Buckwheat came to us, along with his sister, Bailey, as tiny babies during my time in real estate. A seller reported that her husband heard noises inside a closet wall. The local fire department was called and discovered that a mother cat was moving her babies through the home’s attic and three had fallen through a gap in the structure and were inside the wall. The fire department cut into the sheet rock, freeing the three. One of the firemen took one and I took the other two, a beautiful snowshoe that we called Bailey because her colors resembled Bailey’s Irish Crème. The other was all black with spiky hair who we named Buckwheat as his hair reminded us of a character in the old Our Gang comedy. Both would fit in the palm of your hand. It was clear they would need bottle feeding, which I did, intending to relinquish them to a good home when they reached a certain level of maturity. Well, that was 12+ years ago and that good home was ours.
Buckwheat seemed to be the ‘runt’ of the litter, but now, fully grown, he is a large, sleek beautiful black alpha cat.
BW acquired the nickname ‘Bucklewheat’ during a visit from one of our grand kids, Matthew, then about 5 or 6. We have a habit of talking to the cats when we pass by them, whether it’s just to greet them or to tell them how good they are. One day, my wife, with Matthew in tow, saw Buckwheat and greeted him with ‘Hi, Buckwheat!’. Matthew heard something else and echoed, ‘Hi, Bucklewheat!’. From that day forward, he was also ‘Bucklewheat’.