usty is a fat, noisy, slightly-skittish, eager-to-purr, loyal, leg-crushing, black, de-balled, male cat who lives with Malaya.  You can contact him here. Dusty loves fan mail.

His current nicknames include:

• Pusskers
• Dusters
• Dusterkins
• Dusty-bong (pronounced dush-tay-bonnnng in a singsong voice.)
• Bongie (After originating it to refer to Dusty alone, the term has now evolved to mean any pet-like creature. I.E. "Let's go to the pet store and look at the bongies."
• Bong-a-long-a-long
• ...and pretty much every other variation on "dusty" and "bongie" you can think of.

I first made his acquaintance in person in late May, 2003, though I'd "heard" him, literally, in the background of innumerable phone calls for several months previous.  Hearing Dusters is easy, because...

Dusty talks loudly and frequently.  Anytime you want meowing, he's like Meow Mix; happy to deliver.  And he doesn't even require beef or liver, though he certainly won't turn them down. Malaya reckons that he's got some mixture of Siamese in him, given how noisy he is. You need merely say, "Dusty!" and he'll yowl happily, and usually come trotting over to you.  Since he gets all of his food from dry crunchies, which he always has access to in a self-filling bowl, his interest in interaction is surprising; he's not just coming over hoping for hand outs, like most kitties/pets.

Conversations can be carried out, providing you are easily amused.  Dusty is good at meowing as soon as you stop talking, though he stops doing it at unpredictable intervals, usually timed to leave you hanging like an idiot.

"Dusty!"
"Rowrrow!"
"Who's a kitty?"
"Rowrrow!"
"Who's Malaya's fat kitty?"
"Rowrrow!"
"Does Dusty-kitty love mama?"
"Rowrrow!"
"Does Dusty-kitty love Fluxy-poo?"
*...silence...*
"Is Dusty a big fat no-balled bastard?
"Rowrrow!"
"Snip snip. Serves you right."
"Rowrrow!"

Dusty has been discussed in the daily updates on several occasions.  Notable ones include:

• August 11, 2003: With many photos.
• August 26, 2003: Discussion of the "tongue thing."
• September 22, 2003: Jinx arrives!
• September 23, 2003: More on the new kitty's arrival.
• September 25, 2003: Dusty growing to accept Jinx.  Sort of.
• September 26, 2003: Jinx and Dusty again.
• October 3, 2003: Jinx and Dusty being calmer together.
• October 7, 2003: Jinx and Dusty photos and behavior.
• October 13, 2003: Jinx and Dusty in photos and playing.
• October 14, 2003: Jinx and Dusty encounter a snake and freak out.

Dusty is a fat kitty, and has a sort of beer gut dangling down near his back legs.  Malaya calls it an "udder" and it does look a bit like one when he's trotting about.  He is pretty active, for a house cat, and will chase his "mouse", a laser pointer, endlessly.  How he keeps that belly while eating only low-fat crunchy food and horking up hairballs and flowers and string and other random non-edible stuff he eats regularly is a bit of a mystery.

Besides his udder, Bongie's other interesting physical abnormality is at the tip of his tail.  It's curiously-broken, and the last vertebrae points sideways at nearly a 90 degree angle.  Malaya at one point proudly and jokingly claimed to have administered this non-crippling injury herself by grabbing him when he was racing around in naughty fashion, but lately she's changed her tune and has come to profess great outrage and betrayal at my daring to accuse her of mangling the kitty, all the while claiming that his tail was like that she she got him, at the tender age of six months.

Whether she did or did not fold and spindle him is unknown, but since he's now about 4 and the tail is stuck that way, it's sort of a moot point.  He certainly seems unaffected by it, and he moves his tail constantly like most cats, and is well able to inflict a vicious whip with it, when circumstances require.  There are no photos of the tail since with the fur it's not visible to the eye, you can only feel it.  And no, we do not shave our kitty.  Not even a little bit.

While Dusty looks pure black with a silver sheen in these photos, he actually looks rather brownish red in the bright sunlight, and has random silver hairs in any light.  Malaya likes to distract him with one hand while the other pinchers in and yanks out the disfiguring silver follicles.  Dusty doesn't exactly enjoy this, but he's not all that upset by it either, surprisingly-enough.

• See lots more Dusty photos on the D & J photo page.
• Newer photos are added to the top of this page.

We're not entirely sure how he ended up in this sinking position between Malaya's knees, but it was pretty pathetic at the time. As well as very sleepy. Jinx peeking over the purple chair is a nice bonus. She'll assume a pose like this in the taxidermist's shop, but never before.
--May 28, 2006

There's a dignified shot of Dusty a ways down the page, if you want to just scroll down there now.  This is Exhibit A in why cats shouldn't be dressed, though he's actually wearing Darwin's rain coat here. Putting this on Jinxie was impossible, since she correctly divined our evil intentions and went into electrified-kitty mode as soon as I grabbed her.  We forced it on her anyway, and when released she exploded out of the blocks so quickly that she literally ran out of the velcro. If that hadn't knocked it loose, her "going to ground" under the bed would have. She shakes off most stickers, trailing balloons, and other humiliations in that way.

Dusty just flopped over and sort of slow motion crawled around sideways, his head back, his feet pawing aimlessly, until he worked his way out the neck. Yes, that scene alone was well worth the price of admission.
--May 28, 2006

One of those shots that makes it almost possible to pretend that kitty 1) knows you're leaving, and 2) will miss you.
--May 28, 2006

A rare, dignified photo of the feline prince himself, accessorized by his old, green collar. (He's moved on to blue or red, these days.) He is capable of ear coordination; he just prefers not to bother with it.
--May 28, 2006

Malaya likes the super close up photos, and while they seldom work out on my old autofocus camera, when they do it's a pretty good view. No, I don't know what's on the TV.
--May 28, 2006

Dusty does the "tongue thing" whenever he licks himself and forgets to fully retract his licking device. He'll hold this pose for minutes, sometimes, until whenever he next licks and resets to the resting position.
--May 28, 2006

A couple of shots of Dusty doing his "bindi-kitty" routine. He'll duck and paw at a sticker on his head a few times, but he soon learns to ignore it. His black-eyed displeasure in shot number two comes not from the price tag, but from Malaya holding him in this undignified position.
--May 28, 2006

Dusty likes to sleep covered up. A warm kitty is a happy kitty.
--May 28, 2006

Dusty being "jailhouse kitty," a pose he always seems to end up in after helping us put away clothing.
--May 28, 2006

Still life. With weight balls.
--May 28, 2006

When Dusty laps, he laps hard.
--May 28, 2006

It's hypnotic pattern kitty! On our new couch cover, which matches Dusty's coloration quite well, I think.  It's the staring yellow eyes, mostly.

Two shots of Dusty doing "the tongue thing" while lying in a pose I call "roadkill kitty."

He likes to sleep under the covers when it's cold, or even when it's not.  And he's usually pretty cute doing it, though the danger you face is in uncovering him to take a look, since there's usually a stretch, yawn, and deep exhale of his dragon breath on the way out.

He has yet to attempt Jinx's favorite "drink water straight from the bathroom sink faucet" trick, but Dusty does enjoy lapping it up from the slower door tray.

Cute sleeping kitty, on his kitty blanket, in the perfect loaf of bread kitty sleeping pose. Jinx isn't any good at folding her legs under her like this, but Dusty has the time, experience, and body fat to master it.

Keep scrolling, you didn't really see this. We would never tie kitty's head fat up in one of Malaya's red scrunchies. And even if we did, we certainly wouldn't take photos of it from every angle, all while laughing so hard we cried. Before you call PETA, note Dusty's largely unconcerned reaction to it. He really didn't give a damn, either at the feel of it or our laughter.  Remember, dignity is a human concept, and we're trying to leave our zoomorphism at the door today.

Dusty's most icky habit (to Malaya, anyway) is when he reclines on his fat ass and lifts up his hind legs, one at a time, so he can "husk" them.  He bites at his read talons and rips off the dead outer layers, with much crunching and crackling.  It's damn disturbing.  Especially since he generally leaves the husks lying on top of the arms of the sofa or other places we're sure to see or rest our hands upon them.

A nice shot of the Dusters on his usual top of the TV perch, on a typically sun-dappled late afternoon.  Our shelf of Halloween decorations can be seen behind him.

And if you're wondering, it's just for Halloween.  Do we look like people who would display skulls and crocodile heads and such on our living room shelf all year? Of course not.

Malaya can play the recorder, though she doesn't often do so.  She pulled it out for a little fun in early September 2003, and while Dusty had heard it before, it had been a long time.  He was utterly captivated, and immediately leapt up onto the ottoman and then onto the couch, where he stood, visibly trembling, his nose held approximately a centimeter from the air exhaust hole. We couldn't figure out if he was going for the smell or the sound or what, but he certainly got a thrill that was all out of proportion to Malaya's rendition of London Bridge.

Whenever she turned the recorder, he would follow, and by the time I got the camera and took this picture, he had moved to the rear of the sofa, while Malaya leaned on the back of it and pointed the recorder at him.

Among Dusty's odder features is his preferred diet. He subsists almost exclusively on dry cat chow, (Friskies, most any flavor will do) and never gets wet, though he's still somehow become rather attuned to the sound of a can opener in operation, and will generally make an appearance in the kitchen when we open up a can of black beans, or olives, or corn, or tuna fish.  Obviously only one of these is of any real interest to him, but his brain is far too small to make such distinctions.

Besides his dry Friskies, he gets the odd table scrap, and of course he likes a tidbit of meat or cheese or a lick of cream, but what he really likes are sweet fruits and vegetables. He'll lick away at a devoured ear of corn, or an apple/pear/peach core, and loves little bits of melon, of all things.  He will pretty much never get sick of honeydew, and he likes watermelon as well, as you can see in these three photos.  He also likes lettuce and broccoli, and probably a lot of other vegetables we've yet to discover his affinity for.

Of course kitty mouths are not designed for eating vegetables, and unless he manages to wolf it right down from the human hand that's feeding him, he has to push it around on the floor, or try to nip it up with his fangs.  It's not really his fault; cats are designed for catching their prey; they just make do when it comes to actually eating it, in a panda's thumb style.

Dusty is an exclusively indoor cat, not counting his occasional sun-chasing forays onto our second story back patio.  He is equipped for the outdoors though, and still possesses all 87 of his claws, and trust me, they are in fully-working order.  He has no hesitation about sinking them into your lily white ass if you piss him off.  Malaya gigglingly rolls him onto his back and pushes him around and slaps at his paws while he play fights back, but the rest of us don't yet quite dare, having future need of our hands with all 10 fingers intact.

His claws and teeth are ivory, and his toe pads are sort of a light gray, as are the insides of his ears.  Basically he's black with an ivory trim, and it looks very cool from certain angles, when the bottom of his feet or his claws are visible.

And here is the requisite "scary glowing eyes" photo for the page.  Dusty's eyes are ordinarily yellow, with a hint of green, and they look greener in brighter light.  When they reflect the flash they are yellow, or green, or sometimes blue.  As with all cats, they glow red when he activates his direct link to the Prince of Darkness, just before claiming your soul for his demonic master.

Dusty's favorite toy in the whole world is his "mousie" which looks very much like about five feet of cat-gnawed string, to the untrained observer.  God only knows what it looks like to Dusty, but he certainly loves to play with it, especially if some human is so kind as to hold the other end and wiggle it, or flick it over his head so he can wave furiously at it while sprawling over on his back, or drag it so he can frantically pursue you in circles (rectangles) around the kitchen/hallway/living room/hallway circuit.  He's good for about three laps when he's really charged up, but eventually he always stops at the living room corner and crouches in wait, knowing that the mousie-tower has to come around the kitchen or hallway sooner or later, and if he waits there is no escape.

Since the humans always get tired of this game long before the kitty, the end result is always something like this.  Dusty sprawled happily on the floor, his mousie thoroughly-subdued.

Though you can't really see it here, he's doing the always amusing "tongue thing," as Malaya dubs it.  Occasionally Dusty sits happily with just the tip of his tongue poking out of his mouth, providing a rather cute pink counterpoint to his ebony face.  He doesn't seem to realize he's doing it, and will keep it up until he yawns or meows, all the while looking curiously at the laughing humans who are pointing at him.

For a while my old scanner was sitting on the floor of our office/living room, and Dusty just loved to curl up next to it, with his shoulder up on the side of it.  He has also demonstrated this pose with the base of free-standing lights, books, piles of paper, chair legs, and pretty much anything else he can catch on the floor, especially if the object is near this spot.  For some reason he never lies like this anywhere else in the condo, even when there are floor-sitting objects that would provide perfect shoulder bracing.

I took three photos of Dusty during my first visit, all three of them in about thirty seconds while he was lying on the couch.  You see two of those here, and you'd see all three if the other one wasn't so much like these that the bandwidth consumed by streaming it to your computer would be a complete waste. Dusty wasn't real sleepy during the photo session, which is pretty rare for him.  Ordinarily he'll sleep for hours if he's in a comfy spot, or all of the humans are sitting still or asleep. And judging by the amount of stretching and yawning that goes on when we return home, he isn't exactly up and pacing in anxiety over our absence.

Generally when we're home and moving around, he likes to keep his eye on things, and will follow Malaya around the condo.  He loves her and tolerates me, so I get watched while she gets tailed and rubbed against.  The price she pays for fame.

The first look I ever had of him, from a photo Malaya sent me prior to my visiting her. Dusty is good at looking less than thrilled.  He has pretty green eyes from most angles, though the flash turns them yellow or blue sometimes also.

All site content copyright "Flux" (Eric Bruce), 2002-2007.