Hello there, feline-loving friends! First off, I want to apologize for the lack of posts lately. We’ve both been pretty busy lately, but things are slowing down for me (Pixelcat) so hopefully I’ll be able to start posting regularly again.
Now, without further ado, Wes is going to introduce you to Gumpo (pronounced GOOM-PO), his extremely human-like and clever cat!
Gumpo is a 5 year old boy cat. We got him from the local SPCA when he was about 8 months old.
Gumpo is unusually smart. He likes to figure out how things work by watching my wife and I. He has figured out how to open doors, use the toilets, get water from taps, tap the buttons on the microwave and TV remote control, turn off and on light switches, opening the dishwasher (not sure why he likes to do this), etc.
He also has an interesting speaking vocabulary – he can speak the following words in the right situation: “Hello”, “Bye-Bye”,”cookie”, “morning”, “gohan” (Japanese for dinner), “Mizu” (Japanese for water). He understands about 40 words. He has also picked up my wife’s whining sound/ intonation when he is in disagreement.
We’ve also taught him how to play soccer – which is cute.
Every morning, we give him cat treats. He jumps and tries to catch these in his two paws. When he succeeds, he takes the cookie from his paw and directs it towards his mouth.
We also have a hunting game that we play with each other – either he hunts me or I hunt him around the house. . . .
Gumpo spends a lot of time watching what my wife and I do. A few months after we got him, he tried walking on 2 feet for about a month – but eventually gave up.
As you can see, Gumpo is great in front of the camera.
This picture is from a couple of years ago. We took him to see Santa at the mall. The expression on his face was soooo cute.
This photo is from a professional session for office photos with a photographer. Gumpo has a tie on and looks a bit punk rock.
This photo was taken about a year ago by myself. Gumpo just decided to sit under my wife’s umbrella for a moment. Turned out to be a cute photo-op.
This photo is a close up that my wife took when Gumpo was in a really happy mood one day earlier this year. Yes, my cat smiles.
This is from Halloween 2 years ago. Gumpo always dresses up for Halloween. Gumpo and I always meet kids that come trick or treating to our door. Gumpo has become a bit famous for this among the kids in our neighborhood. The year of this photo, he just had a sweater on. But we have had him dressed up as a pirate, cowboy, and clown. I love this photo as it shows some of Gumpo’s attitude and confidence.
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This post is testament cats are intelligent creatures. I hear so many people say cats are dumb, and I think its simply because they don’t like them. I find it really interesting and amazing all of the things Gumpo can do. He has a very handsome face, as well.
In regards to him standing on his back two feet imitating a human, my cat Gizmo does something similar. At random times, I will see her sitting on her hind legs, and her front paws bent in front. She looks like a meerkat when she does this. I have found it strange sometimes because she’ll look at me for approval, such as, “Is this how you do it? Am I standing like you now?” I didn’t know if it was something only Gizmo figured out, as I had never heard of anyone’s cat doing such a thing. :)