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So there was this item for GISH (Greatest International Scavenger Hunt) this year. It was something along the lines of, ‘A housecat happily sporting a mustache.’ Unless specified, these items are meant to be actual photos, no Photoshop or filters allowed. Well, when I saw this item, I thought, ‘No problem.’ I mean, I already have a cat, and a fake, stick-on mustache. (Who doesn’t?)

First, I showed the fake mustache to Xena to see how she would react to it. There was lots of sniffing involved. I trimmed it down to the right size for her and (briefly) tried sticking it below her nose.

Yeah. She wasn’t a fan of that. At all. (“You want to put something right under the place where I breathe? Hard pass.”)

So then I thought, ‘What if I put the mustache on a stick and hold it a short distance in front of her nose while I take the picture?’ I went off and made a mustache on a stick deal, believing my problem was solved.

…Turns out when you put something furry on a stick and show it to your cat, they immediately become convinced it must be a toy. Now Xena wasn’t recoiling from the mustache, she was attacking it and trying to eat it. *sigh*

Long story short, what I thought would only take a few minutes involved another round of pleading, cajoling, and distracting with catnip before I finally got the money shot. (And yes, I was laughing pretty much the whole time.)

(MUSTACHE SIDE-NOTE: My dad has always had a mustache or mustache/beard combo. Always. When I was about 2 years old, he decided to shave it off for some reason. I spent pretty much the entire day balling my eyes out and begging him to put it back on, lol. Scarred for life.) Continue reading →