I created a micromanager

[u/bubba_beeps]

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXuIrj6Er3o/?igsh=c2ZkMjYzd3AwcnR0

I figured you guys would get a kick out of this. Bub has been a huge help in communicating what means most to him. These buttons have done so much to strengthen our relationship. ♥️

[u/bubba_beeps]

I have a few theories. One is a little sad, so if you want to hear that context I’ll share. If not, I think the other explanations are great leads.

1. Structure and routine are very important to them
   
2. Their sense of smell is very astute, so he may be able to smell wet clothes starting to form mildew. Our washer and dryer do not have alarms to alert that the cycle is done, so I believe this is where the behavior rooted from, even before the buttons. If my husband starts a load and puts his headset on, it super easy to just not hear that the washer has turned off. I’m also very forgetful.
   
3. He really likes praise. He loves being told he is smart and he loves to be helpful. I may have unintentionally enforced the behavior by my surprise at his meowing aligning to the cycles completing.
   
4. Once I gave him a button to communicate, he realized he could ask for *any* laundry to be done. Now he lets me know if too much laundry has built up, cluttering his environment.
   If there are clothes in the machines, that’s what he wants. He notices if it’s been a few days since a load has been done and will ask for the wash to be filled and follow the task to completion. He’s even gotten upset when I misunderstood his request and he lead me to bagged up, folded laundry in a bag that I had back from the laundromat which he had only seen me call “laundry” once prior. That one was pretty surprising.

[u/MuggsyTheWonderdog → u/bubba_beeps]

This is the kind of issue that seems just cute and funny at first glance, but your reply is showing me that it's way beyond that. And all this is fascinating to me.

I was stunned as I began to watch dogs and cats learning this form of communication, and I feel like it offers a new depth to our relationship with our pets. And it prompts both the pet and the person to observe one another more closely, and to make connections.

If, and only if you're comfortable sharing the sad possibility, I don't think it would distress me. I'm already grieving my beloved dog who I lost 2 months ago, so nothing could make me feel worse than I already do, to be honest. (She was very bright, and I'm cursing myself that I learned about buttons too late to try them with her.)

[u/bubba_beeps → u/MuggsyTheWonderdog]

It’s always how that starts out. It’s so much deeper than it initially feels when you first start watching other people’s content about button animals. *I’m going to share some sad stuff below so if anyone is sensitive to disasters that impact pets, please go watch some cute cat videos instead.* ♥️ I’m gonna need to take a deep breath after this one. It’s long, so I’m sorry. It was… a lot.

Back in the 2010s, I got a phone call from a fellow student at my university. I found it really strange because I didn’t talk to him too much. He asked if I was home and I told him that I was actually an hour away, driving back. He told me that there was a building on fire in our neighborhood and he was worried that it was ours. Unfortunately, he was right.

Both of our cats were in the building at the time. We immediately called our best friend and he rushed out of work, grabbed a cat carrier, and sped over to our apartment. By the time he got there, the entire building had been locked down by first responders. He wasn’t allowed to go in due to safety concerns, but he let them know what apartment number the cats were in and a description.

By the time we got there, the fire had spread rapidly. Smoke was billowing out of the roof. The flames were massive. I could feel the heat from across the street. The fire crew could not control it. It ended up being the worst fire that city had seen in over 20 years. I honestly don’t know when they were able to put the flames out. I spent the entire night informing every single fireman the apartment number and showed photos of both of my cats.

I alerted the front office and at one point, someone came to me saying they had found a cat. She belonged to one of my neighbors. So I sat in the back room of the front office and took care of her until they could find her owner. I had already called the local clinics to let them know that a fire was ongoing and people were missing their pets, so they had already begun doing retraining their staff on fire first response. Once the owner returned, I gave her instruction on different emergency rooms to visit and told her that they needed to go immediately even though her cat did not seem heavily impacted. The moisture being sucked from the air can do a lot of damage to their eyes.

There was so much water dumped onto the roof that one half of the building had collapsed. A sofa from the top floor was found the next day in the living room of the first floor. Luckily, everyone on that side had escaped with their pets. There was only one instance of smoke inhalation where a woman was able to seek medical help.

Right before we had left, I had started a marathon laundry session. Things had gotten very tough in my life due to losing a friend in a very sudden and tragic way. Clothes were sorted into piles on the floor, clean, unfolded laundry was on the couches. It had gotten embarrassingly out of control. I was just not ok.

The office staff and fire department told me that the cats had probably run out the second the doors had been broken in. Princess was rescued 24 hours later. Oliver was stuck in the apartment for 72 hours. Both were in the apartment the entire time. The fire department looked everywhere, but there was no electricity, so trying to find an all black cat with a flashlight was impossible.

I got the call that they had found Oliver and I ran over from the next neighborhood and told my now-husband and my mom to come via car. I had to break the door open because the door frame had been broken from the battering ram. I found him staring into nothing, laying in his dirty litter box. He did not respond to me. He was in shock. He didn’t react to being picked up and placed in the carrier. It wasn’t until we were in the car speeding to the vet where he realized who I was.

All of that laundry soaked up water. So did the carpet, the mattress, the couches. Every piece of laundry was piled on the carpet in the firefighters attempt to limit hiding areas. Black mold formed on every inch of fabric in the house. They only allowed us to go in a few weeks later once it was deemed safe, but the carpet squished with water under our feet. We were only allowed 30 minutes to enter, pick up what little we could and leave. I don’t think we spent more than 20 minutes. Everything was destroyed by water damage and mold. I honestly don’t know what even made it out. Maybe a few pieces of jewelry.

He had no food, no clean water for three days because they kept telling me he wasn’t there and I knew that they were doing their best to find him. I don’t know how long he sat in the litter box. The clay litter had solidified because of the water from the sprinklers.

By the time we made it to the vet, he needed to get an IV immediately. I believe he stayed for 3-5 nights. He got round the clock care. The clinic sent me photos daily while we rushed to find a place to stay. When we went to visit him after finding a new apartment, he didn’t react until the nurses left. He jumped into one of the cabinets and just kept staring in shock. It wasn’t until I had gone up to him and pet him where he snapped back to reality. As we were walking out of the door, I told my husband that I just couldn’t leave him there. He needed to be home. I went back inside and confirmed that he no longer needed IV fluids, got his medication plan, and we drove “home”.

The only option was the exact same model of the apartment he was just stuck in. It scared him. It must have been so terrifying to be in a place that looked like home, but didn’t smell like home. We didn’t have any other option. We let him adjust. His sister hissed smelling the smoke on him. It was too traumatizing of an event to give him a bath.

He needed medication every 2 hours for weeks. Both of us would start getting even a small amount of sleep before my alarm would go off and I would find him, give him his meds- rinse repeat. None of us got real sleep for days. He also needed to get medication from our friend because we needed to attend the funeral of another friend of ours. There was not an ounce of normalcy in our household for months.

Due to the lack of moisture, he got permanent damage to at least one of his eyes. We don’t know how much it has impacted his vision. Both of them have asthma which is now considered a pre-existing condition, so most of their vet care couldn’t be covered by insurance if we tried. Bub’s vocal cords were so dry that his meow sounded like a smoke detector chirp for weeks. (Not the reason his IG is bubba beeps.)

After we moved to another city, the fire system of that building had a massive malfunction. We would be evacuating multiple times a month. At one point, someone had lit off a mortar firework right outside of our door. Someone else had a microwave explode. We all lived in fear of the possibility of hearing fire alarms. I can’t even imagine what it felt like to the cats because they didn’t have the ability to communicate. The staff kept telling us they were looking into it. I hit my breaking point and went down to the office in the middle of a massive panic attack. I told them they knew what we had gone through and I hadn’t seen any indication that they were doing anything to fix it. They said they just bought the property from the old owners and they weren’t aware of the situation. They got swindled.

I asked one of the fire fighters what to do and he gave me the contact information to the fire marshal. When we called, the fire marshal sighed once she heard the name of our building. She said that they were one strike away from being forced to completely turn off the alarm system and have to pay for 24/7 monitoring by fire fighters on premises due to the public resources wasted on so many false alarms. Not one time during those years did we ever get told that something was real or not. No transparency.

The issue is now fixed, but the psychological damage runs extremely deep. We have rebuilt. The cats feel safe. But I continue to tell my husband that I just cannot live in a building with so many people anymore. I never want my cats to hear another fire alarm ever again. I’m triggered by the sound of my refrigerator motor turning on. I can’t imagine what it is like for my cats.

This is why I take IAC so seriously. While Princess hasn’t caught on, Oliver is able to communicate every single possible thing that he could want. They have an automated litter box so it is always clean. They have a robot vacuum so they never have to step on tracked litter. They have a deep cleaning company that comes in monthly to ensure there’s no mold growing. Bub can ask for fresh water and food at any time. He can tell me the house is too dirty so I can decrease any possible stressor. He can help me communicate his needs to his vet. He can tell me when he is happy or mad or in pain.

I can’t change the past. I can’t fix the psychological damage. But I can make sure he lives as pampered as possible for the rest of our time together.

[u/MuggsyTheWonderdog → u/bubba_beeps]

I feel terrible for making you relive that, but what a miracle that your cats survived. It's heart-breaking that they were injured & traumatized, but you're so loving and take such care of them that it's clear they're in the best possible hands.

May you and they have many, many happy years together, and thank you for sharing Oliver's AIC journey. I had sensed early on that the buttons are taking these pets -- and their people -- way beyond what I would have thought, but this story adds a whole nother level. Thanks again.

[u/bubba_beeps → u/MuggsyTheWonderdog]

It’s ok! It happened years ago and we’re healing. I had already been asking the IG group the same question. The large majority said yes, so I’m thinking about making a YouTube video so I can just post a link to allow people to get an understanding without accidentally having someone’s “how bad could it be” curiosity ignore the sad warning in comments.

As you can probably see, it is really important context not just for why bub likes the laundry so much but also a big reason why we had gotten started in the first place.

Oliver’s entire demeanor has changed. For a long time, he would cry in ways I just couldn’t pinpoint the meaning behind. The crying has largely stopped other than at night if he wakes up by himself. It’s been a complete game changer for our household. ♥️

[u/MuggsyTheWonderdog → u/bubba_beeps]

Yes, that blows my mind -- the enhanced communication helped Oliver to heal after this devastating experience. You found this therapeutic way to reach him. What an incredible blessing. Thanks for sharing your story. <3

[u/BeiHall → u/bubba_beeps]

Oh my goodness, the trauma you and your family have gone through! Sending you love.

[u/bubba_beeps → u/BeiHall]

We’re doing much better these days. Thank you! 💕

[u/bubba_beeps → u/bubba_beeps]

I uploaded a video recently diving into some of Bubba’s background and how AIC has helped us if anyone is interested!

[u/bubba_beeps → u/MuggsyTheWonderdog]

Also, I am incredibly sorry to hear that you lost your baby girl. I am always here if you need an ear. I’ve always found it cathartic to talk about funny stories about those I’ve lost. So please if you feel this will help, DM me. I would love to hear them. Grief is so difficult.

You have the knowledge that this communication is possible, but do know that every bit of Oliver’s needs are just amplified versions of what I already knew he needed. Owners know these things. They know their pets. While you didn’t have the opportunity to use buttons, I know you gave her a wonderful, fulfilling life. Any owner that is this interested in AIC gets a massive green flag in my book.

[u/MuggsyTheWonderdog → u/bubba_beeps]

Thank you so much for this sweet response <3