Scratcher of heads, rubber of bellies
So good in fact that if the sleeping positions weren’t all wrong I’d have never known it wasn’t the real Samwise. Sam likes to curl up when he sleeps, not all stretched out like this impostor. I’m not worried for Sam’s safety, in fact I think he’s behind the whole thing, letting his proxy deal with all of Trixie’s affections. I’ve been trying to lure the real Sam out of hiding by keeping my lap open but his replicant is as eager to fill that spot as Sam himself.
We are big Doctor Who fans, Sam and I, and wish we had a few more years with the current team of Peter Capaldi, Pearl Mackie, and Matt Lucas. But if we are going to have to have a new Doctor, we’re thrilled they’ve finally chosen a woman in this long-running role and look forward to seeing what Jodie Whittaker brings to the table. It’s going to be a long wait but thankfully we now have BritBox and have been starting with the original shows from the 60’s and working our way forward (just finished the second season). While sadly some of those early shows weren’t saved, most of these old shows are new to us so we have been having a great time curling up with the iPad and watching one of our favorite shows.
For a cat that likes to sleep curled up Sam sure is trying out some new sleeping positions. Perhaps at the age of ten he has decided it’s time to explore all of what life has to offer.
When I took advantage of a big sale back in March to buy my new camera and lenses, one of the lenses I decided to try was the Sony Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 lens. It’s a full-frame lens but on my crop camera behaves more like a moderate telephoto, a useful lenses for taking portraits of people, but that’s not something I do. I do take portraits of the pets of course but I was worried it would be too long of a focal length for indoor use. Still, I had loved it from afar and decided to give it a chance and was playing around with it for these portraits of Trixie at the top of the cat tree.
I often don’t like shots with an overly shallow depth-of-field and I could take it or leave it here. I’d like a little more depth of field on Trixie but I do like the way it renders the out-of-focus stained glass in the background, and I like the way the slightly compressed look of this length of lens puts the focus on her but still with a sense of the background for the room.
The old cat tree is in front of the large picture window in the living room. It’s actually three windows, two smaller ones on the end that slide open and big fixed one in the middle. There are pull-down shades sized to each window as well, and the big shade she is sleeping next to is pulled down, while the other two were open, letting the sunlight reflect off the brown walls and bathe her in warm light. For the shot below I moved slightly to the right to include the context of the window, which I knew would blow out because it was so much brighter than the rest of the room, but I love the way the lens handled it, two similar shots and I like both but the slight shift gives each a different feel. As does Trixie’s ‘smile’, really part of a yawn, which seems part warm and playful and part ‘my ancestors devoured yours’.
It was quickly heating up on this summer morning when I took the pictures, but when the Little Furnace curls up in my lap, that’s when I feel the real high heat of summer. Not that I’d ever turn her away, my little Trix, and of course Sam and Boo are always welcome too.
Two cats emerged in a window, and I —
I took their picture by and by,
And that has made all the difference.
I SAID, “ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME, BOO!”
The truth will out.
Sam sometimes likes to hold my hand as he’s about to fall asleep, a trait he shares with Emma, and while he does like the occasional belly rub he doesn’t love them the way she did (or our first cat Templeton, who was crazy for them). One of the things that surprised me having cats the past couple of decades has been how different their personalities are, it’s fun to learn how best to delight each of them. I’ve also been surprised by how affectionate they are, I was not expecting that based on the stories I often heard, but my lap is rarely empty (Trixie is asleep there now).
Boolie 