Author: boolie

A Little Overwhelmed

Our kitten Boo lies down on the kitchen tile as he gets a little overwhelmed on his first access to the full house

Boo in 2013 on the day we gave him his first free reign of the house. He’d flop over in the kitchen when he got a little overwhelmed, close to the basement where he could retreat to a more comfortable place. He rose to half-alert with his eyes fully focused on Emma, our oldest cat who was not happy about his arrival. At this stage we only gave him limited time in the full house as he still needed to work on his confidence.

Our kitten sits up as he looks at our cat Emma (off screen), who was not happy about his arrival

Objects in This Lens May Be Further Than They Appear

A Mojave rattlesnake sticks out its tongue as it crosses Brown's Ranch Road in McDowell Sonoran Preserve in Scottsdale, Arizona

This Mojave rattlesnake appeared large in the viewfinder but was a safe distance away when I began to photograph it. Even so, as it crossed the trail and started moving steadily towards where I was (having given it a wide berth and gone off-trail to let it choose its path), I pulled the camera away from my eye occasionally to get a clear view of how far away it actually was. It was well aware of me and headed over to my right so I sat still until it chose a bush to curl up under, then I continued up the trail.

When Sam Met Boo

Our cat Sam meets our kitten Boo, both are laying on their sides in submissive gestures

From 2013, this wasn’t technically the first time they met but it was the first time after we let Boo out into the house at large. The brothers both flopped onto their sides in submissive gestures, getting Sam to accept Boo was not going to be an issue.

Getting Comfortable

Our cat Boo sleeps in a cat bed as a kitten, the top of his head and one of his paws sticking out of the top

We adopted Boo about five months after the death of Scout, another black-and-white cat. Their patterns were different enough that most of the time it wasn’t hard on me but in the early days at some angles I’d draw my breath in as he reminded me so much of her. The hardest time for me was when he was getting comfortable in his new home, even though in general it was a great relief as we were concerned the other two cats and the dog would be too much for the terrified little fellow. He started curling up in the cat bed beside me and for a couple of weeks I’d see him out of the corner of my eye and think it was Scout and feel a pinprick of grief before having it washed away with joy that Boo was home, and knew it.

Soft and Sharp

A white-winged dove pauses as it feeds on the fruits of a saguaro in the soft early light of a summer morning along the Latigo Trail in McDowell Sonoran Preserve

The sun was up and shining on the tops of the saguaros but when this white-winged dove dropped down to feed on the fruit on a lower arm I was able to photograph it in the soft reflected light. The full sun arrived seconds later. Taken on July 4th while the saguaro were fruiting and the white-wings still flew above the desert.