Buddy the Cat (more cat pix) (Florida journals)

Buddy the Cat quizzically eyeing the stranger. 

Buddy just realized I was standing there. He misses his humans. Apparently I will do, but just barely. Especially since I started cleaning his eyes. He loves that. Poor thing. Whoever bred Persians with punched-in faces oughta be forced to eat out of cat bowls with his hands ziplocked behind his back. What a stupid trait. 

It took some doing but I managed to get his face clean. He loved it. I soak a toothbrush in eyedrops and rub his face he helps me. He strokes the toothbrush and then licks it, he’s quite funny. He is 19 which is the equivalent of 133 human years. He does have teeth, I convinced him to play with me by touching his paws and he grabbed my hand in his mouth. He was very gentle, but firm. I’m trying something new tonight, as I’m rather desperate for a full night’s sleep. I brought him on the bed with me. He seems to be happy. He hasn’t yodeled in several hours. I got five whole hours uninterrupted sleep.

In this photo he just squeaked softly, as if mumbling to himself. That I can live with. But not the howling all night long under my window. When does he sleep? I’m fairly certain he is deaf, and is probably near-blind as well. Possibly senile. His yowling sounds as if he was lost or abandoned. Not a caterwaul yowl. 

When Buddy loses the plot, he can crank it up several decibels. I keep stalking the cat to try and record his hideous meows, and he always cottons on. Imagine this at quadruple the volume, and a sustained yodel, with more longing and saudade— for five or more minutes, going off like clockwork all through the night. I wanted to post a video of his medium howls, but the file is 35 MB. When I can figure out how to trim it I will post it. Can’t seem to access the clip function on the iPad version of a movie.