boolie

Drifting Off

I spent the day at home, partly because I wasn’t feeling well and partly to ease Boo’s transition to my wife and I both being gone during the day. I’ve been spending a lot of the past few days with the other pets (who are sleeping around me in a circle now) while my wife stays with Boo, so it was a good chance for some one-on-one time.

Boo curled up on my chest as we slept through the morning, then in the afternoon as I set him on the couch to take a picture, he instead curled up beside me with his head against mine, purring loudly. The purring suddenly stopped and I surmised he had fallen asleep, so I eased back to take his picture. He flopped halfway over the edge, opened his eyes for a moment, and promptly fell back asleep.

We had a nice day, Boo and I, even if we slept through much of it.

Don’t Mind if I Do

I was sitting on the floor this afternoon when Boo came over unprompted and crawled into my lap and fell asleep. I wasn’t prepared for it and not sitting in a comfortable place, but I let him stay as long as he wanted. He’s still pretty skittish but the transformation he’s undergone in a few days is incredible. There’s a downside to this. I’ve been sleeping in the bedroom so Sam can keep his routine of sleeping on me, while my wife is sleeping in the basement with Boo, who kept her up most of the night showering her with affection.

Two Days Today

Two days ago Boo trembled in fear at our introduction. Today he curled up beside me and slept with his head on my chest.

Remarkable.

Say Hello to Boo

Meet the newest member of our family, a seven-month-old kitten named Boo.

I thought it most likely we would adopt one of the many impossibly cute two-month-old kittens at the Oregon Humane Society as it seemed like it would have the best odds of integrating with our other pets. But my wife found an older kitten named Bronco who had been at the shelter for a couple of weeks but was struggling with life there. His previous owners said he got along with cats and dogs so she went down Wednesday evening before OHS closed to meet him. He was extremely shy and shook like a leaf when she met him, but eventually he warmed up to her and she wanted me to meet him.

OHS was closed on Thursday for the 4th of July but we went down first thing on Friday morning. He shook at first too when I met him but then warmed up much quicker than I expected and soon was walking in and out of my lap and purring loudly.

It was settled. He was coming home with us, and getting a new name.

I didn’t try for pictures yesterday since it was such a stressful day for the poor little fellow but in the meantime his confidence has grown by leaps and bounds. Plus a new camera arrived this morning that is much less obtrusive and he was happy enough to be my first test subject, pausing for a brief moment while playing in a paper bag.

As with Scout, Boo takes his name from Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”. At the end of the book, Boo and Scout share a moment that is one of my favorites in all of literature. Our Boo and Scout never met as Boo joins us five months after her death. Their coloring is similar but that wasn’t a deliberate choice (that’s Boo above, Scout at a similar age below). The timing worked out nicely as a few weeks ago the similarity would have been too much for me to bear.

So welcome, Boo. You’re home now.

Adopted!

But by whom?

Psst! Hey Em! Do You Want to Know a Secret?

I think she just wants to sleep, Samwise.

The Slow Road

I always knew Scout’s death would be particularly hard for me but I didn’t expect it to be this hard. It’s been four months since she died but the road to recovery has been a slower walk than I expected. It hasn’t helped that work got unexpectedly stressful and hectic during those months, leaving me so worn out that I was often falling asleep after dinner. Rather embarrassing for a night owl like me.

They say you shouldn’t make any major changes in the wake of the loss of a loved one, and though I suppose the advice usually applies to the death of a spouse I’ve applied it here as well, for there have been a number of times the past few months I’ve felt like abandoning wildlife photography. I suppose that’s partly a reaction to the amount of time it takes to photograph the way I like and partly to the new telephotos being priced far out of my range.

It is true I haven’t been up to Ridgefield since January, partly because I haven’t felt like going, but partly because I’ve been too tired to get up at the early hours I like to visit the refuge. And I guess I did put my camera aside entirely for a few months until I started taking pictures of the pets again these past few weeks, but at least I did use my time away from Ridgefield to start expanding out the wildflower garden I started a few years ago. I’m slowly making the backyard more bird friendly, as I’ve been experimenting with shooting birds from my office window. And this fall when the birds migrate back, I’ll join them at Ridgefield.

Unfortunately I didn’t get much done on the computer since our cat Sam, who had been close to Scout and struggled too after her death, was constantly snuggled up on my lap where my computer normally resides. But coincident with the warming weather and opening of windows he has ventured further afield, so I’m making my return to blogging and hope to get caught up on email.

This picture of Scout is from January of 2007 as she sat in her heated bed in my office. Templeton was still alive then but would die at the end of the year, shortly before we adopted our cats Sam and Emma, a year before our dog Ellie. Life marches on and someday soon I’ll be able to look at pictures of Scout with all smiles and no tears, just as I can with Templeton.

I’m just not quite there yet.

A Good Fit

I’ve put about 2000 miles on our new XV Crosstrek over the past four months and I have to say, I absolutely adore the car. Somebody at Subaru loves me.

Subaru has announced a hybrid version of the Crosstrek that will come out this fall that, while barely improving the gas mileage, adds a number of other features I like — especially since it looks like it can go short distances on battery alone, which would make it perfect for visiting Ridgefield. Some of the improvements are things that were already available on Crosstreks in other regions of the world — turn indicators on the mirrors, keyless entry and start, and a stop/start engine. Others are new and address a couple of criticisms I have of my Crosstrek — more sound insulation and an easier-to-read speedometer.

While it mostly sounds like a nice improvement on a car that fits me so well, there are a few downsides. Price hasn’t been announced, the gas tank got smaller so range isn’t really increasing, and the wheels are a little more traditional and not as fun as mine. But above all, they abandoned the lovely tail lights of my car (shown above) and went with a clear LED cluster. Whoever designed the lights on my Crosstrek gets top marks as I love both the front and rear light clusters, and that’s rare for me. I’m also glad to once more be driving a car with orange turn signals in the back, another thing I’m going to make mandatory when I’m king of the world.

Despite its inferior taillights, we’ll likely replace the aging Outback with the new hybrid this fall and become a two-Crosstrek family. Assuming the Outback makes it that long, it was out of commission for a couple of weeks for repairs after getting rear-ended while stopped at a stop light. The repairs were expensive enough that I was afraid the insurance company might write the car off, but thankfully they didn’t. It’s been a great car and sold me on the Subaru brand, I hope the Crosstrek serves us as faithfully.

Twelve

Scout would have turned twelve today.

This was my view these past twelve years as I edited nearly every image you’ve seen here, Scout in her heated bed, sitting right in front of me. Usually she’d be curled up in the bed but sometimes she’d watch me as I worked. She was a tiny little thing so if she was laying down she had to stick her head up to reach the top. It didn’t look too comfortable but it always made me laugh.

Oh Scout, you were the best, and I miss you so.

Peace

My favorite coyote picture, taken over a year ago in January of 2012.

Coyotes have a complicated and controversial relationship with our modern world, and I’m not sure how this pack will fare now that subdivisions have replaced the meadows on the hills above the refuge. I see them near the road sometimes as I drive into town before sunrise, but I see them as roadkill too. And there will be conflicts with barbed-wire fences and dogs and cats.

But on this morning, as it hunted for voles with its mate, and as a few snowflakes began to fall, all was peaceful. Only the three of us were around, and since I stayed quiet in my car, they let me watch at my leisure as they worked the length of the dike.

A peaceful morning for me, if not for the voles.