Pets – Page 92

Boo at One

We don’t know Boo’s birthday but he was probably a little over one year old when I took this picture of him as he snuggled in my lap in early December. He’s doubled in weight since we got him but more importantly, the once terrified little fellow is now a happy part of our family.

I got the Canon EOS M mirrorless camera specifically for pictures like this, the little snapshots that won’t mean much to most but mean a lot to me. Composing through the screen instead of a viewfinder meant I could put the camera where I wanted it, so the camera could be at Boo’s eye level instead of mine. The compact 22mm pancake lens is also surprisingly good, although the lack of image stabilization in either the body or the lens limits how much I use it.

Simon says “Stand on three legs with a stick in your mouth”!

Play Simon Says with Ellie and you will not win. She’s good, oh but she’s good.

The Aftermath of an Epic Belly Rub

You can tell Emma is enjoying a belly rub when she extends one of her front legs high into the air, then lets it slowly fall as she collapses into a puddle of happiness.

The Endlessly Bendy Boo

This is Boo at the end of August, he was about 9 months old and had been with us for just under two months. His sleeping position didn’t look comfortable to me but it was one of his favorites. He was skinny enough then to pull it off but it’s not so easy now that he’s grown to full-size.

Boo the Photobomber

While our oldest cat Emma remains our photobomber extraordinaire, young Boo is learning fast.

Our Black (and Increasingly Gray) Lab

Our sweet Ellie, taken on the day my Canon EOS M arrived.

Em in the Window

Emma watches the world go by outside the dining room picture window.

Ball Goes Here!

Age has slowed Ellie this year so she can’t chase balls like she used to, but she still enjoys having me toss them into her mouth.

Snow Day

I had some time off coming in December but took one of the days a bit earlier than expected when I woke to snow coming down. I sent a quick email to work to let them know I wasn’t coming in as I wanted to take Ellie out in however much snow we got. I always enjoy seeing Ellie in the snow, as it reminds me of the day I started thinking about getting a dog while playing with sweet Porter from next door.

The snow stopped falling right after I decided not to go to work, so there wasn’t much on the ground when we went on our walk to the dog park in Irving Park, but we had a good time nevertheless. I brought my camera (the little EOS M, just stuck it in my coat pocket) and took a few snaps of Ellie enjoying one of her favorite activities, snapping sticks in half with her jaws.

Chomp chomp!

The Bed Thief

While Sam would occasionally sleep in one of Ellie’s beds, particularly the homemade one, the thieving of dog beds began in earnest in late July. Coincidentally, this is also when Boo was given free reign of the house. This is Boo on his first day out after a couple of weeks in isolation in my wife’s office in the basement. That week began his gradual introduction into the house at large, we’d let him out for a while but at night or when we were away we still kept him isolated.

Boo was shy and nervous when we adopted him and you could see on his face how exploring the house and meeting the pets was both exciting and exhausting for him, so we paced his introduction even slower than normal. Several times on this first day he’d go up and explore the ground level and meet the other pets and then come back down to Ellie’s dog bed for a little rest. The bed was right outside my wife’s office so he could enjoy a taste of his newfound freedom and yet easily scoot back in to his comfort zone if needed.

He showed little fear of Ellie from the start, and for her part, she was nonplussed by the arrival of the little fellow. So when he stole her bed, she laid down beside it on the hard floor, making life a little easier for the kitten as he began to understand what it meant to be home.