#gus — Public Fediverse posts on home.social

Panethos @[email protected] · 2026-05-04 · 09:00 UTC

A rescue cat who literally stole our hearts

“He’s just a cat” is a phrase one hears every now and then. Oh, but Gus was anything but “just a cat.”

We tearfully said goodbye to our best buddy over the weekend and are both completely devastated. Seventeen years old…but an eternity in our hearts. Personally, I don’t recall ever crying so much and so often…especially over the passing of a family pet.

I met Gus, a very handsome tuxedo cat, for the first time when he was four years old, as I started dating my future wife. Gus was one half of a dynamic kitty duo with Ellie who both lived with her and her daughters. While Ellie was open and welcoming, Gus was very shy and quite afraid of newcomers at the time. Maybe a half-hour after someone came in he would cautiously stroll into the room to see what all the fuss was about.

Over the years, Gus would grow and mature in so many wondrous ways it’s hard to imagine him once being so shy and afraid. He literally became our very best friend, especially when Ellie moved in with our youngest daughter after college. In fact, it almost seemed like he realized it was his time to shine. And boy, did he ever!

Gus went by many nicknames, including Gussie, Gus-Gus, Gustav the Magnificent, Gus-a-roo-roo, and most recently as Secret Agent 47. When you have a debonair tuxedo cat living with you, what else can he be but a spy. His assignment (and life-long mission) was to find intelligence among humanoids. Obviously, a nearly impossible task.

Secret Agent 47 became his alternative-persona when we moved to the Southwest about five years ago. And did he ever fit that star billing. He also attracted a huge following on Nextdoor here in the Albuquerque area, once garnering more than 10,000 views. Neighbors and online acquaintances always were excited to learn the lastest adventures of Gus and celebrated every victory over his nemesis like the Celery Stalker and the Grim Sweeper.

The outpouring of love and affection on Nextdoor for this “community cat” as one fan wrote after his passing, was so very heartfelt and kind. Even now, we fully expect him to be performing aerial security reconnaissance for Heaven to assure that the devil never makes any inroads there.

Gus loved the Southwest…especially the sunshine. After twelve years in often cloudy Michigan, the amount of sunshine here was wonderful for him. Like clockwork, throughout the year you knew roughly what time of day it was by where Gus was napping in the sun. Please note, I use the term “napping” for the uninitiated. Actually, he was silently spying on anyone and everyone in the house. What a better cover than to be a napping cat.

Gus even succeeded in converting this blog author from a dog lover into an ardent cat lover. Nearly every morning we would Meow at me and I would give him his “kitty message.” He would just purr away while stretching out and have a huge smile on his face. During the day, we would hug him atop the reclining chair, atop the couch, or wherever he happened to be at the time. In the evenings, he would wander back and forth between our chairs to get hugs, pet, and warm snuggles from both of us.

Gus was such a huge part of our lives…in the car on vacations, at our family lake cottage, in the kitty backpack while on hikes with us, sitting next to us at the dinner table, watching us make dinner from atop a barstool at the kitchen counter, striding into hotel rooms and selecting his own bed, and anywhere and everywhere you could possibly imagine. Everywhere we look, things seem eerily empty and forlorn without him here.

We will always love and miss you, little buddy. Our hearts will never be the same.

Peace!

#animals #cats #fun #Gus #home #kitties #love #pets #spies #travel

#animals #cats #fun #gus #home #kitties