Cat of the Week-- Trusty

This is Trusty. He is four and a half years old, male neutered domestic shorthair silver (or just plain ol' grey) tabby. We got him (for free) as a six-week-old kitten, and as we drove away from his birth family on that stormy June eve, he never looked back. He sat quietly in my lap looking around with interest and not a speck of fear or hesitancy, and then he fell asleep.

Baby Trusty:



While he has won the coveted title "Cat of the Week" before, this is a somewhat rare occasion. "Cat of the Week" is a weekly or biweekly contest we hold here in our cabin, based on many different factors: good behavior, wild antics, bringing the most gumballs and sticks on to the porch, sleeping in cute/funny places, &c. More often than not, Trusty gets the less-coveted "Not Cat of the Week". Mostly because, well, Trusty is kind of a jerk.



Instances of this would be his propensity to take up an entire human's worth of the bed, refusing obstinately to move or even budge, really.
Most cats will jump up if you hiss at them, nudge them, or attempt to lift them, Trusty goes completely limp and forces you to really commit to hefting his considerable bulk off the bed.

Also, he tends to give dirty looks.
It is true that most cats give people dirty looks, but for some reason Trusty's looks seem extra loathsome. Of course, when this is your dad, can you really blame him?



He can be sweet if the mood strikes him. And he does sleep in cute/funny places, as well as have some pretty great wild antics. But underneath it all, he's still Trusty, and I guess part of what that means is ephemeral and cannot be captured in this blog. Maybe the pictures will help.

Trusty in boxes:




Trusty and Sophie. Notice their faces. Quite different thoughts, don't you think? It's not so much that he's a bad sport, but he's not exactly a good sport, either. Though I remember this day, and I was impressed with his patience. He eventually did swat at her, but it was mostly just bluff, and probably because I was laughing at them... He may have gotten Cat of the Week for this photo shoot...



Trusty has always been a fan of the hammock...




Well, almost always...

(This was taken immediately after he fell off the hammock- not such a big fan now, are we Trusty?)

Oh, yeah, and then there was that time that we came home from work and found poor Trusty waiting on the porch with a hugely swollen face. We let him in the house, where he took himself straight to bed and slept for several hours. The swelling started to go down, but he had this big welt above his eye. Suddenly, one day, about a week later, I was looking at him and I gasped... no, it couldn't be... could it?

Yes, it was.
Someone (our neighbor) shot him with a BB gun.
So, he's lucky he's not blind, for sure.


Trusty has always been mostly Adam's cat. It was Adam, after all, who saw a picture of Trusty and his sisters on the internet and said (to my surprise) "I want that one!" So, it made sense that when Buck was born, Trusty wanted to include himself in the father/son bonding (as older son).



Not that Buck minded at all.


And some more photos...


Trusty enjoys walking in the woods with us. Cat of the Week!!


Cat of the Week!!


Carpet Pet of the Week!!

Cute sleeping position! Cat of the Week!!



Cat of the Week!!


Not really Cat of the Week material, but not bad, not bad. Keep trying. You look a little stiff.


He is a pretty boy. Keep up the good work, Trusty. You get Cat of the Week!!