Buddy Lee Beardsly Thoughts

I know you are going to think I am crazy, no comments from those who already hold that opinion, but I cannot get enough of Buddy Lee lately. Even this weekend as I have been going through one of our big bookcases weeding out books...those weeded out have been few and far between, never the less I am making progress, I came across a book by Willie Morris. Willie Morris wrote the book and then came the movie based on the book, My Dog Skip. He also wrote a lesser known book about his cat, Spit McGee. As is my custom, I bought the Spit book but never read it. Willie passed away in 1999 and I think that year as Roy and I drove through Mississippi and stopped in Oxford, MS at Square Books. I bought it because Willie had just passed on. To think that the man who changed the journalistic and literary scene post World War II as an editor at Harper's is most known to many as the man who gave us My Dog Skip.

So, last night before bed and this afternoon I have been reading how Willie who was a cat hater from the get go became affectionately associated with kittens and cats in his later years. It helped that his soon to be wife and whom he fondly referred to as Cat Woman, because of her love of cats, helped develop this love and relationship with the felines of the species. As is my usual place to read either in my big blue chair or on the bed, Buddy is right there with me. She follows me from room to room. She doesn't always sit on my lap, but she is never more than 3 feet away. So as I read this afternoon, she curled up for a nap at the end of the bed on the comforter and it wasn't too long afterwards that I was at the end of the bed trying to keep my feet warm when I laid beside her to take a little...you know it is coming...cat nap. Just as I was dozing off, I felt her paw on top of my hand and we both nodded off to dreamland paw and hand.

This morning as Roy and I made the bed, she played her game of getting underneath the sheets just to be placed on top of the covers and as we pull the blankets and quilt up, she makes a game of it because she wants to be flipped off her feet. We all enjoy this game so we do one blanket at a time. Of course she cannot show that much interest in the whole thing, so as soon as the bed is made, she sits there and takes her leisurely bath.

When we go to bed, Buddy wants to play one last game. She knows that a toy is in the second dresser drawer. She sits at the dresser and meows loudly, because like any child, she wants just one more thing before we go to sleep. She sleeps all day so most nights she is not ready for sleep when we are. I get the toy and we play as long as both of us have the energy to do so. Sometimes we vary this game with chase the laser light.

Roy has come to love Buddy, he was never much of a cat person. We have kept Josey and Sassy for Dena when she traveled so we indoctrinated him slowly to cats. Tiff, our miniature Schnauzer worshiped the ground Roy walked on and I was OK in a pinch. Tiff would sit outside of Roy's bathroom door every morning and waited for him while he took his shower. She and Roy would have their morning banana (Tiff loved bananas and she could hear the slight crack of the bunch when you pulled off one banana and would be at your feet barking until you gave her some) and she sat with him while he had his quiet time. She waited at the door for him to come home in the evenings. Buddy does the same, except for banana, she has no interest, with me. She waits outside of any closed door for me and before I leave for work when I have my quiet time, she is either on my lap or very near by. Roy keeps trying to win her over, but her heart belongs to me. Buddy does come when he whistles for her and I don't know of very many cats who respond to a whistle like that.

We have louvered doors on our den and one afternoon, Roy had accidentally closed them and Buddy was in there. I kept hearing this scratchy noise and I opened up the doors to the den to be eye to eye with Buddy. She had climbed almost to the top to get the door open. Buddy sits in Roy's dinning room chair and attacks us when we walk by. Always a playful attack, not with claws. She does have a temper, mainly in the mornings. Guess that is why we get along so well. I have learned not to try and hold her in the mornings, cause she will attack your head when you lay back down. A sign to know when she is not playing is, she opens her mouth just a little bit and makes her eyes real big. You can almost guarantee a swipe at you when you see these signs.

Early in the morning, she came to bed and made room for herself right beside me. She likes to sleep on my arm. She purred us back to sleep. Right now she is on her little stool watching me. She just had her din din.

I've been thinking of canceling our reservations at La Cantera. I could not abide thinking of Buddy being at the vet's for several days. I finally asked Dena if she could look after Buddy. She said yes and we just need for Sassy and Buddy to meet before doing this. Cats are so territorial, I hope it works out. I need to take Buddy for her shots in the next couple of weeks and I will need to brace myself to put her in the carrier and make the short trip to the vet. She always gets this nervous look. The first time we made that trip she cried all the way and the only thing that stopped her crying was my singing to her. I am used to the opposite, crying when I am singing. Dena better brace herself for the couple of frantic phone calls I will make just to see how things are going, when I am really calling to hear good Buddy reports. I hope that Dena doesn't get too attached to Buddy cause she is a lap cat where as Sassy is a wild living East Texas orphaned kitten who loves having her own space.

So, I don't know if it is the book that is drawing these feelings out of me or it is the fact that Buddy brings me so much happiness. I had to write about it. Yep, this is really something for the journal, but I had to share about Buddy Lee Beardsley and the joy and comfort we get from the pleasure of her company.