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.
Category: Pets
“I Bet My New Dog Bed Sure Is Nice”
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.
HypnoCat
Don’t look directly into his eyes!
Me & Sam & Boo & Who
Sam and Boo snuggle up on my legs as we watch Doctor Who.
The Unexpected M
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.
Anxious
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.
The Best Dog Ever
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.
Flippity Floppity Boo
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.
The Occasional No
Last fall I experimented with taking pictures out of my office window of the birds that visit the backyard, such as this female flicker at the suet feeder. At first I tried shooting through the glass but the pictures were far too soft, so I opened the window just enough for the big telephoto to fit through.
The smells and sounds of the outdoors brought the cats over to investigate, one by one, but I shooed them away so I wouldn’t have to worry about them jumping through the opening to freedom, sweet freedom. Scout grunted when I pushed her back, looking puzzled. We were so rarely at cross purposes that she had to be sure I hadn’t mistaken her for one of the other cats. She tried for the window again and I gently pushed her back, then again, and again, before she finally wheeled about and walked out of the room with her tail raised high.
She asked for so little, but what she wanted, she wanted. Usually what she wanted I was happy to give her, but even I sometimes had to tell my beloved Scout, “no”.
As soon as I closed the window and returned to the couch, having forgiven my insolence, she jumped onto my chest and purred.
She was the best.
That Last Step is a Doozy
After we adopted Boo in early in July, we kept him in isolation for a while in my wife’s office in the basement. After a couple of weeks we allowed him limited time upstairs with the rest of the pets. He was eager to meet the others and explore the rest of the house but after a while the shy little fellow would get overwhelmed and retreat to the comfort of the basement. At times you could see the conflict writ across his face as he hung out in the landing between the basement and main floor, screwing up the courage to climb that last step and venture forth.
