HE WINCHESTER-NABU DETECTIVE AGENCY

AMBER LOVE 08-JAN-2018 My work is supported by the generous backers who adore my cat stories at Patreon.com/amberunmasked and they also get first access to what’s happening with my books and podcast. Also, I’m an Amazon Influencer so you can shop through my personal recommendations and buy my books with these handy links below:

[amazon_link asins=’1976417228,B07255N3VW,0998061506,B01AV44VR2,1517165806′ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’amberunmasked-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’f1e7490e-a2e0-11e7-b05a-4d0009f1e1ae’]

ADVENTURES WITH GUS – CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE: TRAINING DAY

[accordion title=”Expand for Adventures with Gus Table of Contents”]

• Chapter One – The Great Hunt
• Chapter Two – The Great Escape
• Chapter Three – The DaVinci Plan
• Chapter Four – On the Wild Side
• Chapter Five – The Leash I Could Do
• Chapter Seven – The Two Snakes
• Chapter Eight – Heat Wave
• Chapter Nine – The Sleepless Detective
• Chapter Ten – Baby Beasts
• Chapter Eleven – The Blue Dahlia
• Chapter Twelve – Stray Cat Strut
• Chapter Thirteen – The Strange Case of DI Nabu and Mr. Hyde
• Chapter Fourteen – Gus and the Grumpy Old Man
• Chapter Fifteen – The Night of the Hunter
• Chapter Sixteen – On Dangerous Ground
• Chapter Seventeen – Escape in the Fog
• Chapter Eighteen – World of Witcherscape
• Chapter Nineteen – Romancing the Stone
• Chapter Twenty – Where the Sidewalk Ends
• Chapter Twenty-one – Out of the Fog
• Chapter Twenty-two – The Moletiverse
• Chapter Twenty-three – To Kill a Woodpecker
• Chapter Twenty-four – Follow Me Quietly
• Chapter Twenty-five – Hell’s Half Acre
• Chapter Twenty-six – Black Snake Moan
• Chapter Twenty-seven – Night of Terror
• Chapter Twenty-eight – Spellbound
• Chapter Twenty-nine – Ghost Rider
• Chapter Thirty – Chips in the Wall
• Chapter Thirty-one – Of Mice and Men
• Chapter Thirty-Two – The Fairies’ Dancing Place
• Chapter Thirty-Three – The Lovely Bones
• Chapter Thirty-Four – Two Hounds of the Baskervilles

[/accordion]

Where we left off…

THE WINCHESTER-NABU ESTATE. INTERIOR.

The temperatures have been bitter. It hasn’t been above freezing in over a week. Gus has developed cabin fever and has made it known to everyone. Oliver is content slowing down for the winter. He can usually be found curled up sleeping on his favorite human or near the only fireplace. It would be nice if Gus had some interest in the research parts of the cases though. All he wants to do is hunt for treasure and keep intruders out.

Animals and Yoga

Since we’ve been stuck inside that means we aren’t walking for two hours a day. I’ve tried to increase my yoga and meditation time. Both boys seem to be going along with it. They even got their own yoga mat to share. I’m hoping that keeps mine from getting chewed and clawed. It’s an impressive quality mat by Feline Yogi. It’s actually thicker than the average yoga mat and has a toy attached.

There’s a growing trend of incorporating animals into yoga classes. I’ve seen this done with dogs, cats, and goats. I haven’t worked with Gus enough to get him to do asanas with me, but he’s excellent at doing his own. Oliver is superb at meditating. When he finally relaxes into his thoughts, he goes deep.

I’ve found that with Gus, the easiest way I can incorporate asanas between us is doing varieties of forward folds. Either standing or sitting, it’s easy to forward fold, pet the kitty. I often find myself saying this aloud. I’ve seen plenty of people on Instagram who end up with cats on top of them during savasana (corpse pose). However, I have learned that neither of them of fond of singing bowls being played.

I wish I could say all this meditation has “cured” my mental health, but it hasn’t and I knew it wouldn’t. I’ve been living with this and trying different treatments since I was in my twenties. There’s no magic “cure” for mental illness. I’m still anxious, depressed, and suffering from panic even if the symptoms present in different ways now. I’m not crying every day, so that’s a good part of it. I’m also enjoying my time with Gus doing our training outside and working to see what my body feels like doing each day. Doing work that I enjoy on my own schedule while getting a lot of cat time is the best therapy I have found.

Training Cats and Humans

I finished reading Jackson Galaxy’s Total Cat Mojo book right before the end of the year. As a big fan of his Animal Planet show, My Cat From Hell, I knew a lot of the advice, but it was great to see the details about why Jackson gives the specific tips and training he does.

[amazon_link asins=’0143131613,0399163808′ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’amberunmasked-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’52025886-efd4-11e7-9686-4373390ac4c3′]

Fortunately, Gus and Ollie’s introduction to each other was a piece of cake, unlike when it was between Oliver and Caico. She hated him so much. She pretty much hated all animals. Gus and Ollie were partners right away. In fact, there were months when I didn’t think Gus liked me at all because he spent all his time with Ollie. Now we have an interesting territorial dynamic. Gus wants everything Oliver has: space, food, and toys. Oliver is timid and sneaks from room to room afraid of being ambushed.

A post shared by Amber Love (@amberunmasked) on Nov 2, 2017 at 7:46am PDT

The good thing though is that despite Gus’ bullying, Ollie gives it back even sometimes being the one to make the first move. But as far as space goes, Gus seems to be protective of the second floor which is where the official Winchester-Nabu Detective Agency offices are. They peacefully coexist in one of the rooms: the sewing room / indoor cat garden / location of the second litterbox.

I’ve observed Gus standing at the top of the stairs like a sentinel. Other times, Oliver sits just outside a door looking in as if he’s waiting for the coast to be clear and then continue to wait for a formal invitation. Perhaps Oliver is simply polite, but he should know that it’s safe for him to come in whenever he wants.

Among the tips for developing cat mojo in the felines of your life, Jackson recommends strict routines. This is something we don’t have. Our adventure times depend on the weather and season which is probably the biggest hurdle Gus feels. The other is having specific dining times, about four small meals per day. This is the part where it involves all the other humans in the house being trained in new standard operating procedures and they have refused to sign off on it.

As for indoor activities, Gus and Oliver have different times of the morning when they like to come to me for their exercise training. Gus is back to chasing paper balls as he used to before we were going on outdoor adventures. Ollie is fond of a certain feather toy and he loves to play a sort of cat whiffle-ball with paper balls. It’s interesting to see how each one interacts differently with the paper balls. Ollie will catch, bat, and carry them; Gus will chase them but only about a quarter of the time, kick them from place to place like soccer.

Meanwhile, during the day, I have to listen to Gus cry at the doors wanting to go out. I’ve amused him and let him out onto the balcony to see how cold it is. Still, thirty minutes later, he’ll be back at the same door crying. I don’t know why he believes I have weather-altering abilities.