearly I still feel sympathy for Gus, though he’s a terribly messy eater -- half his food ends up on the ground around his bowl. He’s so small and relatively thin. He needs to eat, eat (see, this is where my Italian American heritage comes out in spades).

Whether or not Gus is a stealth, asshole beast is, as yet, unclear -- to me anyway. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. All I know is that, in my role of peacemaker, I will continue dispensing copious amounts of kitty weed (AKA catnip), Whisker Lickin's and Temptations cat treats, tuna and pats.

And kitty yoga breathing.