I realized I needed to calm down when Bud turned and gave me a wide-eyed, uncertain stare.
It was the fourth quarter of the NBA Finals’ second game, and the San Antonio Spurs were chipping away at the New York Knicks’ lead with ample help from the referees.
The Spurs collapsed in as the Knicks’ Karl Anthony Towns (KAT, or Big Kat as he’s fondly known) drove the lane, pummeling him and grabbing at his shooting hand while the refs just watched.
It had been happening all night. Spurs star Victor Wembanyama even grabbed a much smaller Knicks player by the neck and tossed him at one point without so much as a peep from the refs.
(Above: 7’4″ Spurs center Victor Wembanyama grabs 6-foot Knicks points guard Jose Alvarado by the neck and tosses him. The refs did nothing.)
I shouted something not nice as the refs ignored the bludgeoning and the Spurs barreled down the other end for another bucket.
Then I saw Bud’s alarmed face and his uncertain crouch.
“Aw, sh–,” I said, softening my tone and doing my best to sound reassuring. “Not you, Bud. I love you, little guy.”
I held out my fingers, Bud rubbed his cheek against them happily, and we returned to watching the game as I scratched his head.
Still, it was a much-needed reminder that our little pals look to us for emotional cues, and our bad moods have a profound impact on them.
I will never forget what my brother observed one day when Buddy was still a kitten: “You’re his whole world.”
Bud likes to pretend otherwise, of course, but the point stands. He picks up on everything, and it is deeply unfair for me to allow any outside emotions to impact him. Making sure he’s happy means everything to me.
The comedian Bill Burr has a bit about this, putting it in more crude — but much more hilarious — terms:
Happily, despite the abominable officiating, the Knicks won the game. They have now won 13 games in a row in the playoffs (!), they haven’t lost a game in six weeks, and after defeating the Spurs twice on their home court, the Knicks return to New York two wins away from being NBA champions…for the first time in 53 years.
It’s not only a big deal to me and millions of New Yorkers, it’s something I’ve wanted so badly since I was a kid watching the Knicks reach the Finals in 1994 and 1999, falling agonizingly short both times.
Wembanyama, San Antonio’s best player, is a towering 7’4″ and doesn’t even have to jump to dunk the basketball, while the Knicks’ best player is Jalen Brunson, who at six feet tall is diminutive by NBA standards.
Wembanyama was the number one pick in his draft, already hailed as the future of the sport before he set foot on the hardwood. Brunson was the 33rd pick in the second round in his draft class, an afterthought who wasn’t predicted to be anything more than a bench player at best.
When the Knicks signed Brunson four years ago, the entire sports world laughed. One ESPN “expert” insisted the idiot Knicks had pinned their hopes on a “role player,” while another compared Brunson to one of the team’s all time great busts. A third declared the Knicks would never win anything with Brunson leading the team.
And yet here we are on the cusp of history. The Knicks aren’t just two games from a championship, and they haven’t merely punched their ticket to the Finals. They have absolutely obliterated every team they’ve faced, sweeping the last two series and winning by a margin of almost 24 points per game.
But it ain’t over until they win it, so I’m heartened by what the Knicks’ KAT and Mikal Bridges both said after the last two games: they’re treating each game as if they have no lead, as if they must fight tooth and nail to save their season. They are not resting on their laurels, they’re not taking anything for granted, and they refuse to underestimate their opponents.
So let’s hope they win two more and finally bring a championship home, at which time Bud and I will partay!
Pain In The Bud 
Why? Did Buddy try to get the ball scratching at tv or did he go under bed?😂
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He just gave me the side eye, like “You allright there, dude?”
I was too animated. In my defense, social media was blowing up with people who couldn’t believe how bad the officiating was in that game, but I do have to remember Bud is highly attuned to my moods.
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I really appreciate your sensitivity to LB’s viewpoint. Kitties are incredibly tuned in to everyone and everything in their environment. They are aware of every feeling, both those expressed and those only felt. They are super aware and practically psychic. My darling cat gets terrified if I yell or cuss. I think he feels threatened. I have to find a way to chill bc I don’t want to make my favorite guy scared of me. Thank you for sharing about this.
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Exactly, they know our emotions and moods before we’re consciously aware of them.
I can’t take the credit here though because Bud’s been a good teacher and he never hesitates to let me know how he feels. That’s partially why I’m baffled at those stories about people who bring identical looking cats into their homes thinking they’re their cats. I would know in half a second.
But mostly, how could I be an adequate servant if I did not take his feelings into account? He’d never let me forget it!
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Wimpy (as I like to call him) is a nasty piece of work. Bad juju. VERY bad juju backed by the NBA. It was very clear to me in their series against OKC. Here’s Wimpy with Zen monks. Here’s Wimpy having a heart-to-heart with Popovich . Ad nauseam. And that spectacle involving the “nuns” was demonic – the only reason Wimpy wasn’t the one being “blessed” is because he’s not Christian. All that he has going for him is his height – but you’d never know it by all the gushing and favoritism.
I hope he breaks something. GO KNICKS!
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The dude praises himself for playing “ethical basketball.” He says he won’t do endorsement deals with Coca Cola etc “because he doesn’t want to kill the kids” in the words of his manager, and he won’t even sit down at the table to do post-game pressers until Gatorade bottles have been cleared, but he has an endorsement with Nike so I guess he has fewer scruples about kids in sweatshops.
Still, I didn’t realize Wemby was this bad until he elbowed Naz Reid in the neck against the Timberwolves earlier in the playoffs, then elbowed OKC’s Isiah Hartenstein (a beloved former Knick) in the face last round, and now the stuff with Alvarado and KAT, among other things.
If he keeps at it, someone’s going to get hurt. You cannot be elbowing people in the face or grabbing guys by the neck and tossing them.
He’s throwing a tantrum because he could bully Chet Holmgren and other guys, but KAT has his number and it’s painfully obvious. I love that it’s KAT, of all players, who has been showing him up. There is not a nicer guy in the NBA than KAT.
As for those nuns, they are not cute. They think they are, but praying for a Spurs victory is ridiculous. Pray for an end to the wars in Ukraine and Iran. Pray for the kids in Gaza. Praying for the Spurs to win yet another title is a little weird.
Ah well. Hopefully the Knicks sweep this series too, win in New York, then cue the Sinatra and raise the championship banner.
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He’s a piece of shite, all right. Hopefully someone will hurt HIM big-time. Anyway KARMA always comes around sooner or later.
Nice to see someone else sees through the crap, too.
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Lots of people are seeing it now because it’s his first postseason and he’s made dirty plays and hit dudes in every series.
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We are neutral in this face off between the Spurs and the Knicks, but are not Wenby fans! He beat up on our sad Nuggets! To the victor goes the spoils!
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Nuggets are in a tough spot. They’re old, they have major needs and they pay everyone not named Jokic too much money. I don’t know how you fix that.
Wemby is just a dirty player.
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100 percent
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Hope you’ve got plenty of bacon treats
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