It’s little Buddy! What more could you possibly want?
I took this photo on Monday, capturing Bud in the moments between him screeching at me, I believe for snacks. Although it could have been a demand for me to sit on the couch so he can then sit on me. I forget.
There is a practical side to taking random photos like this, which is that it’s easier to really look at nonverbal indicators of health and mood. In this photo his ears are up and relaxed, his whiskers are relaxed, and he’s chill. Aside from making loud and insistent demands of me, that is. Anyway, here he is in all his 12-year-old glory:
Aries: Although you’re already considered really, really ridiculously good-looking, your handsomeness will increase by 11.72%. An unexpected visitor could come knocking on your door. Will they bring trouble, or an array of brand new boxes? It’s up to you to manifest the result!
Taurus: Why do today what you can put off until tomorrow? Go ahead and take that nap, and another. You may find yourself switching napping spots, but your human’s lap is always a classic. It’s warm, comfortable, secure, and your human can’t go anywhere without you knowing about it.
Gemini: Prepare yourself for a particularly delicious week! New yums are on the horizon, my friend, and if you play your cards right, you’ll feast on this newfound bounty. Make sure you tell your human he or she has served you well. Our inferiors need a little encouragement now and then. Meanwhile you contemplate a new hairstyle. Should you go with a daring new look or keep things simple? The answer is yes.
Cancer: You know the annoying neighbor cat, the one who’s always bragging about his luxury condo, fancy window ledge and abundance of toys? His humans are going to adopt a dog. LOL!
Leo: You’ll feel particularly appreciated and honored when the local delicatessen names a magnificent sandwich after you. Your social group may seem a little boring lately, but the arrival of exciting new cats could shake things up.
Should you betray the Colonel?
Virgo: You may be feeling down on your luck of late, but all that’s about to change when you discover Colonel Sanders’ secret recipe with all 11 herbs and spices! You can earn a tidy sum by settling with KFC and agreeing to keep this sacred knowledge hidden, or you could go public with the recipe and become a celebrated hero. The choice is yours.
Libra: You feel it’s time to do some interior redecorating but your humans disagree. Ignore them. A long-lost friend may try to get in touch. Reestablishing the relationship could yield many benefits, but could also disrupt your nap schedule. Tread carefully.
Scorpio: The sudden emergence of a powerful citrus scent in your domicile threatens to drive you to the brink of madness. You must race against time to find the source of this vile olfactory intruder before it’s too late. Steel yourself: as old enemies return, it’s crucial that you keep your claws sharp!
Sagittarius: You may feel as if luck has abandoned you, but don’t fret! Statistics show 97% of gamblers quit right before the big payout! All you have to do is make one more wager…
Capricorn: Your fortunes could change rapidly when an attorney informs you a long-lost relative named you as the sole beneficiary of their will! Your joy will be short-lived, however, when you realize 50 million rubles is equal to about $17.32. But cheer up! That’ll keep you in snacks for a while!
Aquarius: How many of these stupid signs are there? What? My mic is on? Oh crap… My editors say I’m not including enough mystical stuff, so uh, this month will bring you news from the Second Chamber of Eternity, where stars shimmer like opalescent lilies in the lake of the palace of the celestial maidens. Then it, uh, circumnavigated Saturn like debris on its accretion disk until arriving in your life in the form of mystical stardust. Also, you will discover a delicious new form of cheese.
Pisces: If a spectral figure appears to you inside your litter box, it would be wise to listen to what it has to say. You will be faced with a daunting challenge this week as you find several interior doors closed, culminating in your human using the bathroom without you. Don’t read too much into it. You’re still best pals, and soon you’ll discover riding in a baby bjorn is a great way to experience the outdoors!
Tune in next week when Buddy the Cat will probably offer new horoscopes. For entertainment purposes only. Buddy does not guarantee that you’ll discover a delicious new kind of cheese.
As defiant Persian cats refused to budge in negotiations to end the war, President Buddy has made a series of increasingly dramatic threats.
WASHINGTON — When President Buddy launched an offensive against Jazmin and Xerxes, Persian cats belonging to a neighbor, he said he expected the besieged felines to capitulate in “two weeks, maybe three.”
Six weeks later not only have the Persian cats refused to meet the president’s demands, they’ve closed the Passage of Four Moose, a key alley that connects the residential area to the rear of a plaza where dumpsters overflow with with yums discarded by a restaurant, a bagel and breakfast cafe, and a bakery.
Without dumpster food supplementing the meals they get from neighbors, local cats are growing increasingly impatient with the war.
President Buddy dismissed their concerns, saying negotiations were going smoothly shortly before expressing anger that talks with the Persians weren’t moving fast enough.
“My envoys say we’re getting close on a deal,” President Buddy told reporters. “A big, beautiful deal unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. It’s gonna be incredible!”
But just three hours later the president took to his personal social media platform, Meow Social, to issue a direct threat to the felines who continued to defy him.
“If they don’t open the alley, we’re gonna blast them to oblivion!” he wrote. “We’re gonna send them back to the stone ages with the — and by the way, my weapons are very powerful. Everyone says it. Open the alley you crazy bastards!”
The president separately posted an AI generated image of himself “as a physician who just happens to be wearing robes” during his war of words with Leo, an Italian lion and spiritual leader.
Previously, President Buddy had threatened to “destroy,” “obliterate,” “armageddonize,” “vaporize” and “unleash fury the likes of which they’ve never seen” on five different occasions, setting deadlines only to pull back at the last minute because, he said, meows between the parties were more favorable.
A spokescat for the Persians said negotiations were “nowhere close to reaching a resolution” and warned they would keep the alley closed until President Buddy recalled his forces. They also expressed frustration, saying that six weeks into the conflict, they still weren’t sure what the president wants or seeks to accomplish.
“He just rambles about ‘tremendous words’ and ‘powerful numbers,”” one source close to Xerxes and Jazmin meowed. “We were able to get his attention by offering access to the coveted McDonald’s trash bins four blocks away because we know he loves Big Macs, but he insisted we give him yellow cake. We don’t have any cake.”
Despite the Persians’ insistence on a withdrawal, Buddesian forces continued to surround the alley, with the aircat carrier USS Tremendous patrolling one end.
Sailors aboard the USS Tremendous, which was deployed to the Alley of Four Moose after Xerxes and Jazmin closed it.
Although President Buddy faces growing concern about the standoff with cats in his own party, he told felines at a Friday rally that a favorable resolution was imminent.
“I wrote the Deal of the Art,” the president told the crowd. “Nobody negotiates like I do. I’ll talk about, like, nine different things, and they all come back brilliantly together. And it’s like – and friends of mine that are English professors – they say it’s the most brilliant thing they’ve ever seen. So the Persians – and by the way, Tuesday will be litter box day, and food bowl day. They’ll be gone, obliterated in one day. So those are very powerful numbers, and we’re gonna attack the Siamese next.”
Mirror mirror on the wall, who’s the most silly looking of them all?
Look at all that fur! Bud could almost pass as a long haired cat if you only saw him laying down like this.
With our first 90-plus-degree days yesterday and today here in New York, a lot of that fur is going to end up on the floor, the couch and my bed if I don’t sneak in some brief brushing sessions when I can:
In other news, I’m very excited to share that PITB t-shirts will be available very soon!
I received t-shirts of two of the print designs and they look great. The plan is to begin with four designs and expand from there. Here’s a photo of one of the launch designs, the Budsden flag:
I have a lame joke whenever my mom says something like “I’m a pretty good mom, right?”
I say “Sure, if you don’t count like 4,479 other moms,” often going through a list of mothers we know, including her friends, and ranking her below all of them.
But of course she knows I love her wholeheartedly and consider her the best mom, not “just” out of love but also recognition that she had a very difficult job as a single mom to my brother and I. It couldn’t have been easy raising two idiots like us.
My brother turned out to be a good dude, a well-respected member of the community and someone people look up to, and I turned out to be…well, me, but she shouldn’t hold that against herself. One out of two ain’t bad!
Moms make the world work. To be a good mother is to be utterly selfless, to always put your children first no matter how tired you are or how bad of a day you’re having. Moms give of themselves to ensure their children grow up happy, healthy and with a decent shot at life.
From nursing us and wiping our behinds as helpless babies, to soothing us when we scrape our knees as toddlers, to guiding us as we discover the world as kids, tolerating our insistence that we Know Everything as teenagers, and reassuring us during moments of uncertainty as adults, moms are always there for us and want the best for us.
Cats are extraordinary mothers to their kittens, and they don’t have it easy, especially if they are strays or ferals. Their love for their babies is so strong, they’re willing to run into raging fires for them. I’ll never forget a story one reader told me about her adopted stray, Snowy, who delivered kittens shortly after securing her new indoor home. Snowy died defending her babies from a pair of dogs who tried to get at them while they were on a back porch. The woman kept Snowy’s daughter and found good homes for the other kittens.
I’ve blogged about this before, but while I do not call myself Bud’s “dad,” and prefer to think of us as best pals, enablers, and co-conspirators in our ridiculous plots for world domination, I do have parental feelings for my Little Buddy, and consider it my privilege to be his caretaker until the day he finally hits mythical felid maturity and turns into a hulking and fearsome tiger. (Do NOT tell him it’s not going to happen, he is absolutely convinced it’ll be any time now. He’ll be yuge and orange, just you wait!)
But of course he would not be such a fine young Buddy if not for his feline mom, who may not have smacked him upside the head as much as was probably warranted, but nonetheless admirably prepared him to take over his forever home and install himself as King.
So to all the moms out there, human and feline, we love you and we’re eternally grateful for your love.
Happy Mother’s Day!
Kitten Buddy lounging in my lap, probably about 10 weeks old.
Pain In The Bud 