Caturday Guest Part I - Buddy Visits La Casa de Los Gatos

Today's special guest is Buddy of 922 Cats. And what a very special kitteh he is. He lives with Lizzy der kittehmeisterin and sibs Petunia, Banshee, Lucy, Cloud, Cyrano, Angel, and AreToo.

Buddy with Sweet Sib Cyrrie

Here, Buddy demonstrates to Cyrrie the proper way to ignore the paparazzi. Note Cyrrie's failure to follow orders as he gazes full at the cameraperson. Tsk! Note also Buddy's beautiful, clear green eyes!

Buddy Short-Tail

Buddy, like all cats, has several names: Three-Fang, Short-Tail, Buddy Bed Monster, Eater of Many Toes... (although his hoomin allows as how it might be Biter of Many Toes, or Nibbler of Many Toes, given that she still has all of hers ...).

Thus, when his siblings fell in love with the New Yorker cover, boldly declaring, "We all want tail enhancements," Buddy (politely, as always) declined. His hoomin claims he says it would interfere with his "brand."

Buddy demonstrates branding

How Buddy lost a good part of his tail, we shall never know. His hoomin says it happened before he came into her care, one dismal, cold, blizzardy day in 1998. But let her tell you for herself:

... it was November 1998 when I first eye-balled him - as I recall, my first words were, Oh sh*t!, on account of how many cats I was over the limit already. It was way late at night - he was all alone in the parking lot, but when I dutifully went to scoop him up he ran under a car and I said Fine! Good! And went on home. Did I slip a can of FancyFeast into my purse the next morning before going to work? Hmm.... I courted Buddy for about a month - that's how he got his name, me saying, Hi, Buddy, how are you doing today..... I stalked him, and bribed him with FancyFeast, and carried around my carrier just waiting for the opportunity to catnab him.

It's a good thing Lizzy has the honed instincts of a Cat Stalker &mdash or Buddy would not be around today to be loved and adored and "kittened!"

Finally it snowed. Big time. And I sat with him in blizzard conditions while he ate 2 cans of FF. And I threw in some catnip. Finally he let me pet him. As I rubbed his forehead I thought it's now or never, and I grabbed him and threw him into the carrier. He was not happy. I took him home and put him in the computer room and he put himself under the pie-safe and stayed there for 48 hours! No food - and oh, the goodies that I tempted him with! - and even no peeing!! But he gave in in the end, and over the next six weeks we worked things out. When I insisted he was a cat and not a turtle he gave up hiding under the little table he was so fond of. And finally we went to the vetz and started to integrate him into the horde.

Buddy demonstrates "turtling"

Buddy's names (the ones hoomins use, anyway) were earned honestly. Here, for example, Buddy shows how he earned "Buddy the Bed-Monster." Early in his stay at Casa de Lizzy, Buddy decided to "turtle" under the bed. He was eventually coaxed out by his determined hoomin, although he has not lost his "turtling" skills.

Buddy Three-Fang was bestowed after the first trip to the vetz, which caused poor Buddy to spazz out completely and break a fang trying to get out of his carrier. We suspect he had a horrible experience that involved a cat carrier and being dumped on the streets, since he's clearly not a feral. Poor Buddy must have thought that a wicked hoomin was going to do something bad and mean and painful to him AGAIN! But he's in good hands now &mdash Lizzy sets the gold standard in Cat Care, and Buddy will never ever suffer again in his life if Lizzy has anything to say about it. You hear that, Buddy? No more spazzing out with the cat carrier, sweetie.

Of course, Buddy had no idea at the time that Casa de Lizzy was the place all cats would want to be, if they knew about it. So he tried escaping. The first try, fortunately, was confined to the attic. Although it scared his hoomin badly, and probably strained numerous of her muscles from moving the objects stored in the attic to find the Budmeister, he was successfully found and dusted off.

The second escape attempt occurred 6 months later. The poor hoomin was about to leave town for an expensive professional seminar. Buddy apparated

[...] into the vestibule and into the open closet, all unknown to his hoomin. She carefully closed the interior door, took her bags to the car, went to go back inside, only to find a a frantic Buddy in the vestibule but then out the door and disappering in total panic. The human looked, the grandhuman looked, a kindly neighbor looked, and then the human had to go, with grandhuman and neighbor promising to continue the search. Every night of the seminar the human called home. And all the cat people at the seminar asked everyday, Is Buddy home yet? Needless to say, his human cried herself to sleep every night. Finally she got home, and illegally put notes in hundreds of mailboxes. She walked block after block for 3 days.

Buddy Diamondback

All in vain. Buddy was gone, vanished, no one had seen him, no one knew where he was. Poor Buddy Diamondback! And poor, poor hoomin!

Next: The Cat Came Back, or Buddy Returns. Stay tuned!

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