Garfi & Hulya
Our latest pet crush: Garfi & Hulya
Length of friendship: Almost about ten years now!
Your social media fame: My computer was broken years ago and all the pictures of him as a baby we had taken of him were gone. My son suggested we found a place to store all the pictures and soon I had a flickr account all set and ready! Soon we were invited to a stock photography agency,Getty Images! So basically Garfi is a cat which started out with a flickr page. His album had around 64k views and overall his photos had over 5 million views. Later on Garfi's picture was posted on the social website Boredpanda and afterwards he reached fame through Reddit, Imgur and other pages with the same internet fame. Garfi's social media adventure began afterwards.
Garfi currently has 19k likes on Facebook ( www.facebook.com/AngryCatGarfi )
Garfi has 35k followers on Instagram. @meetgarfi
I am quite happy to hear many people love his social media accounts.
How did you come up with the name Garfi? Is there a story behind this?
Garfi is a persian cat who looks like the famous comic strip character Garfield. My son thought he looked like Garfield and wanted to name him after the famous character, but we thought the name was too long and didn't want our cat to have such a well known characters name. We suggested the name Garfi to our son, which was a name we could all agree on.
When did you first met Garfi? How was your first encounter?
We met Garfi just as he was a little kitty. We adopted him from a friends shelter and gave him a home. He was a small ball of fur and our family and especially our son loved him. The problem was however when we found out Garfi was greatly ill and the odds of his survival was quite slim. He stayed for almost two weeks in a pet hospital. Even against the odds however, our little fur ball survived and is still alive and kicking!
How old is Garfi? Can you tell us more about his personality?
He is almost ten years old. He is a very funny cat. He makes us laugh with his silly behaviors. Contrary to his evil expression, Garfi is a wonderful cat. But he has his own rules. If you don’t follow his rules, he is quick to get angry. He is authoritarian and fearless. Compared to other Persian cats he is actually quite playful. Still, he gets bored pretty fast. He can get quite reckless, however he never loses his side of curiosity. Not everyone can be Garfi’s friend so easily. First you must introduce yourself to him. If you fail to do so and start petting him right after meeting him, then he will be quite angry. We advise stranger who see him for the first time to be cautious and keep their distance.
Garfi is quite the celebrity! As the world's angriest cat, does he like the attention? What is the best thing that has happened to him?
Garfi most certainly loves the attention, if he is getting the attention from his own family! Visitors however are the ones which will be seeing the darker side of the angriest cat in the world! Garfi is not quick to like visitors and most of the time will be sure to keep his distance. So basically Garfi likes the attention as long as it is from his family.
The best thing that has happened to Garfi is us moving to a house with a garden. This way the little fur ball has a chance to wander around in the garden to protect his territory and will patrol his garden even if it is raining! He is not a cat which is afraid of getting wet!
How did his fame begin?
Garfi was always a famous cat, even though it was not as widely known as he is now. He was seen in magazines,news, calendars and greeting cards. His fame started mostly after my flickr account was created. Now his current internet fame was caused by a spread of news which started out with the social page Bored Panda. He was seen in many famous news and social media pages, he was featured in many television shows and eventually he was named as the "Angriest Cat in the World"
What is the funniest 'MeMe' that has ever been created around Garfi?
There are a lot of memes revolving around Garfi since the beginning of his fame and to be honest we have no idea which one of those memes could be considered the best. It is amazing to see how creative people can get! Due to the huge diversity with Garfi's pictures, memes are constantly being made for the angriest cat in the world! I love Garfi’s comparisons with Donald Trump and I guess if I had to choose I would say Garfi’s Trump memes are my favorite!
We know he looks angry but what is his personality really like? Is he a big softie? A cuddler? Is he vocal. Tell us more!
Garfi is very slow moving cat! He is quiet but can tend to be quite vocal as well. When he wants something greatly, he will try to do his best by meowing for hours and hours up until someone does his will. He has very soft fur but however does not enjoy being thrown around, he is his own master. If anyone tries to pick him up, he will get upset and will eventually fight back. He however can be also quite cute and loving and when he decides he needs attention, he will do anything he can to get the attention he desires. His acts and movements are usually hilarious and most of the time he is not quite good with physics. When he decides to jump on top of a chair, he will make countless hours of calculations in his head, and yet once he actually does the jump, he will fall miserably. It's difficult to understand what he is thinking of! So overall he is independent, and can easily get angry. He has his own rules and if you respect his rules, he will love you more than anything in the world.
What is his favorite food/treats?
Even though we get him some of the best treats in the world, he still prefers a more modest diet. He enjoys dry food and occasionally prefers wet food as well. He does like fish and will sometimes tend to eat treats which are made of beef and chicken as well.
Where does he sleep?
If you buy a luxurious bed, expecting Garfi to sleep in it wouldn't be that realistic. Rather Garfi enjoys sleeping anywhere but mostly enjoy sitting in chairs and other furniture. Sometimes I remember being forced to stand up because Garfi is sleeping in a chair and I don't want to disturb him. He also loves sleeping in boxes and occasionally on peoples arms which, considering his weight, isn’t the best experience.
What's the cutest thing he has ever done?
Sometimes when Garfi gets overly excited he will run towards out huge tree in the garden and attempt to climb it. He gets all excited and does his best but after only a few seconds he will no longer be able to carry his own weight and fall down. This is extremely cute and no matter when it happens it always makes us laugh all together as a family.
What is a typical day like for Garfi?
He loves going around his little garden. He spends most of his day times in the garden. As a cat he gets furious when I try to take him back home. He does however love spending time together with our family. We love playing ''hide and seek'' together. He loves playing with his toys and with the other cats of the house. He is very cute while doing so. Unfortunately he does get tired quite fast. He loves sleeping just like every known cat in existence. Sometimes he just looks at a blank wall, possibly questioning his existence and answering the universes most difficult questions. He is just a funny house cat.
What is your favorite activity with Garfi?
Garfi loves to play hide and seek with us. Sometimes he will hide somewhere until I find him or sometimes if someone is hiding he will wander around the house until he finds them. When he finds someone he starts running away from them and eventually expects to be chased. Garfi loves spending time together with us.
Garfi looks so adorable in his pictures, does he love being photographed? How do you come up with the set-ups? They put a huge smile on our faces!
Garfi is a very skilled cat, who would have probably been a model if he was a human. He loves modeling and knows exactly what to do. His facial expressions, his movements and curiosity is what makes taking photos of him such easy. He stares at the camera up until the point he hears the sound “Click”. If he loved his role he will even give me a second chance to try again, to take a better pose. But when he doesn’t enjoy it, one chance is all I have. It is all up to him, it always is.
When it comes to how I come up with the set-ups, I consider the daily life of a simple human being. I make it so that Garfi is in such a situation you would normally see a person in. Occasionally however I break that pattern and just consider how people would like seeing him, which is usually the time we have the most fun!
I know Garfi very well. He loves or hates new things. If I were to buy a new fried pan I know he will eventually sit in it, after that all I have to do is get creative. The first time he saw bubbles he was confused and didn't know what was happening. When he saw a roasted turkey for the first time he was confused once again and tried smelling it. (His fame began with that photo where he goes after the roasted turkey.) I know whether or not he will enjoy a costume. I know when he is in a good mood and then is when I act. I know how I can make him do a certain type of expression. We put a huge smile on your faces because we know each other very well.
There is a picture of him with bubbles on his head! Does he like being in water?
Persian cats are very needy cats who need to be combed daily. He knows he must be groomed daily and is also quite useful to his occasional necessary baths.
He does enjoy the water, but this doesn’t mean we wash him that often. Being a Persian cat, these little guys occasionally need to be washed for their own safety. Garfi enjoys the time he spends in a bath, as long as it doesn’t last that long!I have four cats.
I have never washed the others. They don't need a bath. But Persian cats need to be washed.
Can you tell us any funny stories about Garfi, maybe something we would never have expected!
He has many experiences but when he was younger he had a crazy experience which I can never forget. While I was taking him out to wander around the garden, he saw a huge dog which seemed to have entered our garden. At first he was terrified, but later on he knew what he had to do to protect his family. He ran towards the dog and soon he was chasing him! The dog had no idea what was happening! We were at first of course scared, but Garfi was applauded by everyone in the family for his bravery!
I will never forget the time he was outsmarted by a small kitten! He was walking around this house when this little kitty suddenly appeared in front of him. He had just woken up and had not expected to see such a thing. He jumped in fear and soon before I knew it he was running away. He however was not looking at where he was going and soon hit a wall, making him even more scared. After only a few minutes however, he was of course the king of the house again! Rawr!
Lastly, can you finish this sentence: Garfi is my best friend because... we have been working together as partners for years and I couldn’t ask for a better more patient friend! He is part of the family and I know he feels like he belongs here as well!