Curtis's Links
Though Curtis has seen Buster bumming around his local area for years, they didn't really meet as people until Curtis moved into town and started following their sheriff around. Buster was often locked up in one of the cells at the sheriff's building, and Curtis, often dismissed by Manny, often gave him the job of watching the anthro dog to make sure he didn't do anything shady. Curtis does not trust Buster as far as he can throw him, the dog is a mercenary and is only loyal to those that pay him, and idealist cougar Curtis has a problem with that. So, though he does not claim to be friends with Buster, when they are out on missions, the cougar will absolutely cover him and has saved his life many times over time, picking off bandits coming for him and always making sure that the dog had covering fire. So though Curtis does not seem to like Buster, he does at least respect the man and his life. Curtis does love Buster's horse Rumor though and is always happy to see her at least.
Buster and Curtis have kind of moved through each other's lives for some time. Curtis was the one who broke in Buster's wild mustang Rumor and of course sometimes Buster went with Manny on house calls to the plantation. But it wasn't until Curtis came of age and started idealizing Manny and following him around and such that Buster and Curtis finally officially met. Buster thinks that Curtis is adorably clueless, the sheltered little rich kid seemed to know nothing about law enforcement or bandits or even mercenaries like himself, he was just way out of his depth. But they ran a mission together one day, taking out some bandits, and Curtis pulled his weight, sniping from afar and frequently covering the mercenary's behind. So Buster does like and respect Curtis, watching him ride and watching him shoot gave the old dog enough proof that the kid could be someone with the right mentor. He finds it hilarious that Curtis thinks Manny is that "right" mentor. Poor Manny can never get a break from the kid and it's funny to him.