Kayaking & hiking through the snow while missing part of a hip with Gary the Cat
Gary is a cat who adventures through the Candian Rockies, from hiking through snow to relaxing in a kayak to posing with helicopters. On top of that, he also has part of a hip missing. Funnily enough, his dog brother Duke has the same condition. We learn how they go exploring together.
What we talk about
How Gary came into James’ life
The type of catexploring Gary does
The kayak Gary uses
Plan to go skiing with Gary
Gary’s hip injury & recovery
Gary’s injury vs Duke’s injury
James becoming a pet parent
They type of catexploring Carl does
How they go catexploring with both Gary & Duke
Most memorable catexploring experience
Gary with helicopters
How Gary stays warm in winter while catexploring
How Gary stays cool in summer
Whether Gary wears boots
Any types of catexploring that Gary doesn’t do in winter
How to know what areas aren’t safe in winter
Avalanche safety
The cold weather and Gary & Duke’s hip injury
Catexploring James would like to try in the future
Understanding Gary & Carl’s limits
How Gary was trained to be a catexplorer
How Gary got used to travelling in the car
How Gary has grown in confidence because of catexploring
Advice for new catexplorers
Most entertaining comment
Catexplorers that inspire Gary
Guest – James & Gary
Instagram - @greatgramsofgary
Reddit – reddit.com/gary_cat
Facebook – Gary the Cat
Kayak Gary uses
Intex K1 challenger kayak
Rescue
Gary’s goggles
Instagram accounts mentioned
@toratravels – Listen to Tora’s podcast episode here.
@adventuresofmikeandlily – Listen to Mike & Lily’s podcast episode here.
Alpine safety
See here for Alpine Safety Ratings
For daily avalanche forecast for western Canada, and information about where to find training, weather forecasts and other avalanche information, see here.
Sponsor
This episode is bought to you by Catexplorer Merchandise. T-shirts, Tanks & Hoodies that
How to leave a review
To find out how to leave a review see here: https://catexplorer.co/podcast-entries/how-to-leave-a-review-for-the-catexplorer-podcast
Music
Music for this episode was composed and performed by Kory McIntyre.
Cover art
The photo used for the cover art for Season 3 of Catexplorer Podcast is of @renske_aken & was taken by Sylvia van Heek.
Transcript
Please note - this an automatic transcript, and as such may not be very accurate.
James 0:00
The big thing is patience. Just be patient with your cat. These are new experiences for them. It's going to take them a while to adjust.
Hasara Lay 0:09
Join us as we chat to amazing cat explorers and experts, learn from them. Listen to their war stories, celebrate the wins and laugh at the funny moments that have been a part of the journey.
Daniel Lay 0:29
Welcome to the cat explorer podcast. I'm Hasara Lay and I'm Daniel. We've got an exciting chat in store for you. Today before we jump in, we'd love to know that you're listening along to remember to take a screenshot of the episode or a photo of what you're doing. Share it to your Instagram stories. tag us at cat explore a community and great grams of Gary will reshare and a super excited to hear what you think of today's episode. I have a confession to make. I've been spending a ridiculous amount of time wearing my cat exploitations so much so that my neighbor trick that I learned
Hasara Lay 1:00
Any other clothes but it's because they're so soft and they now come in so many colors. I love pairing them my cat is not a couch potato tanks with active wear or jeans. And lately I've been pairing the exploring is my catnip shirt with shorts and skirts. And I love the cat explorer defines me ship because it has the definition of what a cat Explorer is. And it's unisex and we're giving my cat the world hoodie. I love it because it's so soft and cuddly. We were really picky with the shirts, tanks and hoodies we used as we wanted them to be comfortable and they're all so soft and to celebrate the new cars in the range are awesome listeners get 10% off T shirts, tanks and hoodies on the cat explorers store. Just use the code podcast match at checkout at cat explorer.co forward slash shop. That's podcast match one word at cat explorer.com forward slash shop.
Daniel Lay 1:54
I think most of you would have heard about our guest today. Perhaps you've seen him rocking an amazing pair of goggles on
Alps or posing in front of a helicopter, or relaxing on the water in a kayak. Gary is a character who adventures through the Canadian Rockies. He is total cat explorer goals. And he has it all with part of his hip missing. We're so excited to hear more about Gary his brother's car and juke from their dad. Welcome to the podcast. James. Thanks for having me on. I'm really excited to get to chat with you guys. I've been following the podcast for a little while and and now I'm finally here. So excited to have you. So perhaps I can start with hearing a little bit about Gary, how did he come into your life? So Gary, actually, all of all of our animals were adopted by his mom and then we met about three years ago. So I came into their life they'd they'd already been Gary had already been adopted for about two and a half years. But he was adopted from the Calgary Humane Society, which is a humane society not too far from where we're living. Now, as you mentioned, he's missing part of his hip. His mom wasn't necessarily looking for a cat but
James 3:00
She'd suffered a similar injury to her dog that she had at the time and is missing the same hip our dog is so she couldn't pass up the matching set was he was pretty adorable as a kitten and so when her friend told her what had going on and she went to just look she came home with the cat
Daniel Lay 3:24
just look never is just look is it
Hasara Lay 3:28
so what kind of character in does Gary do? You do we do lots of different types of cat exploring and say mostly hiking but this summer we picked up a cheap kayak and got a paddling quite a lot and Gary seem to love that. Hopefully this winter we're going to try some easy skiing, whether it's cross country skiing, or maybe some some easy back country touring somewhere flat. You just likes being outside and and it's fun to take them along on the adventure of that
Yeah, that's so awesome and I just want to jump back to that kayak because I'm something I'd never really thought about and I know you and I have spoken about this offline is the types of kayaks you need for a cat because there's like you can get an inflatable one and different types. What kind of kayak do you guys have? So we bought it's an in text k one challenger. It's probably the cheapest inflatable kayak you can find on Amazon. I think we spent about a Canadian dollars on it.
James 4:33
And honestly, for the price have been shocked at how do you think the quality is it packs up small enough? It's easy to transport it pedals well, and it's comfortable for Gary and I say awesome, and it's an inflatable one. So the night of worries with Gary's cool is that it's pretty durable and Gary doesn't claw very much anyhow, so I'm not too worried and we only go on fairly flat.
Daniel Lay 5:00
Water, not too far from shore. So there was a catastrophe. It wouldn't be the end of the world if we had to swim a little ways back to the back to the shore. I love how you mentioned that. Yeah, he said, easy skiing, easy ski. They don't necessarily go together. I mean, for most people skiing is difficult and it's in and of itself and then to do with a cat. So easy skiing and kayaking. That's quite fake. Perhaps clarify what I mean by easy skiing is low angle skiing. I don't want to take Gary somewhere that's going to be too risky for either him or I so I'd like to go skiing, but I've got to find a way to do it safely. And so in Australia, we don't have a lot of snow. We don't do much skiing. We went skiing about two years ago, I think I was only able to skate.
Hasara Lay 5:50
So I'm in awe of a wider community. You can do it with that cat like that says I can't even stay myself stuck on the magic carpet training.
Daniel Lay 6:00
area. Yeah.
James 6:03
So I do a lot of backcountry skiing, which is basically you walk in your skis and you have skins that grab the snow as you walk up the hill so that you more of that than a ski hill would be kind of busy. And I don't know how we'd love. Although I will say my goal for the winter is to get Gary chat skiing. Because I think a Cat Cat skiing, be amazing.
Hasara Lay 6:27
So I'm trying to find a way to make that happen. We'll see skiing or snowboarding, I can like I to beginni that would be really cool. Either way, all of them. Watch this space, I think is the bottom line. So we'll see what happens. But we've basically the understanding that God has a lot of cool sports stuff. And this is all given that he's got a hip injury. So can you tell us a little bit about this hip injury and has been treated and what was his recovery luck, for sure. So what
James 7:00
Before I came into Gary's life, so I got a little bit of secondhand information, but from my understanding, there was found by the local bylaws service on the street, I was taken to the Humane Society for evaluation, they noticed he had a broken hip. And the way they treated it was with procedure called a femoral head mastectomy. So hip. This is this is not a biologist or a veterinarian explaining it so it might be not 100% accurate, but my understanding is hit the ball and socket joint and in this procedure, they basically they removed the ball from the head of the femur, so the leg is still attached. And over time, scar tissue fills the socket. And then combined with muscle and the tendons in the leg, it for sort of a false joint. So they're still able to use the leg, just not necessarily with 100% strength that they would have otherwise would get There's not a lot that you can notice. That would tell you he's he's had this injury, he can't jump as high as other cats. So that's probably the biggest thing. And if you look closely, sometimes especially when he's climbing stairs or hills, he kind of wiggles his buck wiggles a little bit. But otherwise it's it's not particularly noticeable. Duke, as I mentioned, has the same injury. And because Duke is a larger dog, he was about 100 pounds or 44 kilos, he his is a bit more noticeable. He's wiggles quite a lot when you just walking on flat ground and his leg twists a bit. And I know that when he was recovering, he had to have a little bit more physiotherapy. Just to get the leg strength and to a point you can walk on it. So he's in the water bit and but Gary's not that heavy.
So his recovery, I think, was the Little bit easier.
Hasara Lay 9:00
That's so interesting. Um, I actually find the physical therapy for pets really fascinating because it's, I feel really silly saying it but until recently, I never realized it was a thing like that. It's just something that I found out in the last four months or so, because you've just mentioned that juke, who's Gary's dog brother went through physical therapy, did Gary have to go through any physical therapy?
James 9:23
I'm not 100% sure what his recovery was, I think most of it happened at the shelter before they they let him out for adoption. So there may have been some but I think it was more because Duke is larger and and just needed to strengthen that leg a little bit. Gary was a small kitten when it happened. So even a four months Duke was was a sizable dog. So he just needed a little bit of extra help
Daniel Lay 9:49
given the current conditions. Did you have to change up anything or be conscious of anything in particular when you go cat exploring with with Gary and I suppose juke
James 10:00
Gary less so
definitely the hip hasn't been the biggest impediment are exploring. It's just been getting comfortable outside and in the last we've only been at this about a year but he's really, really improved and walks a lot more on his own but he also rides on my shoulders a lot too so it's not particularly noticeable with him when we've got do with us. We do have to be a little bit more mindful he his leg will get sore if we walk a little too far. And because it twists quite a lot, he needs to have boots if we're walking on kind of a rough surface or he can upgrade the path of his Paul. That makes a lot of sense
Hasara Lay 10:42
actually. Yeah,
James 10:45
that's so interesting, but other otherwise like you wouldn't really notice that. That there was anything wrong and it doesn't seem to slow them down very much at all. So
Hasara Lay 10:55
I you know, what's incredible about that is that we always like even as humans when we have an injury You were like, oh, we're never going to get back to doing things that we love or whatnot. But these guys are showing us that you just figure out how to keep doing it in a different way. Like, and there might be a different thing that you have to do, for example, to cast away his boots, but just figure it out, right?
James 11:14
Yeah, it's, it's, uh, it's been great. They've looked pretty, pretty cushy lives.
Hasara Lay 11:21
They definitely do. I did want to say a psycho back to something that you said. So you mentioned that you came into Gary and juke and Carl's lives a bit later on. Were you always a cat and dog person.
James 11:35
So I've never actually grew up with pets or even own pets until I until I met their mom and we moved in together. So she's kind of chocolate how crazy cat person but they're pretty sweet. They're pretty sweet critters and I mean, I've always always liked cats. But I'm actually fairly allergic to cats, so I never owned one. Now I live. I live with two. Though having lived with them for a while, my body's gotten mostly used to it. And it's not nearly as bad as I was before I used to live on anti histamines.
Daniel Lay 12:26
That's very much a parallel of my story of where I met Hasara never had cats never own pets became then advocate. I was allergic to cats, but I still have two cats anyway. cats love me. Sleep on me. Makes me drool on me. And yes, my life is very much about cats even though I'm allergic to them. Yeah.
Hasara Lay 12:51
And you never grew up with them. Any pets.
James 12:55
We had a fish growing up.
Hasara Lay 12:57
Yeah, that counts. You know you have to look after them. And everything. That different
Daniel Lay 13:01
thing is like when you when you speak to people and friends like how did you get in this position?
Hasara Lay 13:08
It's love It's love. So we've kind of mentioned juke and we mentioned Gary, but we haven't spoken a lot about call this call go cat exploring as well.
James 13:18
Carl does ish. Not very much. He, Carl don't know exactly how old he is. We think he's around 18 years old, and he has heart disease nazma and so, he's a lot more relaxed than garion do. He likes to stick around home sniff around the backyard, or for it on the deck in the summer. He likes to come out son with us. But he's not quite as adventurous. He spent probably some time on the street. So that was enough adventure for Carl and he likes to just A warm lap at home that he can curl up in.
Hasara Lay 14:04
And I think that's a reminder to us that some cats do like that. Like that is exactly what they're meant for. And for everyone else for us, we can say James. Kyle has been in the cuddling James this whole interview is pretty adorable. He's
Daniel Lay 14:20
he's still here. How do you manage both Gary and juke? Well, you can exploring. Do you have any tips?
James 14:27
Take to people.
Yeah, if if I'm just going out, by myself, I would only take one of the two of them. My partner comes with me then we can take both but it really, really is a one person, one animal kind of job. It's, it's a lot to wrangle both, especially when they don't want to walk in the same direction or are trying to do whatever it is they they both have in mind that they're out to to do so. It's definitely a two person job.
Daniel Lay 15:01
Yeah, it definitely is because they can definitely an easily overwhelm you to the point where you've been, like, drained of all energy, you're crying, and then they off doing their own thing. And you're just trying to wrestle the situation.
James 15:16
Yeah, well, I mean, if we're just at the local park, it's not a big deal. But if we're trying to actually hike somewhere, it's, you know, they need someone to help Shepherd them along the trip.
Daniel Lay 15:26
So along the same lines and good or bad, what has been your most memorable cat exploring experience?
James 15:32
That's a good question. We've managed to squeeze a lot into a year of doing this. So maybe I'd pick two I don't know if I can necessarily pick between them. So Gemini went mountaineering. I'm sure you've seen the photos and I want with Gary ended up being a pretty big day as 21 kilometer round trip hike and 900 meters of elevation mostly carried And we walked up to the toe of a glacier here, nearby and Gary walked on the toe of the glacier. Now it's pretty cool. I do a lot of mountaineering, and so kind of kind of fun to go up with my cat and do that. It's a, it's a place that I think is really cool. And the other experience that I would pick would be one of our paddling trips this summer. There's a small little lake just off the ice fields Parkway in the Rockies here. It's not very well known and not too far off the highway. So I loved my 42 pound inflatable kayak into this lake and it was a long weekend which are very busy. But we had the lake to ourselves, and it was about 25 degrees and sunny and we just had a wonderful paddle in the middle of this blissful, late with no one else around and it was pretty great.
Hasara Lay 16:58
That's awesome. Those are the best days. I have to say though I'm impressed. 21 kilometers Karen Gary, that's incredible. I
James 17:05
was not an ultra light cat.
It was a lot of work.
Hasara Lay 17:13
Yeah, some people train with those vests that have the weight the weight wet best. You don't need that. You just go, Gary.
James 17:19
Yeah, basically.
Hasara Lay 17:23
So I've seen a few photos of Gary with a helicopter. Do you mind telling us the story behind that these? When we asked a community who they wanted on the podcast, a few people mentioned you and they mentioned the helicopter. So I have to ask
James 17:35
for sure. So one of the things I like to do with Gary's account from time to time is kind of highlight different people or different things about mountain life and mountain culture. And there's a local local company Alpine helicopters, and they do all of the search and rescue flying in the Rockies and they've been doing it for almost 50 years and they've really been pioneers. Mountain Rescue flying. And it's really heartening to know that they're around in case something goes wrong, whether I met with Gary or if I'm just out by myself. And so I thought it'd be a really cool photo opportunity to both take Gary down and get some cool pictures with their helicopters, but also kind of give them a shout out for everything that they do for our community. So that's kind of where that that came from. And I think it turned out pretty well because it's, it's a great photo. It's probably the most widely seen Gary photo that I've taken. It's been reposted all kinds of places. It's been around the internet. And and yeah, it's just nice to be able to give, give a shout out to people that I hope you never have to use, but that are there in case in case something does go wrong.
Hasara Lay 18:53
And that and they just do awesome work like that's Yeah.
James 18:56
And you know, I've used them to get some vacations. They provide a range of different services, but particularly I wanted to highlight the search and rescue work that they do for our community.
Daniel Lay 19:09
So a lot of Gary's iconic photos are in winter and there's a lot of snow around. How do you keep them warm during winter? When you when you go cat exploring?
James 19:17
Well, it helps it gets pretty fluffy. And so he he does a lot of his own work keeping himself warm. He actually really, really likes the snow. He sort of seems happiest when there's a fair amount of snow and it's maybe at or just below freezing. That seems to be when he's like the murkiest outside and he can kind of prance around and in the in the fresh snow. We don't go outside when it's really cold. Kind of I think around minus seven is our cut off for if we're going cat exploring with Gary, but we got a few strategies to tell make sure he's not getting too cold. I mean, one is I'm sure you've seen he's got a fairly robust wardrobe. So that's almost not as much for warmth, as to just help keep the snow from balling up and it's for I think it's for all do great job of keeping them warm but have to keep it dry. his backpack also gets pretty warm. With just him inside of it, it helps kind of block the wind and with the with the little hole closed needs to hand in there we go. That's pretty comfortable in there. And the other thing is he likes to ride on my shoulders a lot. And that keeps both of us warm because he makes a pretty great scarf. And so just the body heat from from being next to me hope Sir opsins day happy and comfortable.
Hasara Lay 20:39
That's interesting that he feels more comfortable like his happier out in winter is that I know obviously you can't ask him but I'm curious if that's because he's, he enjoys playing in the snow or is it like, I wonder what it is that makes him so happy.
James 20:54
I think part of it's probably a temperature thing I think in the summer like we don't we also don't go out with It's very hot because he's not you know he's a got a robust coat on him and we don't want him to overheat he's got some cooling vests as well for the summer that you can wet down and and then through evaporation it will help keep them cool but I'm not entirely sure what it is but yeah he is very perky and very happy when it's cool and able to just struck through the fresh snow.
Hasara Lay 21:24
That's awesome. Have you like a discussion that's happening a lot in the community is it is winter for most people around the world in the northern hemisphere is that should our cats be wearing booties Have you tried those with Gary
James 21:36
your does have boots. We've got them sort of toward the end of last winter and so probably using them a little bit more this winter. Gary doesn't love the boots yet. He will walk in them but kind of shakes his feet sometimes. I think for us like Duke has boots that he uses in the winter as well and if it's milder temperatures We don't necessarily use them. But if it does get cooler, we will put them on. And I think that's probably the approach we're likely to take with. with Gary, I need less of an issue for Gary because he does get carried around quite a bit. So he's got the opportunity to work his feet up and make sure that he's not getting too cold in other ways. I can't carry Duke on my shoulders
because of that opportunity.
Hasara Lay 22:30
Yeah, that's that's a good point as well. And I'm like I've had some great tips where people warm up their cat's paws I just rubbing it with some like a towel and things like that also to get the iseult off as well. And, and there's like some great option options where you can take like a hand walmer as well and put it in the pocket of your backpack and stuff like that. But just make sure that your cat is not leaning on it. Like they have an option to move away from it just in case they get too hot or stuff like that. So please, you don't want them to get back but yeah, it's um I'm going to be completely honest, we don't get snow in Australia that much for us. 10 degrees Celsius is very cold. So we took we took noxee to the mountains, our version of the mountains a few months ago in winter, and I think he got down to six degrees Celsius and she was mad. So I've always in awe of everyone who goes cat exploring in the snow like it's, it's just amazing.
Daniel Lay 23:32
Cuz you said minus seven. That's degrees Celsius, isn't it?
James 23:35
Yeah, that's degrees Celsius. Wow. That's
like
Yeah, it is. I would not do well in your summers.
Hasara Lay 23:53
Well, it's it was 42 degrees this week in Sydney. So degrees Celsius. Yeah,
James 24:00
I would not survive that. I'm not lying. I was complaining a lot.
Daniel Lay 24:06
So with the winters we talked about, you know, what you would do? Is there anything that you don't do cat exploring wise in winter, because it's minus seven degrees or more.
James 24:15
Yeah, so I think temperature becomes a bit of a bigger factor in the winter. So you have to adjust our, our activities around that a little bit. There's some things that I'd like to do with Gary, both in the winter and in the summer that I just haven't figured out a way to do safely so I'll avoid I think it would be kind of cool to get a picture of Gary in certain spots, but if I can't find a way to to get him there in a way that I'm comfortable with that I'm I just won't do that. So like I said, but scheme. avalanches are a big risk in the winter, so I'm not going to take him anywhere. That would be an avalanche terrain. I like ice climbing. And I think it could be kind of fun to get some ice climbing photos. But there's hazards with that. And I haven't figured out how way to do it safely. So we haven't done that. But mostly, I'd say, you know, for hiking, were the sorts of cat exploring that we normally do with Gary anyhow. Don't have to adjust things to too much. Hiking because of avalanches is a little bit more constrained in the winter. So you've got to be a little more choosy, but where you go, some places you can get in the summer, aren't safe to go in the winter.
Hasara Lay 25:36
I haven't really silly question on that. How do you know if they're not safe or safe? Is there like, is that just a known thing? Or is there somewhere that you can go like, somewhere online that you can check?
James 25:48
You can and I've actually started to do a bit of a feature on winter safety because there have been unfortunately some fatalities near us over the past few years of people. who don't understand about winter safety. So there's every day there's actually an avalanche forecast that cuts issued. And there's professionals that will go out and evaluate avalanche conditions. Because those change on a daily, hourly, even kind of minute by minute basis. You can take training courses to help you figure out
and evaluate
both the conditions and the terrain that you're in. And then some of the parks national parks around here, they also have published guides basically there's a, an avalanche train exposure scale, it's called eight and you get a rating from one to three one is basically not avalanche terrain. And three is very complex avalanche terrain, and so they've mapped out popular areas and determine the risk in any Those so there's resources and training available. I do a lot of back country activities in the winter and so something I pay attention to because I would like to not die and
Daniel Lay 27:14
that's very handy resource to have and I encourage everyone does do any sort of can exploring winter or, or even some of the opposite with bushfires itself or to look out and do your research and do some planning before you head out just talking about winter and the cold weather. Does it ever affect Gary and Jukes hip injury in any way
James 27:33
really noticed any impact on their hips due to the temperature? Maybe the biggest difference for Duke is it's not as big of a deal with his twisting leg in the snow. The snow is a little less abrasive, often than gravel or sharp rocks would be so it's actually lower impact I guess if he's not wearing his boots
Hasara Lay 28:00
That's so interesting. I don't know whether it's an Australian thing, but they often say that people with those joint injuries struggle a bit more in winter. So that's a really interesting point that they find it. Like for juke, particularly, it's easier to walk through the snow there.
James 28:16
They might experience some, some discomfort, it's tough to say they don't really show anything. Certainly we haven't noticed over the years. Any difference in the summer versus the winter.
Hasara Lay 28:28
That's really interesting. So we've kind of touched on some of the types of cat exploring that you'd love to do it Gary in the future. Is there anything else that you'd love to do? Like is there a wish list,
James 28:39
I think mostly just more of the same. There's different places I'd like to to adapt and so for the winter as I as I mentioned, I'd really like to go find a way to go cat skiing with my cat. I think that would be that would be great. The summer. I want to continue some of our pedaling. You can get smaller inflatable raft called pack rafts that are really lightweight and easy to carry. So I'd like to find a way to get one of those. The only impediment is they're a little expensive. So I figure out how to make it work in the budget. But that would let me walk Gary into some backcountry lakes and we'd be able to paddle in some more exotic and hard to reach locations. There's a bunch that have already picked out that I like to go to a lot of it's more of the same it's just maybe different.
Daniel Lay 29:28
Different spot but definitely looking forward to those photos when they come through. Sir How do you decide what to try with Gary and car like, do you have a light understand what the limits are?
James 29:38
I don't know if we've necessarily ordered a formal training regimen. It's always been sort of an incremental Well, we've, they're comfortable with this so we'll try look more was a bit of a process to work up to where we we've gotten Gary today. He always seemed interested in going outside and even would try and escape you actually did escape once. When we were living in Edmonton escaped our apartment, our door had blown open it had a bit of a faulty latch. And so we got out, and we live near a pretty major roads were pretty worried and ran out the door. And he was sitting in our apartment courtyard just munching on the plants. And after that, we were like, well, if you want to go outside, you're going to have to be on a leash. So we started training him to be on a leash at the starchy, he wouldn't walk. So we just sit together on the front step for a minute or two at a time and bring a carrier so you could sit in that if you didn't want to sit on the step. And eventually he wanted to eat the plants. So he would walk over to the plants. And that was kind of his motivation to start walking on a harness and that we moved here and you would explore and on backyard, then decided to take him to the park down the street. Once he got comfortable there, we went on a short hike and kind of incrementally worked up from there with paddling. Gary's always been really, really interested in water on one of our hikes was actually in the winter is about minus four. We were walking beside a creek and Gary just waited right in. And when I pulled him out, he walked back in.
So
in the summer, we picked up, we picked up our kayak and had been paddling by ourselves and decided one day well, Gary seems to like water. I wonder if you'd like paddling. So, went to a small local lake and loved it. So just went from there.
Hasara Lay 31:54
One thing that I really liked, what you've said is that you've just incrementally tried new things like you said, It expanded those boundaries. And, and I think another thing that a lot of people tend to forget when they see these cats on Instagram on a mountain is that their owners enjoy being up there as well. So you really like mountaineering, you like being on the water. So it's only natural that you take your cat with you because it's something that you're comfortable doing something that you enjoy. So for example, I always tease Daniel about this, he can't be on water. He gets seasick every time we go in any type of do any type of water activity. So it's not something that we'd be comfortable doing with our cats because we need to be comfortable being on the water as well,
Daniel Lay 32:36
for sure. And the big point there, as Iris highlighted that, Gary, the cat has been mountaineering, started off cat exploring by munching on leaves, you know, a foot or two from his doorway, and happily just munching on leave. So that's the origin story that you know people forget about or people don't quite realize is the start of all
James 32:59
Yeah. even, you know, even in the car, we've had to kind of work up to that. I mean, we Gary was younger, he would, he would actually start painting and go into respiratory distress when you take him to the vet in the car. And so, you know, to get him used to that we got a park a couple blocks from us, maybe a two minute drive, so we'd, you know, we drive to the park, and then we'd sit there for a little while and let him get comfortable and then drive back. And, you know, sort of slowly over time as he gets more comfortable going on longer trips, and, and now he he travels really well he just curls up and usually falls asleep in the car. So it's it's been interesting to watch Gary progress over the past year and a bit we've been adventuring. He actually used to be a fairly skittish cat around new people. And adventure has made him a little bit more confident and so instead of running and hiding under the bed, when we got company over, she sticks around and says hello and, and it's been really, really great to see how, how much more confident he's gotten.
Hasara Lay 34:08
Yeah, that's awesome. Like, I really love hearing how cats end up going and confidence in that way, especially from cat exploring as well. So that's really nice to see. I just like I also find a really interesting that Gary struggled initially in the car is we all tend to forget that like that's something that we really relate we with our two cats, we've got lumos who's very comfortable, but noxee at times she can sing the song of her people or all would all the way through the drive, even if it's a 12 hour drive, and we have to try different things that we try like cat music or And believe me, I'm so sick of listening to cat music, but it's the one thing that calms her down or something like that. So if people are struggling with being in the car, which I know a lot of people do with their cats. It's not something that's unique to you. It's quite common.
James 34:51
Yeah, and it's, I think it's just an exposure thing. Cats are pretty resilient, but you've got to let them adjust on their own terms and So we've just really tried to go with the pace Gary is comfortable with and, and he's done, done really well.
Daniel Lay 35:08
So James, we're coming up towards the end of the podcast. And now we're just going to jump into the first four questions. The first one being, what's one piece of advice you would give to new cat explorers?
James 35:17
Well, sort of in the similar vein that we've been talking to you I think the big thing is patience. Just be patient with your cat. These are new experiences for them. It's going to take them a while to adjust and and you know, I hear a lot of people say, Oh, I put a harness on my cat and it wouldn't walk anywhere. So my cat can't go adventure. all know, you didn't spend any time trying to train your cat a dog wouldn't. Like you can't train a dog just trying something wants. It's the same with the same with a cat. So just adjust your expectations and understand it's going to take a little while.
Hasara Lay 35:53
Yeah, and every cat does the flop. Once you put the harness I'd like everyone does that. So what's been them entertaining comments someone has said to you I been added about with Gary.
James 36:04
So while there's 211 was actually an online comment, but the I think the best reaction I've ever got with being with Gary is we'd pipe to the top of a nearby mountain. That's the first summit that Gary got to and we were coming down and had stopped, stopped have dinner because we were hiking after work. And Gary was just sitting in his backpack kind of having a nap. And some climbers were coming down, they'd climb the face the mountain and we're walking on a hiking trail, and they walked past us and you could just kind of see Gary's face in the backpack. They walked by and walk maybe 100 feet past us. One of the guys kind of stops, tilts his head, turns around, walks back, looks in the backpack and just kind of held his hands up to his mouth and shocks the briars and joy and then just kept walking. You didn't even say anything, but just the reaction. This was really awesome. And then the other one less positive, but you get some really strange comments, sometimes online, and I've had someone argue with me and claim that I lived in a tent. And that this was unfair to Gary, because you didn't choose to live in a tent. We don't live in a tent. And so they weren't, they weren't, they wouldn't take my word for it. So that was that was memorable.
Hasara Lay 37:34
Yeah, some of those online comments, you kind of just look at you like, Am I going to engage? Am I not going to engage? And I don't really know how to respond to this.
James 37:45
When I when I suggested that No, in fact, Gary had a real home. They replied that they'd seen his Instagram and they knew
Okay,
Daniel Lay 38:01
Speaking of social media, which can explore inspire you,
James 38:04
I've got a few. I'd say I've met a ton of really great people and people who've reached out to me and said that they started cat exploring because they saw Gary or they were inspired to, you know, take their cat out. And that's been that's been really great to see that, you know, people are are trying new things with their pets, and I'm sure I'm going to miss some people in this and if I do, I apologize. I'd say some of my favorite cat accounts are Torah, the trucking cap, I love seeing where it is that they they go, all of the adventurous is great. Another sort of mountain cat. I'll give a shout out to a couple of the other local cats. We've actually run into some of them. So there's the adventures of Mike and Lily and Bodie. I think it's boating the adventure. We run we actually all three of us were on the same hike together. Once. So that was kind of amazing. There's three cats on the on the same hike.
Daniel Lay 39:06
Was that planned or unplanned?
James 39:08
It was unplanned completely.
Hasara Lay 39:10
How did you react when you saw each other?
James 39:12
I think mostly we we chuckled.
We we've interacted online, but we've never actually met in person. And so we, at the start of the hike, we ran into Bodie and his mom, and said hello. And then a little later on closer to the top of the hike, we ran into Mike with his parents and, and it was just kind of amusing that all three of us were there, together. Same, same place at the same time. That's who I'll say I'm sure I'm missing a bunch. I'm sorry to the people who I've forgotten to mention. Oh, one more is. I'm going to pronounce this wrong as the surfing cat. I love the surfing club. I think they're amazing. And I'm very jealous whenever I see how warm okay.
Hasara Lay 40:06
Yeah. And they go to some of these some of our favorite beaches in Hawaii as well, I just looking at like, I really want to go back to Hawaii. But yeah, I realized this question is really unfair. But it's also great to hear, like, we discover new cat explorers through this question as well. So what's awesome, that's awesome. And also, you've mentioned quite a few previous guests on the podcast and some future ones as well. So that's pretty exciting. What I might do is I'll include links to their episodes in your show notes so that if people want to go and listen to them, they can. So then what product service or program has been a game changer for Gary?
James 40:43
Well, I think the biggest one is the Calgary Humane Society. They were the ones that received Gary when he got picked up off the street and they saved his life. So really, without them there would be no gear the patch or or or any of that. So really love the goggles. Not only do they look cool, but they're actually really functional. So we have a pair of rec specs. They're technically for dogs but we found the extra small pair fit scary really well. And basically they're like sunglasses for for your pet up in the mountains, it can get really bright when you're above the treeline. The sun reflects off the rock or can reflect off the snow and it's just a lot more comfortable for Gary to have that bit of sun protection. We've also notice to if it's really windy, he likes to have the goggles his eyes can get a little bit irritated in the wind. And, and so stick the goggles on and and he's a lot happier.
Hasara Lay 41:49
I have to ask how did you train him to wear the goggles. Like for example, a lot of cats. The only thing I can compare it to is putting like a costume on their head. They will they will shake it off straight away. How did he find wearing the goggles initially? And how did you get him to use to him?
James 42:04
So the goggles, we definitely felt like we took a chance on, because we weren't sure either. But I'd seen seen a picture of a cat wearing them. I was like, I gotta try this. And surprisingly, he never had a problem with them the first time I put them on. He just didn't care. I think, especially when it's bright, it's a lot more comfortable. And so he just wears them because it's nicer to be out and have sunglasses on,
Daniel Lay 42:36
you know, style.
James 42:38
Plus, he knows how cool he was.
Daniel Lay 42:44
So James, we've had so much fun chatting to you. Thank you for joining us. Where can we find you and Gary online,
James 42:50
so you can find Gary in a couple different places, probably most active on his Instagram account, which is great grams of Gary he also has a subreddit. It's reddit.com slash Gary underscore the underscore cat and Facebook page, which is also facebook.com slash great friends, Gary.
Hasara Lay 43:13
Awesome. So we've talked about a lot of great stuff today and what I'll do is I'll place a summary and all the links we spoken about in our show notes, which are which will be available at cat explorer.com forward slash podcast.
Daniel Lay 43:24
If you've been loving the cat explorer podcast, it would mean the world to us if you could share it with someone you know who would love it? Perhaps it's your friend. Perhaps it's your partner or colleague or someone else who follows you on social media or that random stranger or neighbor who loves your cat. This podcast is helping us raise awareness about cat exploring and we'd love it if you could help the people in your life find this podcast. Thank you so much for being a part of the cat explore community. That's it for today. We'll catch you next time. In the meantime, enjoy giving a kitty the world