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Where We Left Off:
In the previous case, Ollie and Gus had to hire an outside freelancer to help me find a missing item.
The Gift:
When this case comes out early for subscribers, we will be less than 24 hours from GusDay2026! Tuesday is the 10th Adoptiversary for our younger detective, Burton Guster Nabu!
This website is younger than that which is why there are broken links and galleries in the earliest years. I fix them as I come across a need to refer back to them.
The Mystery Is – How Would You Celebrate?
There are so many creative ways to celebrate your companion animal’s life. What’s the most important and FREE? Spending time with them and enjoying every second of it. Even the heartbreaking seconds are valuable to both of you.
Our Traditions
We always have an Irish soda bread. I like mine toasted lightly with vegan butter. Gus loves that too. He’s not picky about his butters. Sometimes there are cookies. Other times, there’s cake. We leave those decisions up to The Cook who absolutely loves making Gus Day special. To be honest, we celebrate Gus and Ollie together.
Gus is also getting a box of Churus to share with Oliver over time. The addictive nature of whatever Inaba does to Churu treats causes Gus to refuse his important prescription food because he wants to live off Churus and freeze-dried chicken. He also loves table scraps of turkey, chicken, and canned tuna.
The boys are each receiving beautiful little plates, each with a cat somewhat resembling them. They weren’t commissions. The shop is noted in the list below.
Gift Ideas
According to Good Housekeeping, the tenth anniversary designated gift should be tin or aluminum. Zoetis Petcare has a good list of suggestions for what to get your companion animal on a special day. One of their suggestions is to commission a pet portrait.
I love this idea because hiring artists helps them earn an income from what they love doing and it also proves that art by humans has value that cannot be replicated. This is a gift that can range in price from $10-350. I’ve gotten some adorable digital art pieces from Kyna over the years:
Spending money on Gus and Oliver’s comics has been an extreme case running into the thousands. Comics include pages with panels and each of those panels is a piece of art; plus there’s the lettering and overall design which is another artist. However, many comic book artists will also take commissions at a more affordable rate than over 20 pages of a comic book. They’re probably used to getting requests for drawing Spider-Man and Batman, but I bet if you find an artist who loves animals, they’ll still be interested in that commission. It’s also really fun to get your pet as one of the characters like Kyna’s rendition of Gus as Indiana Jones.
The middle ground price range is $150-350 for original art that comes as something sent to you to be hung up and admired. We have one piece like that by comic book artist Sian Mandrake. Sian may be known for horror, but they also love cats and have a cat with a similar marking as Gus.
One of my dearest friends, Meg Cocho, is a fantastic artist with a huge heart. She loves to create pet portraits. She even turned Gus into a vampire and carved him into a jack o’lantern one year! If you know an artist with access to foam pumpkins, you can have a jack o’lantern to use every year. Just don’t use real candles. We had so much fun. You can see her gallery at her website.
Another affordable way to have beautiful art is to buy prints that you can frame and hang. Since many artists work digitally now, there’s no painting on a canvas. Buying prints that match your aesthetic and your cat’s personality are usually under $50 and still support the artist.
Nicole of Ghost Kitten Art has a style that I’d call 80’s Black Light Posters meets Vincent Van Gogh. Their store has oracle decks and bags, sometimes calendars and prints of exceptionally magical cats.
LeezaWorks has all kinds of cat merchandise featuring black cat Nigel and other colorful cats. If you love smaller prints and stickers, this is an artist for you.
There’s also the art of pottery. I ordered Gus (and Ollie because his special day is April 1st) a handmade dish. That artist is Good Night Gracie and they are retiring soon! If you see something you love, better grab it now.
Donations
Gus and Ollie are big supporters of donating to animal causes like rescues, shelters, foster parents, and wildlife rehabilitation organizations. These are some of our favorite places to support:
- Second Chance for Animals (they’re the volunteers at the Franklin Twp. Animal Shelter that do fundraising and that’s where Gus came from!)
- Goats of Anarchy
- Sarah Donner Music & Kitten Rescue
- Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge
- Woodlands Wildlife Refuge
- Furball Farm Sanctuary
- Also consider checking GoFundMe for anyone who needs assistance paying their vet bills or affording food and rent so they don’t have to rehome their loved ones.
Case Summary:
We’ve presented a number of ideas here for celebrating the life of your favorite animal friend. If you don’t have one, maybe you have a neighborhood squirrel or birds or a coyote you have a special bond with. Think about giving them a special treat or donation today.
Case Status: Open Forever