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!

Sorry To This Banana

Our cat Boo plays with a banana cat toy atop the cat tree in my office in November 2019

Boo was in a playful mood after each of my three hikes this weekend so we played until he tired, my apologies to this banana cat toy that got the thrashing of its life. He’s an introspective little fellow so it delights me to also see him play with such reckless abandon.

Healing Nicely

Our cat Sam rests on the blanket on my couch with a few of the stiches in his shoulder visible, taken in October 2019

Sam got his stitches out yesterday and his mouth has healed nicely so he was given the all clear to eat the hard treats I give them after dinner, which made all the cats happy as I cut out treats for all while they were forbidden for Sam. You can just see a few of the stitches in this picture in the shaved area behind his shoulder.