Garfield the Cat

Before you ask after seeing that picture...yes, he does like lasagne. He likes ALL food. But his favourite food is chicken so I suppose he isn't exactly like the comic cat...but close enough, right?

Anyway...to begin this journey of the lovable Garfield and why he deserves this EmPAWyee of the Month award, I have to provide some backstory.

In Melbourne, Australia...we've had lots of lockdowns. Like a lot. Especially here in Melbourne. In fact, we are now better known as the world's most locked-down city rather than being the most liveable city. Wow. Go US! Least we won something new I guess? But it's not all bad news...

It's allowed me to get closer to my favourite and cutest furbaby employee in the world. And to capture some cute photos of him while I edit my feature film.

Yes, you heard right, a feature film! I wrote, directed, and co-produced a low-budget feature film about violence against men over the last year and a bit. I had lots of help and my cast and crew were AMAZING for putting in the long hours and hard work when we were filming. The production company I created in 2020 is behind the film too, which gives me extra motivation to make this the best it can be.

There were many, many delays thanks to COVID-19. We were very close to finishing filming the film in March 2020 when the first lockdown hit in Melbourne. Like three days off. So we had to postpone filming again...again...and again. It took over a year but we finally completed shooting this year. That sounds all fun and great, right? However, the reality however of a low-budget feature film also means nominating myself to edit to save money. I mean, I'm a pretty good editor so that's okay it's just very time-consuming. All editors in the room, I'm sure you can relate.

So you're probably wondering what has Garfield got to do with this? Well, he has seen the brunt of everything. All the stress and fear of not being able to complete this (and there was a lot of it) and he stayed by my side, becoming the best little editor's assistant in the world.

Trust me when I say, there's no one more deserving than Garfield to win. This beautiful rescue boy has kept me company while I stay up till 4 am sometimes, working hard to edit the footage before we even finished filming. He has provided me with cuddles, purrs and occasional licks when I'm feeling overwhelmed because of the many delays thanks to COVID. He has sat on my lap and stood by me as I continued working to get this film to a beautiful stage where it just needs extra post-production touches and then it'll be completed. He provided me with extra licks and cuddles when my program froze cause I'm trying to do too much at once or when I didn't know how to edit a scene. I'm still working on the final touches now and he's still committed over a year and a half later to keeping me company and calming me down during this process.

But I mean, how could this face not calm anyone down?

Garfield deserves all the lasagne in the world and that's exactly what he's going to get once this film is finished. Actually...let's be honest, tomorrow I'll break his diet to make him some. I say me but I really mean my beautiful fiancé because I can't cook lasagne. But I'll help her by holding the tools.

Please give Garfield some love and give him this win so he can get all the treats in the world and the tallest treehouse ever once all this is done.

Garfield sends his love as he is currently sitting on my lap as I write this because where else would he be?