Category Archives: Cats

Thanks A Lot, Rain

Posted on July 29, 2013 | Leave a comment

I’m one of those odd people who likes the rain.  I like the sound of it.  I like watching it.  I even don’t mind being out in it when it’s a warm day.

What I don’t like, is when it rains so hard the ground becomes so over-saturated and water ends up finding it’s way into my basement.  I hate that.  And that’s exactly what happened this past Friday.  So, needless to say, I spent this past weekend on clean-up duty.  I was able to employ my photography skills, but not in the awesome creative way I would have liked.  I’m not sure if that can be counted in the “on the bright side” column or in the “major disappointment” column.  Maybe somewhere between the two.  Sort of a “the glass is half empty AND half full” kind of thing.

But, on the bright side, and getting away from the awful mess I had to deal with in my basement this weekend (lucky for me, I had the brains to make sure everything of value was either in plastic totes or up on cinder blocks before this happened), I caved.  What did I cave on and why is that a good thing?  Well, I’ll tell you.  On the second of this month, I caved and adopted the cat I told you, my fine readers, about in my Tiger In The Grass post.  Ironically, it was raining that day too.  She showed up on my porch, soaking wet, meowing, and scratching at my door.  I didn’t have the heart to turn her away, so I brought her in, fed her a hearty portion of cat food, gave her the proper de-flea/de-worm medications, and got her a check up with the vet.  I gave her the name Abby (in honor of my favorite NCIS character [^_^]).  So, now my little cat army…er…family is back up to four members.  Here’s to hoping everyone gets along!

Until next time…

[^_^]

~A.M.

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Posted in Cats, Nature, Photography

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Tiger In The Grass

Posted on July 1, 2013 | Leave a comment

 

I have an ongoing list of things, places, people, and animals (both wild and domestic) that I want to photograph in my lifetime.  Tigers are high on that list.  Sadly, I don’t foresee myself going on any type of wildlife safari beyond my yard and local hiking spots in the near (or distant) future, so I’ll have to settle for this, more domestic, type of tiger.  [^_^]

Tiger In The Grass

I’m not sure if I’ve talked about this little stray in my blog previously, but she’s been coming around my house for a few years now.  Once we made friends, I adopted her as my official “Outdoor Cat” (she’s just as spoiled as my indoor cats! Food, toys, and all!) and have given her the name Abby (in honor of my favorite NCIS character!).  Unfortunately, I don’t have the resources to bring her inside and get her de-fleaed/de-wormed, etc. so she can become one of my house cats.  And, sadly, even if I did have the resources, I don’t think she and my current house cats would get along all that well. [-_-]  But, she seems content with our current arrangement.  She gets fed, has toys to play with, I go out and pet her every time I see her, and she can come and go as she pleases (though I always get worried when I don’t see her for a day or two).  She even knows my indoor cats’ routine, i.e. when it’s time for breakfast and supper.  She shows up on my porch at meal time and stares at the door, waiting to be fed along with my indoor cats.  And if I don’t notice her right away, she’ll knock.  I kid you not!  She’ll rub against the screen door, scratch at it, and bump her head against it hard enough that it sounds like she’s knocking on the door.  It’s a wonder she doesn’t knock herself out doing that.

As you can see in the following photo, she’s what’s called, triple pawed (she has two extra toes/claws on her front paws).

Abby on the Porch

Be nice to your local strays, folks.  Try and get them some help.  Find them a loving home if you can’t give them one yourself.  And, at the risk of sounding like good old Bob Barker, do your part to help control the stray population.  Have your dog or cat spayed or neutered.

Until next time…

[^_^]

~A.M.

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Posted in Animals, Cats, Photography

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Sometimes It Helps To Scream…

Posted on June 24, 2013 | Leave a comment

Ever have a moment where you’re so angry, upset, or frustrated that you just want to scream as loud as humanly possible until you feel better or are completely out of breath?

 

Yeah, me too.

 

And it seems like people aren’t the only ones that employ this technique of releasing negative emotion…

 

 

Cat Scream

 

[-_^]

 

Until next time…

 

Stay healthy and emotionally balanced!!


[^_^]

~A.M.

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Shoot For The Eyes!

Posted on September 24, 2012 | Leave a comment

No, I’m not talking about surviving a zombie outbreak, and no, I’m not talking about getting one up on a sibling during a clash.  I’m talking about photography!

When photographing a person or animal, the one point of the face that you should focus your lens on is….you guessed it….the eyes.

There’s a reason for the popular idiom “The eyes are the windows to the soul.“  Eyes are incredibly expressive.  Not just human eyes, but animal eyes as well.

I recently photographed my new kitten while my mother and I took her for a little car ride.  We want her to get used to her carrier and not associate it with just going to the vet like my other cats do.  While my mother ran into the grocery store for a few things, I sat in the car with the kitten.  She kept peeking at me through the side of the carrier, so all I could see where here eyes.  It was so cute that I couldn’t help but take a few pictures.

I’m still in the process of “kitten-proofing” the house.  Our new little friend is getting tired of being confined in the basement.  We let her have run of the whole basement during the day, but at night we confine her to one room.  On Saturday night, we heard a thump and then heard her meowing.  Come to find out, she figured out how to climb over the six-foot tall partition and escape her “bedroom”.  That same evening, I put her back in the basement room and sat on the basement stairs to watch her.  She jumped from a low table to the top of the partition and over.  I thought we had adopted a kitten, but with that little maneuver, it seems she might be part monkey.  She can jump and climb much higher than I thought she could!

Now, I’m rethinking the entire layout of the house.  If she can get over a six-foot tall partition and escape the basement room we had her in, then what could she climb and jump onto once we let her upstairs?  [-_-]

Looks like there’s much more cleaning/kitten-proofing to do.  Wish me luck.

Until next time…

[^_^]

~A.M.

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Rescued Kitten

Posted on September 17, 2012 | Leave a comment

A while ago, I told everyone about a family of stray cats that moved into my yard.  Well, I managed to win over the affections of one of the two kittens.  That kitten ended up adopting us and started living on my porch.  My mother and I set up a little shelter for her, made out of a plastic bin, a tarp, and an old cat bed.

After a while, and as it started to get cold, my mother and I caved and brought the kitten inside.  We‘re still hoping to find the mother and second kitten a home as, sadly, we can‘t afford to rescue all of them ourselves and our local shelter is full (they have over 70 cats! [-_-]).

At the moment, as we de-flea and de-worm our new little friend, we have her secluded in a room in our basement away from our two older cats.  Once she’s clear of any harmful parasites, we can introduce her to our other cats.  I hope they all get along.  Wish us luck on that!

Pets can be a difficult subject to photograph (I think I mentioned this in a previous post “Unruly Subjects”), especially a hyper active kitten!  I had a bit of a hard time getting a decent photograph of our new kitten at first, but after she started to wind down from a little catnip encounter, I was able to get a few images.  [^_^]

My next step (while our new little friend is still in the basement room) is to “kitten-proof” the house.  Wish me luck!

Until next time…

[^_^]

~A.M.

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