Scratcher of heads, rubber of bellies
Ellie has always enjoyed sleeping on our bed but age has taken a toll on her legs and the other day my wife came home and discovered Ellie had jumped onto the bed but couldn’t jump back down. So after helping her down she took the bed and box springs off the frame and put them on the floor, where they’ll stay.
Peace, love, & understanding.
My wife picked up a couple of cat beds to hopefully reduce the cats taking over Ellie’s dog bed, but instead one of the new cat beds got an unexpected guest.
Every time I read the headlines of the day’s news, I wish I could sprinkle a bit of Ellie’s personality on everyone around the world. We replaced one of her dog beds but the cats took to it before she had the chance to try it out. She settled for the carpet rather than drive the interlopers out.
They don’t come any sweeter than our Ellie.
Don’t look directly into his eyes!
Sam and Boo snuggle up on my legs as we watch Doctor Who.
I’ve mostly used SLR’s for everything I shoot but for a while now I’ve suspected I’d be happier with multiple cameras targeted at different uses. Most of all I wanted something less obtrusive than my SLR for shooting the pets, or possibly something with better quality in the low light I shoot them in. There were a number of potential candidates amongst full-frame cameras, quality fixed-lens compacts, or mirrorless cameras.
On the day we adopted shy little Boo I could wait no longer so it was time to choose. That choice was Canon’s EOS M, surprisingly so since I was rather disappointed with it when it launched the previous year. But the price had plummeted to less than $300 for the camera and its 22mm pancake lens, and at that price the flaws of the camera suddenly became easier to bear. I’ve never spent so little on photography and received so much in return.
I’ve rarely shot with my SLR since. I still use it for wildlife shooting and anything that requires fast camera work, but for nearly everything else it’s been the charming little M.
Am I glad I waited so long to order it? Yes and no. On the one hand, the camera’s flaws would have been hard to live with at its debut price. On the other, perhaps I could have gotten a picture of Scout sleeping on me like this. But such is the clarity of hindsight, I had no reason to expect she’d die so relatively young.
I can’t change the past, only learn from it, and so by now I have pictures of all the pets sleeping on me. Sometimes all at once. On this occasion it was just me and Boo, snuggled in between my legs, one of my favorite shots of him.
We kept Boo isolated from the other pets in his first days with us by putting him in my wife’s large office in the basement and, since it doesn’t have a door, blocking the large opening into the room with a long piece of plywood. These pictures are from his second day with us, up top you can see him sleeping under the far corner of the futon, which for him was progress as he spent much of those early days hiding completely out of sight behind the desk.
Boo was already anxious and stressed from his weeks at the shelter and adjusting to a new home wasn’t going to be easy for the shy little fellow. But he was anxious in another way too — anxious to meet the other pets. The plywood blocked the exit but he could still hear and smell the pets on the other side, so right from the get go we had to be quick when entering or leaving the room, as a little black-and-white shadow might follow underfoot.
Ellie gazes into my eyes as she lays with her head in my lap. We were so excited when we adopted Ellie almost five years ago, but even so she’s been more wonderful than I could have hoped.
We have a cat for M. C. Escher, so why not one for Salvador Dali too? Taken one day shy of his one month anniversary with us, still skinny enough that he could pull off poses like this when he slept.
Boolie 