While I was away (only for 6 days), my family told me that Buttons was upset every night – he was thumping a lot. They couldn’t figure out if he was missing Lunar and Maple, or he was missing me, or both.

When I arrived home with the Little Ones, I said hello to Buttons in his tunnel, but left him alone because I smelled differently. I know that he is very sensitive with how I smell because he won’t talk to me if I smell wrong. I asked a family member to bring him in for me that afternoon, but it happened that I had to pick him up and bring him in. I was sure he was going to run away from me, but he didn’t. He me up to me and was thrilled to see me again. He sat at my feet and waited to be picked up. He clearly missed me. Awww.

Once I picked him up, he snuggled he head into my neck. He wanted to be with me. He shut his eyes and enjoyed the snuggle. Each day since then he has wanted to snuggle and hasn’t struggled when I held him. He even purrs when I cuddle him.

You may remember from a while ago I mentioned about boop. Boop is what I say when I touch his nose. Over time, he got so used to it that I can hold my hand out and say boop and he pushes his nose against my hand. It has now turned into a game. I boop the floor by poking my finger onto the floor in front of him and saying “boop”, then I move my finger and “boop” the floor again. I repeat this between 4-6 times and then boop his nose. I can see that he gets really excited and waits to be booped. I decided to boop the floor a few times and then stop with my finger against the floor. He waited for it to move, and when it didn’t, he leaned forward and booped my finger. After a few times of playing this game, Buttons started to honk when I said “boop”. He started copying me. When my finger paused and he booped my finger, he booped it with emphasis, like a head butt, but that was only because he was getting excited. Then he would return to his loaf position and wait for the game to repeat again.

If that’s not communication, I don’t know what that is.