Adventures With Buddy
Kittyhood
Life with Buddy is like
living with a two-year-old again, ha!...it's all fun and games, but there's a lot of kitty-proofing that I'm having to
do to the apartment because he's into and on top of everything!
As darkness falls and I'm winding down for the day,
Buddy is just getting wound UP... he gets this spurt of energy and jumps all over me in bed, chases his tail,
runs under the covers, out the other end, charges up and climbs over
my shoulder.... all this at high speed! He's so funny to watch! It's
at this time that I refer to him as "Buddy, The Terror"
The Computer Table Battle
Since day one, it's been a battle between he and I over the computer table.
The space between the keyboard and the monitor has always been a
territorial dispute between us. It was easier when he was small because
he could lie down there without any problem, but now that he's four
times larger, he doesn't fit like he used to! Guess where the keyboard
ends up? Yes, on my lap and Buddy gets the table! Cat rules! Take a look at the picture to the right.. see what I mean?
Scary Halloween Cat
Oh God, do I have a clown for a cat! He's
so funny.... among other things, when he's in a silly, playful mood, he'll
hunch his back like a scary, Halloween cat and
jump sideways bouncing like a boxer trying to provoke me and then take off lightning fast! He's
hysterical when he does that!
Buddy the Retriever
I've taught my other cats to retrieve when they were kittens, so I started training Buddy also. Tin foil balls are the best because they are so light weight and make an intriguing sound when they roll across the linoleum floor. He took to the game right away, but after a few weeks of that, he got bored and lazy... it was then that he decided he'd leave the "retrieving" part of the game for me!
Adventure in the Refrigerator
He sure pulled a funny
stunt this one morning! As I headed to the refrigerator to get something to eat, Buddy was running all over the apartment at top speed and when I opened the refrigerator door, he came flying by as fast as a bullet and jumped
INTO the refrigerator, slid to the back and hunkered down, so proud of the
slick move he'd just made!
It startled me so much and despite my intense
protests for him to get outta there, he refused, so I had to drag him out,
along with everything else on the shelf! It was sooo funny!
My Assistant
Buddy is always
"helping" me on the computer. This morning I was sending out a
follow-up email to one of my referrals who had joined an affiliate program of
mine.
As usual, Buddy was lying down on
my computer table, and to my dismay, he often tries to use my keyboard as his
pillow. I was in the process of typing the below sentence and, thank God I
proofread it before I sent it because, thanks to Buddy, it came out like this:
“Thank you for your
interest in Fast Profits Daily. In order
to secure your position, please send your ******* payment as soon as possible.” LOL
The Creepy Crawlie Jeans
Another time I was on the bed
watching TV with my jeans hanging off the end of the bed when all of a sudden,
I saw my pant leg start to move… Buddy had crawled up inside one of the pant legs and was dragging
my jeans across the bed! Not being able to see where he was going,
he and the pants fell off the bed and I laughed as I watched my pants crawling
across the bedroom floor! What a sight! LOL
The Toilet Inspector
Another time, I was on
my computer when Buddy jumped on the computer table and dropped a soaking wet
Kleenex that he’d retrieved from the toilet!
Ugh!! Never a dull moment with him....
Baby Rat
I noticed that Buddy was
preoccupied with something on the back patio, so I went over to see what it was
and saw some little creature on the carpet just outside the door. It was hard to tell what it was because it’s
front half was hidden by leaves and it was only less than 2 inches long. It almost looked like a tree frog.
I decided to go outside
to see what it was… once I took a closer look, I saw it was a baby rat with
some cobwebs and leaves stuck on it’s face.
Poor thing! It could hardly walk,
it’s eyes were only partially opened and it couldn’t see or smell because of
the leaves attached to its face. I
didn’t see any sign of mama around, so I bent over and removed the cobwebs from
its nose and eyes. It walked very slowly
and clumsily and looked half starved,
so I picked it up from the scruff of the neck like a mama cat would carry her
young and took it over to where I previously had seen what I thought was “Mr.
Rat” making a home. Now I know it must
have been Mrs. Rat rather than Mr., LOL
Buddy watched as I dropped the baby off
at the entrance behind the box on the porch and went back inside, hoping it
would find its way back to mama. A
couple hours later, Buddy alerted me to the fact that there was more activity
on the patio. There was baby rat again,
back on the outside rug. Humm, something
wasn’t right.
I went outside again to
see if I could find mama. I pulled the
box away from the wall where I’d seen her stacking leaves and there was no sign
of any other rats anywhere, so I figured little baby rat had been abandoned….
no wonder he looked so scrawny and weak.
He was very hungry!
The animal lover in me
will not allow me to turn my back on a hungry or wounded animal, so I went to
the fridge to see what on earth a baby rat might eat. I’m assuming the baby was about a week or so
old, so I got some milk and poured a little in a bottle lid and took it out to
him. He wasn’t very interested in that,
so next I got a little cat food, mashed it up and put a lot of water in it,
then brought it out to him in a very shallow dish. He seemed to show interest in that and
appeared to drink quite a bit, then rested next to the dish.
I figured it liked the
carpet because it was warmer than the cement, so I put the food and milk on the
carpet and placed baby rat on the rug next to it.
As
you can imagine,
Buddy watched the whole thing with great interest. He kept close watch
on the baby for me, but unfortunately, it died the next day because it
was just too young to survive without it's mama. Even though it was
just a rat, Buddy and I were very sad to have lost it.
Buddy, The Illegal Immigrant
This
one day I got a notice from the apartment manager saying they were
going to be doing an inspection of everyone's apartments. This news
caused me to panic because Buddy
is essentially an illegal immigrant in the apartments where I live. I
snuck him into the apartment to avoid a $500 pet fee and I've been
keeping him
undercover ever since.
Oh boy...an inspection makes it hard to hide a cat in a small apartment.... how on earth am
I going to hide him, I thought? I worried and worried about what I could do
and I finally came up with a plan.
I
quickly started hiding all of his toys and other evidence in various closets,
under the bed and in bags. Then I planned to be sure to be home when
the management comes calling... when they ring the doorbell, I'll stuff Buddy into the closet along
with his cat box, close the door, then turn
on the TV and fan to mask any meows he might make. That should do it!
Then
I
realized I need to hide the large, five-foot cat tower which is in
the living room. See picture on the right. That’s his play station,
so to speak, but it’s too big to fit into the closet, so I got the
brainstorm to take the top level off, turn it around and make it look
like a lamp
stand with the remaining two levels… I
was so proud of myself for coming up with that idea! LOL
So
there I am, struggling to get this cat tower unscrewed…which wasn’t an easy
task. All the while, Buddy’s on the other
side pawing, scratching at the tower and playing peek-a-boo with me. He looked so cute and thought it was the
greatest game, but really I was having a hard time getting the darn thing
undone. Finally I got the top level
separated and placed a lace doily and the phone on one level and a glass lamp
on the top. Voila! It looked perfect! Nobody would know it was really a cat
tower!
All
the time I’m doing this, Buddy was climbing all over it…and as I stood back admiring
my handiwork, Buddy jumped off, jostling the whole stand and in an instant, sent the glass
lamp crashing onto the floor shattering to pieces! Darn it!!! I was soooo mad! Yet ANOTHER
mess to clean up!
Plan
A quickly turned into Plan B…. no longer having a lamp to use, I stuck one of
my large stuffed animals on top of the stand and said “Forget it…. that looks
good enough!”
As
it turned out, after all that work, the manager didn't even come to my
apartment, so we ducked that inspection! I guess Buddy and I lucked out
that day!
Buddy's Favorite Activities
I never knew a cat could play Soccer, but Buddy does! He and I take turns batting the ball across the kitchen floor to each other, him with his paws and me, with my feet. One of his other games is to create havoc when I'm busy working on a project or sleeping.
I
awoke this morning to discover that he'd unrolled just about a whole
roll of paper towels on the bathroom floor and then proceeded to shred it to pieces!
And then, when I walked into the closet, I found that he had gotten up on the
top shelf and knocked down a blanket, Dad's hat, plus several pieces of
material onto the floor. What a mess!!
As
if that wasn't enough fun for him, then he got into my dirty clothes and pulled
out some stinky socks and a wash cloth and dragged them around the
bedroom. And then this afternoon, he remembered he had so much fun with
the paper towels that he got up on the toilet and proceeded to unroll the
toilet paper and take off running with it!
His
favorite precocious trick is to climb up on the closet shelf and knock my
blouses off the hangers onto the floor and then systematically knock the
hangers to the floor also. So, you see.... I do a lot of picking up after
this adorable little butthead! LOL He's worse than a two-year-old!!
A Slippery Situation
While
Buddy was running around the house showing off at top speed, he
ran into the bathroom, jumped onto the toilet seat and accidentally SLIPPED
INTO THE TOILET BOWL! Ha! Ha!
Ha! You should have seen the shocked look
on his face! It was hysterical!
He spent the next few minutes doing the "shake
a leg" to get the water off his back feet while I laughed my head off!
Buddy's New Friend
One of Buddy's favorite pastimes is to look out the bedroom window to see what's going on. He kind of
reminds me of my Grandma at times like this, ha!
This particular morning I heard the hum of wings just outside the window and as I turned to see what was going on, I noticed a Hummingbird hovering right in front of the open window where Buddy was sitting.
Buddy watched it with intense curiosity as it hovered and then retreated to rest on the branch of a nearby tree.
After a few minutes, it would come back to hover in front of the window and it did this time after time for about twenty minutes. It was sooo cute!
I guess Miss Hummingbird was as curious about Buddy as he was about it. I snapped a picture of him during this encounter, but unfortunately couldn't get the Hummingbird in the shot ...maybe next time. Refer picture to the right.
Buddy Ventures Outside
Over
the past year that Buddy has been with me, I’ve always kept him indoors and he
was very happy with that, until recently, when he made it perfectly clear that
he wanted to explore the outside patio of the apartment. I decided to let him out and see how he
behaved.
My
main concern was that he didn’t try to jump over the four-foot wall to the
public area beyond where there were scary things like cars and trucks, and
people and DOGS, oh my! So far, so good…
he wasn’t the least bit interested in the wall and spent his time outside
inspecting the plants and looking for bugs.
When
I would let him outside, I’d leave the patio door open and often would go into
the bedroom to continue with whatever computer work I had at the
time. One of his cute little games was
to climb up on the box outside, stick his nose up to the bedroom screen and cry
for me to come to the window. I’d get up
and go to the screen where I’d send him kisses from the other side, then we’d
both run as fast as possible to see who could get to the living room faster! Ha! He
usually won and just loved the game.
As
time went by, I developed trust that he wouldn’t attempt to jump the wall even
though I knew he was fully capable of doing so.
He was happy and I was peaceful with this arrangement because I felt he
would not venture outside of his safe territory which, thus far, had been the
apartment and the patio.
This
one morning I let him out and went back to the computer. When I didn’t hear from him after about ten minutes,
I decided I’d better go check on him.
When I went out to the patio, he was gone! Alarm bells went off inside of me as I went
racing through the house calling him, but he was nowhere to be found! I leaned over the wall as I called his name
and after a few calls, I heard his answer, a very faint mew from the bushes
about two hundred yards away.
Buddy’s
eyes were as wide as saucers and it was obvious to me that he was scared to
death! He had that wild look about him
of primal survival and I knew I had to get out there now before he bolted when
the next car went by. I threw on my
jeans and ran down the corridor as fast as I could anxious to get him back into
the safety of the house.
When
I approached, I could still see fear written all over him and I assured him it
was me by letting him smell my hand and then picked him up and took him back
inside. Poor guy, he was actually
trembling with fear!
It’s
my guess that he had no idea the wall was so narrow and when he jumped up, was
surprised to go flying OVER the wall instead of on it and ended up, head first,
in the bushes. LOL It’s very probable that some cars went by as
it’s a busy parking lot and perhaps a dog and its owner passed by, as well,
thus attributing to his huge amount of fear.
Needless to say, Buddy is GROUNDED for a while until he earns his trust
back...
Missing! 8/1/12
Buddy
eventually earned his patio privileges back and never tried to jump the wall
again, so I gave him more and more freedom as time went on. He kept me awake at night batting the blinds
because he wanted to go outside, I finally relented and cracked the window in
the evening and discovered he would go out and sleep on the box just below the
window and come back in for the rest of the evening with me…. until one night.
I
awoke at 7 A.M. and didn’t see Buddy sleeping on the chair beside my bed, so I
did a quick scan of the apartment and the patio. He was nowhere to be found! I panicked and ran out to the patio scanning
the bushes and parked cars to see if he was anywhere in view. He was not and the fear inside of me grew to
a high pitch as I struggled to throw my clothes on. I hurriedly went outside and started walking
around the whole apartment complex like a security guard on patrol, looking and
calling his name as quietly as possible in an effort not to wake the whole
neighborhood.
After
the first sweep of the complex without finding Buddy, I couldn’t contain my
crying any longer as my imagination threw all these awful scenarios at me such
as him crossing the busy street and getting hit by a car or getting lost and not
being able to find his way back home. I prayed
and prayed that the good Lord would bring him back to me safely by tonight as I
knew he hadn’t had any food or water since early that morning. I last saw him at 2:30 A.M. and knew he had
taken off between that time and 7 A.M. so he’d had plenty of time to wander
pretty far.
It
wasn’t hard to figure out why he’d left as he’s now a full-grown, adult male
that hasn’t been fixed yet and I know there are other cats in the neighborhood,
so he probably saw some good-looking female and decided to follow her.
It
was getting hot out by this time and I was just recovering from being sick with
the flu for more than a week, so I didn’t have much energy and would return
home after each sweep of the complex, drink water and rest a few minutes while
trying to figure out where in the world he would go.
Remembering
that there were stray cats in the neighboring church property, I decided to go
over there and canvass the surrounding neighborhoods, so off I went. The church itself was still under
construction and no one was around, so I slipped under the ropes that barred
the entry and walked to the back of the property calling Buddy’s name. I knew I was trespassing, but figured anyone
who questioned me would understand why if I had to explain myself. No Buddy…
I
continued on walking for blocks in the heat searching neighborhoods on all
sides of the apartment complex, calling out and listening for his quiet little
response which he often does at home.
Nothing, nothing, nothing! I was
in despair and couldn’t stop the sobbing as I told Ro and German about it and
asked them to pray for our Buddy.
I
decided to go by car all around the neighborhood, making sure to scan the busy
streets in front of the apartment to make sure he wasn’t lying dead or injured
on the side of the road…. thank God, he was not!
I
was torn between the little voice inside of me telling me that he would return
and my grief at the thought of never finding him again. I returned to the apartment and decided the
only thing I could do was wait for him to find me. The problem was that all the apartments look
alike from the outside and I was afraid he wouldn’t be able to find mine, so I
sprinkled some of his pee-stained cat litter on the other side of the wall
knowing that animals often go by scent. Then
I draped my pajamas that I’d been wearing over the wall for the evening in
hopes that he’d be able to smell my scent and know this was the right patio.
This
whole thing seemed like a nightmare for me!
I left the window and patio doors open and finally fell asleep from
sheer exhaustion. Then, awakened from a
sound sleep, I heard Buddy’s voice in my ear and awoke to find him hovering
over my head trying to awaken me. I thought
I was dreaming as I sat up and hugged him!
He was HOME, thank God! And he fine…
starving, I bet, but not injured in any way!
It was obvious how happy he was to see me as he purred and showed his
affection for me as I petted him continuously and told him everything I’d gone
through worrying about him. I was soooo
grateful that he’d come home safely! It
was a direct answer to prayer for me!
He
sure was hungry, as I figured… he ate three servings of food and drank more
water than I’d ever seen him drink, then we both went back to bed and sleep for
hours.
Sometimes Independence Ain't So Great! 2013
Over the months, Buddy has put on quite a bit of weight and now is a full-grown adult male. His howls at night have attracted a juvenile female that I refer to as "Lady Love" and her homeless siblings... so guess who has been putting food out for them at night? Yep... me. Every night Buddy sits with his elbows in the windowsill waiting for her to arrive... it's sooo cute! See picture on the right.
July 4th 2013 - I went out on the patio to place my U.S. flag in the flower pot and Buddy followed me out to sniff the plants.
From one moment to the next, he had jumped onto the wall and before I could tell him NO, he had jumped down the other side. FREEDOM at last!
I leaned over the wall to see which way he was headed and told him, "Get back in here, Buddy! It's not safe!" Just when I was thinking I'd have to throw my jeans on and go chase him down, he turned back and took my advice... he struggled to jump back up on the wall, but his heavy bulk was a challenge; however he finally succeeded in getting back into the patio and scrambled into the house as fast as he could!
I'm not sure what scared him, but I'm glad he had second thoughts about leaving home and returned on his own. I guess he decided independence just wasn't such a good thing in his case... he was so happy to be home, he rolled back and forth on the carpet with joy!
It was baby Boing Boing! He went immediately to the toy box and sorted
through the toys with one paw, then grabbed the largest one in his
mouth and took off out the door! One by one, he made four trips, stole four
toys and dropped
them in his bed out on the patio. 
Soooo cute!
