Tag: cat

Some Assembly Required

A close-up of our cat Emma sleeping on a blanket on my couch with her legs jutting at various angles in October 2014

After belly rubs Emma would collapse into a puddle of joy, her legs jutting out in various directions so that from some angles she seemed like a stack of cat parts waiting to be assembled. Taken in in 2014, I miss the sky blue walls of my office in Portland but not nearly as much as I miss her.

Conflicted

Our cats Trixie and Boo snuggle and sleep on my lap, as Boo looks off into the distance, taken in my office in December 2019

When you’re on the airplane and think you’re going to have the whole row to yourself only at the last minute someone boards and sits next to you. You’re happy they made their flight but still wish you had the whole row to yourself. At least Trixie doesn’t insist on sleeping nose-to-nose with Boo like she does with Sam.

Insomnia

Our cat Boo sleeps on the back of the couch in my office in November 2019

Boo’s been hanging out with me more than usual the past couple of months, sometimes sleeping on my legs, more often tucked up beside me, and lately often sleeping on the couch behind my head. Last night I fell asleep briefly with Boo up there and Trixie and Sam curled up on top of me. I got up to go to bed but after laying wide awake for an hour or two eventually got up and stayed up until I went out for a hike before sunup. I went to one of the closest trailheads and took an easy 5.5 mile loop as I didn’t know if I would start to crash but I didn’t have any issues. Back home and sated with a homemade breakfast sandwich I finally tired and fell asleep on the couch once more, this time with just Sam and Trixie, and didn’t wake until late in the afternoon. Well-needed rest but it may make for a long night tonight …

The Squirrel Blind

Our cat Sam looks out the window of the windowed section of the kitchen of our house in Portland, Oregon on Halloween in October 2014

The kitchen of our house in Portland had a little section where the windows extended out of the house, providing an expansive view up and down squirrel alley. Fortunately it was down near the end of the counter, away from the food prep section, as our smallest wildlife watchers found it irresistible no matter what rules existed about walking on the counters.

The Handsome Fellow

Our cat Templeton looks into the camera with his green eyes while resting in our backyard in Portland, Oregon in the evening of August 1, 2003

I was editing this picture of Templeton from 2003 so I could bring its associated blog post back online only to discover there was no associated post, and it never even made it up onto my old site before then, but better late than never. Templeton was a handsome little fellow with his green eyes and gray tuxedo and had a charming personality to match. I wasn’t a cat person when I met him a decade prior when my wife and I started dating, how little I understood then of how he would change my life. I didn’t get my first camera until college or grad school, the most basic of point and shoots, with my first SLR in my last year of grad school, so I’m thankful I switched to digital in 2000 and began photographing him more often. This picture encapsulates a lot for me, I took it during our first full year in the house in Portland where we would live for sixteen years. I think of him every day as I do all the pets and am thankful for the pictures I have to remember him by, he was a little charmer!