America's Next Top Cat Model... 
America's Next Top Cat Model...Buffy the cat has taught a class, tended bar, ridden a big wheel, gone bowling, flown an airplane, played piano and guitar, taken in a Cubs game, voted, worked as a dentist and talk show host, and much, much more. He even had a bar mitzvah. Such is life when you're a cat that likes to pose and you live with a Jewish oral surgeon whose hobby/second profession is photography. Now Paul A. Smulson of Wilmette has published an 85-page book detailing Buffy's supposed exploits, titled "No Dogs Allowed: Buffy the Cat." It's an eye-popping compendium of pictures of the photogenic feline posing everywhere from a TV anchor's seat to a nursing home, where he entertains residents. None of the photos have been computer-aided or digitally altered, Smulson says. The Buffy odyssey began for Smulson and his wife Robin 15 years ago when Smulson, who was not a cat lover, visited his friend George Ireland, the late coach of the 1963 Loyola University NCAA basketball champions, and Smulson's neighbor when he was growing up in Skokie. Ireland told him that he had something for Smulson's children, Gabbi and Randi. What he had were two kittens, which he had already named Buffy and Smokey. Smulson didn't want to take them home, but his wife persuaded him otherwise. Of course, the kids instantly feel in love with the felines. "My daughter was so excited she could hardly breathe," Robin Smulson says. Smulson soon made plans to take pictures of the kittens. Photography "is a passion," he says, and, in fact, he shot Chicago Bulls games during the Michael Jordan era for the Chicago Daily Defender for 15 years. He has also visited 26 zoos around the world to take pictures, including the Jerusalem Zoo, which he ranks as the best he has seen. "When I put headphones on Buffy (to take a picture), he sat there for five minutes without moving," Smulson says. The discovery that the brown-and-white tabby with the expressive eyes would stay in any position in which he was posed led to an ever greater collection of photos as Buffy accompanied Smulson in cars and subways, to a riding stable, poker table, supermarket, Millennium Park, the Billy Goat Tavern, where he was a big hit with patrons, several sports venues and more. "Buffy likes to be posed," Smulson says. "He will wait at the door for me to take him with me. I've posed him next to a rabbit, a parrot, a horse. He was not afraid or hostile, there was no hissing, no anger." Buffy's brother, Smokey, was not such a willing model, so he mostly stayed home. As for Buffy, "wherever I take him, people will go, look at the cat. There's a cat at the bar (or wherever) and come running with their own cameras to take a picture," Smulson says. He adds that he wants to use the book not only to provide enjoyment for readers, but to help raise funds for animal shelters. The book may be ordered at www.buffythecat.com. It would make a lovely Chanukah present for any cat lover. Meanwhile Buffy, who has survived a serious illness and surgery, is now a healthy 15 and, like all superstars, spends his days basking in his fame. |