Wait, I’m the sidekick? Why am I the sidekick?

Little Buddy is the brains and the badass. Big Buddy is the sidekick. Script by Little Buddy.
Wait, I’m the sidekick? Why am I the sidekick?

The surprised home inspector made a phone call from inside the owner’s living room, reporting “an intimidatingly large cat.”
Home camera footage shows a housing inspector who enters a family’s living room and stops dead in his tracks because he sees…a Maine Coon?!
The inspector was concerned enough that he phoned back to the office to report an “intimidatingly large cat.”
“I’m doing a home inspection now and, like, there’s this cat here, and it’s a very large size cat,” he tells the person on the other end of the line. “You know how you see a cat and they have a cute face? This cat is like… I might eat you later.”
What’d he think it was, a lynx?
Of course we get this sort of thing all the time here at Casa de Buddy. Oftentimes people will hear Little Buddy’s terrifying roar and cast an uncertain glance my way.
“Dude, you got Elmo locked in a room or something?”
Followed inevitably by Bud’s indignant reply.
“I do NOT sound like Elmo! I’m a tiger, I just haven’t hit my growth spurt yet.”

So there you have it. Weird things can happen when you have a huge cat in your home…or one who sounds like Elmo.
Let the catnip flow and the good times roll.
This weekend marks 12 years since I took home an energetic, bold, curious, talkative gray tabby kitten.
In some ways it feels like it can’t possibly be 12 years since I adopted the Budster, but it also feels like the little dude has been around forever. He’s such an outsize presence with a huge personality, and he never lets you forget he’s around.

As we celebrate the loudmouthed, opinionated, turkey-loving little guy, here are some of his adventures as chronicled here on PITB:
Bud must have been born some time in February of 2014, but since I don’t know the day, his adoptiversary is his de facto birthday.
We’ve got a long weekend ahead of us, including a party, a dance contest, a cocktail hour with Bud’s jaguar friends, and of course the grand fireworks display on Sunday night. There will be catnip and turkey for all.
Happy birthday, Bud!

“Why don’t you have a nice, cuddly cat?”
Twix is sweet.
Twix is a love bug. Twix will hop up onto your lap and purr up a storm while you pet her. Twix is always up for affection.
She even likes being picked up!

Everyone in my family has now met my brother’s cat, and it’s dawned on them that not every member of the species felis catus will smack you in the face if you scratch their head too many times or offer affection when they don’t want it.
Bud will. Twix won’t.
Yes, Bud is mercurial. Yes, Bud can be a massive jerk. But he’s my jerk.

And my nieces? They love Twix.
They want to love Bud, but he often makes himself scarce when they’re around and he’s wary of them despite the fact that they’re a bit older now and no longer the lumbering, fine-motor-skills-lacking little humans they once were.
I’ll never forget the day when I saw my oldier niece bicycle kick the family dog, Cosmo, like Liu Kang from Mortal Kombat. She was very young, but still: rapid-fire kicks to the face!
Cosmo growled, Cosmo retreated, but Cosmo never fought back. He was too good for that.
But Bud? He lashed out at the girls once, several years ago now, and they haven’t forgotten about it.
Still, I look at the bright side. Twix has shown the girls that cats can be cuddly and sweet and loving. They’ve got their Twix, and I’ve got my imperious, scheming, turkey-obsessed Buddy.

Happy Easter!
Happy Easter to those who celebrate, and happy spring to those who don’t.
As is tradition, Buddy transforms into the Easter Buddy for 24 hours, complaining loudly and often about his rabbit ears and remarking that he never realized how much carrots taste like delicious turkey.
Buddy has been studiously preparing for Easter. Here he is at noon on Saturday:

At 2 pm:

At 4 pm:

At 5 pm:

At 6:30 pm:

All in preparation for his ears to sprout.
Happy Easter!
* The last photo may or may not actually depict a tribble or a hedgehog.