Name, age, sex, breed: Gizmo, 3 years old, male, Russian Blue

Owner, city: Bruce and Sonia, Santa Cruz, CA

How I got my name: When Gizmo was younger he looked a bit like a Mogwai. I think it was mostly that he had these round, saucer-like eyes. He now has many nicknames, like Fatbot, The Giz, Gizmurder, and Giztard.

How we met: Similar to Dim Sum’s rescue story, Gizmo was found while walking my dog Lulu around my Brooklyn neighborhood. I spied him and his siblings, at just 2-3 months old, running around a few of the abandoned lots near my house. After a failed attempt to trap them in my cat carrier (I had yet to learn about trap-neuter-return) I gave up, only to find the three rascals a few days later making house in the front yard of a brownstone a few blocks away. While sitting outside the fence, naively trying to call these three feral kittens over, a fellow cat lover walked by and gave me the number of a local cat trapper. The next night I met up with the trapper and her “assistant,” who gave me an awesome tutorial on how to use raccoon traps to catch feral kitties (Andrea and Emily soon became good friends of mine, the latter introducing me to my now husband!). After three nights of trapping we finally had all three kittens. I was able to get two comfortable with humans and adopted out. Gizmo was my failed student. Luckily for him he’s crazy handsome and he looks just like my cat growing up, so I had a soft spot for him and let him stick around. Despite his semi-feral nature, I’ve learned to love his complicated personality. Any minutiae of affection from him is like winning the lottery.

Personality type: Schizophrenic. Bruce and I honestly believe that Gizmo may have multiple personalities. He often acts one way, only to suddenly look like he’s just woken up, terrified.

Siblings: Dim Sum and Pookie

Pet peeves: People trying to touch him.

Favorite place to lounge: In his tank, also known as an Ikea woven basket, or anything that’s too small for his large stature. If Dim Sum is on the bed with us, he loves to snuggle between Bruce and I and cry for pets (the only time he likes to be touched).

Favorite foods: I haven’t found a food this 17 lbs. cat doesn’t like.

Forbidden indulgences: Dim Sum’s butt. He loves sticking his nose in it and taking a big whiff.

Strangest habits: See above. He also likes to walk around the house yowling if all of us (animals and humans) aren’t in the same room. He must he part herding cat.

Stand-out physical feature: While he is 17 lbs., he’s more muscle than junk. He’s got extremely toned arms that he loves to flex while standing up on window sills.

Things you might not know if I didn’t tell or show you: Gizmo has no hair around his nipples and white puffs of hair under his armpits (see third photo).

Images: Sonia Zjawinski

Does your pet have a great story to tell? Check out our Contribute page to find out how your adorable BFF can be featured on Pawesome’s weekly Hello My Name Is….

11 Responses to “Hello My Name Is… Gizmo”