Some buddietommy pet ownership scribbles below for you @nzchance!
1. Maybe they were all feeling empty-nesty now that Chris was out of the house, but one night over dinner they decided they should get a pet. Well, Buck had been wanting a pet for a long time, but finally convinced the other two to get onboard. Tommy thought they should start with something small and easy, that wouldn’t have trouble with them being gone for long shifts. This was how they ended up with a cute little box turtle. There was a bit of arguing about the name because, well, they all had a different favorite Ninja Turtle. Buck’s favorite was Michaelangelo. Tommy liked Raphael. Eddie preferred Leonardo. Then Buck felt sorry for Donatello and argued for that for a while, just to be fair. Ultimately they named the turtle Ooze and walked away from the conversation with a great idea for Halloween costumes that year.
It was fun at first. They got his little tank set up. Buck did a lot of research about it, wanting to give Ooze the optimal living conditions and enough enrichment to keep his little turtle brain active. They’d sit and watch him doing his thing, basking under his light, eating his lettuce. But there was only so much interaction you could have with a turtle. Even a turtle as awesome as Ooze.
2. “What about a guinea pig?” Buck suggested one day while he was carefully cleaning Ooze’s tank while Tommy and Eddie kept an eye on the turtle while he slowly meandered around in the grass.
“A giant rodent? No thanks,” Tommy said, sticking his leg out as a barrier so Ooze couldn’t wander too far.
“It would be more interactive than Ooze,” Buck argued, then looked over at the turtle apologetically. “Sorry dude.”
“Can we name it Splinter?” Eddie asked.
And so, Master Splinter was adopted from LA County Animal Shelter. He had short fluffy hair that stuck out like he’d licked a light socket and he was very cute. Until the first night when Buck and Eddie were fooling around on the couch and Splinter decided to squeak. Nonstop. Loudly. And only when things were getting good and heated up. Maybe it was something about the moaning that set him off…
“Kinda killing the mood, man,” Eddie said, glaring over at Splinter’s cage.
“Let’s just go back to the bedroom and close the door,” Buck said.
Eddie grumbled to himself, because this was supposed to be one of the perks of having no kid in the house.
Luckily, Tommy had a friend who was in the market for a classroom pet, so Splinter found a happier home with a bunch of first graders. The class voted and renamed him Marshmallow. They were sent many pictures of Marshmallow’s adventures. He definitely seemed happier there.
3. “What about a rabbit?”
“No,” Eddie and Tommy said in unison.
“I saw some TikToks about people who had their bunny out of the cage, hopping around the house. They basically litterbox trained it. It was so cute!”
Eddie busied himself sipping his coffee so he didn’t have to say no again and Tommy gave him a dirty look. And then somehow they found themselves at the rescue again.
They should have known they were tempting fate by naming the rabbit Master Shredder. In the first day, she chewed the spines of Tommy’s paperback books that he had on the bottom shelf in the living room and tore one book to bits, chewed through a lamp cord (and by some miracle did not electrocute herself), and pooped pretty much everywhere she hopped.
Shredder was quickly relegated to her hutch and she made sure to thump her displeasure about it.
“She’s miserable,” Buck said a few weeks later, handing her a baby carrot before closing the door to her hutch again.
Tommy sighed. “I know, but she has to stay in there.”
Eddie walked in wearing nothing but a pair of cut off jean shorts, covered in sweat and smelling like fresh cut grass. That quickly pulled their attention.
“Hey,” he said before taking a big swig of iced tea, carelessly enough that a little ran down his chin. Tommy and Buck followed it like cats with a laser pointer. “So, I was talking to Betty next door and she said her granddaughter just joined a 4H group that shows rabbits. I know we love Splinter-”
“Speak for yourself,” Tommy muttered, still bitter about his books.
“Anyway,” Eddie continued, wiping some sweat away from his forehead with the back of his hand. “It sounds like her granddaughter is in the market for a rabbit of her own…”
And so Splinter went off to live with Betty and Frank’s adorable granddaughter Becky. She renamed her Princess Buttercup. Buck, Eddie, and Tommy went to the county fair to see Becky show her. She did a great job.
4. “I can’t believe you guys decided to get a pet after I moved out,” Chris said, sitting next to Ooze’s tank watching him bask on his rock.
“You always asked for a dog,” Eddie pointed out. “There was no way we could make that work. Plus, you got to play with Gus a lot.”
Gus was the German Shepherd who lived next door.
“What pet are you going to try next?” Chris asked Buck, who was sitting next to him while they turtlewatched.
“We’re taking a little break,” Buck sighed.
“You should get a bird!” Chris said. “Birds are cool.”
“No,” Buck said quickly, to everyone’s surprise.
“Really?” Tommy asked, looking up from the book he was reading. A book with a completely chewed up spine, but enough was left to hold the pages together.
“Birds…freak me out. I don’t want one flying around in our house.”
“They’re usually in cages,” Chris pointed out.
“Yeah, but then that’s too sad. Birds should fly. Just…not near me.”
“What about a chicken? They don’t fly,” Chris said, then looked over at Tommy with a grin.
Tommy gave him an unamused look. “Chim should have never told you that story.”
5. “I know we said we were going to pause on pets for a little bit but…” Buck said while the three of them were in a heap on the bed - breathless, naked, and sated.
“Did you purposely wait until this moment to bring this up?” Tommy asked dryly.
“No,” Buck insisted, trying not to smile because she was a little shit and absolutely did.
Eddie laughed and kissed whatever was closest to him, which happened to be Buck’s ankle. “What do you want now?”
“A cat. We’d have to put a lid on Ooze’s tank but…it would be fine when we’re gone on our shifts. We wouldn’t have to let it out or walk it like a dog. I don’t think any of us are allergic, we’ve been around cats before.”
Tommy shifted around to look up at Buck, his head resting on his stomach. “I think that could work, actually. As long as it doesn’t destroy anything.”
“And it actually uses the litter box,” Eddie added.
Buck moved around and both Tommy and Eddie grunted in protest at having to move too. But eventually they all ended up sitting against the headboard, huddled together to look at available cats on the animal shelter website.
They went to the shelter the next day to meet a few, then fell in love with a bonded pair named Ketchup and Mustard. They agreed it was probably a good idea to get two, so they could keep each other company.
And so, Ketchup and Mustard came to live at the Buckley-Diaz-Kinard house. They were promptly renamed April O’Neil and Casey Jones, because they had to see the Ninja Turtles theme through to the end. Plus, it was adorable.
They bought a nice big cat tree, a couple cat beds, lots of things to scratch.
April and Casey were a little timid at first and spent a lot of time hiding under the bed in Christopher’s old room. April was the braver of the two and she ventured out first. The guys tried to play it cool and not scare her, but they were all so excited. Soon they were playing with her and rolling a toy around for her to chase. Eddie took about a million pictures of her while she played, then when she took a nap in a sunny spot in the middle of the floor.
The next day Casey came out to see what he was missing out on.
Buck, Eddie, and Tommy adored their cats. Their group text thread was full of pictures and videos of the cats shared with each other.
When Chris was over for dinner he complained that he’d been replaced, then spent most of the evening with one or both of the cats on his lap, purring while he pet them.
Casey was the more timid of the two and a lot more chill. April liked to instigate, pawing at Casey until he’d play fight with her. The cats mostly ignored Ooze. Sometimes April would watch him, paw at the glass a little, but otherwise left the guy alone to live his best turtle life.
By some miracle they never scratched the furniture or anything they weren’t supposed to, they always used their litterboxes, and if the adult humans in the house started to get a little frisky with each other, they were completely disinterested and just walked away and slept on Christopher’s empty bed.
“I think we should build a catio,” Eddie said, his legs draped over Tommy’s lap while they lounged on their outdoor couch on the back patio.
Eddie handed his phone to Tommy to look at the website he’d been looking at with different designs.
“Doesn’t look too complicated,” Tommy said while he scrolled.
They decided to surprise Buck with the catio. They got Maddie in on it and she invited Buck to spend the day with her and the kids - going to the zoo then spending some time back at her house after.
When Buck came home, equally exhausted and energized after a day with his niblings, Tommy and Eddie brought him outside and showed him their work.
They put the cats in and, as was typical, Casey was a little unsure. April ventured around, jumped up on the little landing spots and perches. Then once she’d done the full inspection, Casey checked it out too.
They all stayed outside, watching the cats until the sun started to set and they moved the cats back inside.
Buck, Eddie, and Tommy got cozy on the couch to watch a few episodes of British Bake-Off before bed. April hopped up onto Buck’s lap and curled up while Casey lay on Tommy’s thigh, his head on Eddie’s thigh, which was right up against Tommy’s.
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