Songfacts®:

• While out on a stroll during lockdown, Florence Shaw, the frontwoman of Dry Cleaning, chanced upon a "lost" poster for a certain "Gary Ashby." Captivated by the name and its familial connotations, Shaw was inspired to explore the circumstances of his disappearance, and how such chaos and disorder can lead to even cherished pets wandering astray. The song delves into these themes of family, loss, and uncertainty, all the while grappling with the unnerving question of Gary's fate.
• Florence Shaw's straightforward tale of a lost tortoise isn't autobiographical, but the details are silly and poignant in the way real life often is. Uncut magazine asked Shaw about her experience with tortoises.
  
  "No experience, more just longing," she replied. "I wish I could have one, but I don't have the lifestyle that could accommodate a pet at all. I'll really like to have a pet reptile. They don't love you back. But I think I'd like that, that's they are indifferent."
• Dry Cleaning recorded "Gary Ashby" for their second album, Stumpwork. As with their debut, the album was recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales and produced by John Parish. "John's very focused on performance," drummer Nick Buxton told Uncut. "What you hear is what actually happened. He's really focused on you doing what you can do to make it sound good."
• Want another song about a tortoise? Check out Modest Mouse's fable about humanity and greed, "The Tortoise and The Tourist."