Masseur Pudge (a.k.a. "Kiki")
Masseur Pudge (a.k.a. "Kiki") is a five-year resident caretaker at Puzey Gallery, 47 S. Sixth Avenue downtown. The 30-pound Manx shares the gallery's loft apartment with artist and gallery owner Brian Puzey.
Best Way To Get Adopted
The illustrious aristocat was once a humble orphan encaged at the Phoenix Humane Society. After an hour and a half of intense interviews with various cats, Brian did a round of call-backs for his final choice. Pudge seized the opportunity by wrapping his paws around Brian's neck and refusing to let go.
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The glass windows of the gallery are like the walls of an aquarium, and from the view inside the human exhibit seems to swim by. Pudge's two favorite vantage points are the sunny spot behind the piano on the south wall facing Broadway, and sprawled out on the black hardwood floor of the entryway on Sixth Avenue. Being a cat, he rarely exhibits outright interest in the doings of humans, as evidenced by his devil-may-care attitude toward the Downtown Saturday Night throngs that mill through his "living room."
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Anything with shiny objects is worthy of careful inspection. Bruce Butler's small-scale metal sculptures rank among Pudge's all-time favorites, though Brian says the cat "gets jazzed up" over any new works, giving them the once-over to make sure they're up to gallery standards. But according to Brian, whose artistic ego doesn't seem to suffer by saying so, "Pudge is probably more famous than any of the paintings here."
Best Revenge
While Pudge is generally a congenial sort of cat, he has that artistic temperament that can't be denied. He's been known to wreak havoc on Brian's desk, steal the pencil out of his friend's hand and bite it to pieces or shoot up the back stairs in a dramatic tizzy. But his finest affectation is the silent treatment: When unjustly ignored, he simply turns his back on the offending party and refuses to acknowledge even the most placating of apologies or attempts at reconciliation.
