Those sexy firefighter calendars showing handsome rescuers cuddling kittens, puppies, ducklings and really any baby animal prompt all kinds of reactions, including smiles, winks and wows.
A New York woman had a different kind of reaction, though, after bringing Buddy, her fluffy black cat with golden eyes, to a New York City Fire Department calendar shoot in Manhattan in January.
It seems Buddy, nicknamed Big Sexy, ran under a fire engine during the shoot.
"He bolted underneath the truck. I was sure he'd come out within an hour ... after he got hungry," Buddy's owner, Leslie Silbert, told WPIX-TV.
But he didn’t.
"People kept believing I would find him. I didn’t give up," said Silbert, who adopted Big Sexy in 2017 from an animal shelter.
She gave him the nickname because he would snuggle up to her when she watched TV, WPIX reported.
A month went by and no Big Sexy.
But it’s a small world and when a fluffy black cat with golden eyes showed up in the Staten Island yard of a FDNY firefighter’s widow, Buddy was soon on his way home.
The woman called a lost pets line and it wasn’t long before Silbert had Big Sexy back in her arms.
"I joke with friends, maybe he treated himself to a scenic ferry ride," Silbert said, in trying to explain how the cat got to Staten Island from Manhattan.
Silbert said she’s just glad Buddy is home.
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