Category Archives: Cats

Cat All Up In My Business

 

I mentioned last week about how I was starting to get back into the groove of writing after a year-long dry spell.  Well, sometimes when the proverbial “creative juices” go from a steady flow to a sporadic trickle, I try something different to kick-start the creative process.  It’s usually something simple like a change of scenery.  This happened recently and since I was without transportation, I had to rely on a very small change of scenery.  Like a twenty steps or less, change of scenery.  Basically, I just moved my work from the desk in my office, to my kitchen table.

 

Bad idea.

 

Now, before I go any further, I have to mention that I typically write long hand (to those of you who have lost touch with simplicity and the ways of life before computers became the go-to method of…everything and don‘t know what I mean here, “long hand” means “I write with a pen and paper”).  That arcane technique opens me up to some interruptions, namely from my cats when they want my attention.  And what do my cats do when they want my attention?  They sprawl themselves across whatever book or piece of paper I have in front of me.  And that’s exactly what happened recently with my cat Abby.

 

Proof…

 

 

Abby Wanting Attention

 

Looks like I’m going to have to try typing my next novel instead of going the long hand route.

 

Until next time…

 

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~A.M.

My Cat Smells Like Bacon…What?…

Yes, you read the title right.  No, I’m not joking.  And sadly there’s no image I can share with you this week.

Now, I don’t know why this happens, but my cats’ fur tends to absorb scents from around my house.  Most often it’s the scent of my perfume or an air freshener/fabric refresher I’ve sprayed, but their fur also absorbs the scents of things I cook.  It’s kind of hilarious!

A few days ago, I cooked up some vegan bacon (yes there is such a thing and don‘t judge!).  About an hour after cooking the bacon, while I was on my computer, one of my cats (Kenzi, whom you’ve seen images of before) jumped up onto my desk and rubbed her head against my cheek.  I had just happened to take in a breath at that moment and smelled bacon.  I realized the smell wasn’t a lingering scent in the air, but that it was coming from my cat‘s fur.

My cat smelled like bacon!

Until next time…

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~A.M.

Cat In The Office…Round 2…

Last year I mentioned in a post that one of my other interests outside of photography is writing.  I recently began planning out a new writing project, but last week my biggest error was sitting down in the evening to work on said project.  Evening is when my youngest cat craves my attention.  My undivided attention.  And, like all of my cats, she tends to get her way.

I had the tools for my project laid out on my desk ready to go and just as I sat down and started to work, this is what happened…

Craving Attention

Now, I love my little grey ninja monkey as I love all my cats, and I really don’t have the heart to close her out of the room when I want to work, but I think I just might have to start.  Either that or I’ll have to force myself to start working during the day when she’s off in another part of the house playing or napping with the other cats.  It just sucks for me that the creative flow tends to hit me when the sun goes down, just when she wants my attention the most.  Oh well.  I’m sure everything will sort itself out sooner or later.

Anyway, this Thursday is Thanksgiving so I’d like to wish everyone out there a happy, safe, and healthy Thanksgiving.  Don’t eat too much!!  Oh, and happy Hanukkah too!

Until next time…

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~A.M.

Photo Seamstress

What happens when you want to make a panoramic image but using a camera’s “panorama” mode won’t help? You take several shots and stitch them together in Photoshop or your image editing software of choice.

 

For example, I wanted to make a panoramic image of my four cats, but getting them all to do what I wanted, at the same time, and hold their poses long enough, was impossible. Therefore, I had to photograph each of them individually and stitch the four images together in Photoshop. This really isn’t as daunting as it may seem. You just have to make sure your in-camera settings (like aperture, shutter speed, and focal length) are the same or as close to the same as possible for each image. Using your camera’s manual setting is the best way to go. Then, you just create a canvas in Photoshop with the same resolution as your original images and enough space (height and width) to accommodate all your images. Copy and paste your original images into this new canvas and make any adjustments necessary to get them to line up. I had to overlap a few edges to get things to work right as well as adjust the levels of an image or two. Once your images are lined up, you can use either the clone stamp tool or the healing brush to get rid of any glaringly obvious seams, crop if needed, and make any adjustments to levels, brightness, and contrast that you want.

 

And voila! You’re a photo seamstress!!

 

Here’s the end result of my project. Four images manually stitched into one panorama.

 

 

Four Cats in a Row

 

Until next time…

 

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~A.M.

Cat In The Office

I’ve read from numerous sources that the secret to productivity (especially in the case of writers and photographers editing photos) is to keep any and all distractions out of your office space.  That includes staying away from windows with scenic views, keeping parents, spouses/partners, children, and pets out of the room, and not having a TV or music on in the background.

Easier said than done.

I work better with music playing, but that’s not what this post is about today.  I don’t know about anyone else out there, but my cats are like my kids.  They’re spoiled as spoiled can be.  I can’t seem to say no to them when they look at me with those cute little cat faces of theirs.  That’s why when I’m trying to edit a photo, or write, I can’t shut them out of my office space.  For one, they tend to sit outside the closed door and cry (Kenzi in particular), and they’re so used to having the run of my house that they seem insulted and irritated when I close a door in their face (unfortunately for me, this also holds true with the bathroom door!).

My youngest cat, Kenzi, has taken to napping in an inconvenient place in the small portion of my room that serves as my office.  And recently, the newest addition to my cat army, Abby, discovered the same spot.

My laptop case.

I don’t mind if they nap on the case while I’m using my laptop or when my laptop is put away.  It’s when I’m trying to get my laptop into or out of the case while they’re napping that causes issues.  I’m a softie and I don’t like to disturb my pretties when they’re catching up on their beauty rest, but when I have work to do, I have work to do.

 

 

Kenzi Napping on my Laptop Case

See what I mean?  She’s just so cute that I can’t bring myself to shoo her away.

Until next time….

 

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~A.M.