Tag: sitting

Smiling and Not Smiling

Our dog Ellie sits with her mouth closed in fallen leaves beside a tree near the dog park of Irving Park in Portland, Oregon in November 2011

With her mouth closed Ellie’s drooping jowls made her look sad and/or bored. In truth she was a bit bored on this occasion in the fall of 2011 and it’s why I didn’t take a ton of pictures of her on our walks even though I often took quick snapshots of the neighborhood itself. She loved going on walks with me and photos were an interruption in our fun time together, she couldn’t know I was capturing those fun times so I could look back and remember. My trick was to wait until she saw someone walking close or another dog approaching and she opened her mouth, for then the mix of sweetness and happiness that was our Ellie was on full display. These two pictures were taken less than a minute apart.

Our dog Ellie sits with her mouth open in fallen leaves beside a tree near the dog park of Irving Park in Portland, Oregon in November 2011

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 Early Days

Our dog Ellie sits in the grass in the backyard of our house in Portland, Oregon with her front paw on a tennis ball in January 2009

Ellie in the backyard in January 2009, three weeks after we adopted her. It looks a little posed, her paw on the tennis ball, but she did that in the early days. Did she stop it at some point? I remember her doing it back then but not after that, maybe it’s my faulty memory, maybe it had just been a while since she was able to run and fetch. She’s probably looking at my wife offscreen, she followed her everywhere in those days. Our bond became so strong for so long that it’s easy for me to forget that it took some time to form. The love was immediate though, on both sides, to know her was to love her.

Fall in Irving Park

Our black lab Ellie sits in the leaves in front of trees colored purple, yellow, and green at the dog park in Irving Park in Portland, Oregon in November 2011

I love this picture of Ellie in the leaves at Irving Park, taken in the fall of 2011, but I don’t think I’ve put it online before. Usually it’s because I get so far behind in my editing, sometimes it’s because I’ll write the post in my mind when I’m away from my computer and then forget to actually post it. I’m thankful for our time in Portland for a great many reasons, but walking through our Irvington neighborhood with my sweet pup will always be one of my most treasured memories.

Sitting Idle

Our tortoiseshell cat Trixie sits on my orange rain jacket on the tile floor

Coming from Oregon I have a handful of raincoats I use for different purposes. They’ve mostly been sitting idle since we moved to Arizona although I do stuff one in my backpack if there’s a chance of rain. One morning I took the raincoat out since it was going to be dry all day but I returned to find it had been put to use after all.

At the Top of the Stairs, There Was Em

Our black cat Emma sits at the top of the stairs between the kitchen and the basement, watching our new kitten Boo (not in the picture) as he climbs the stairs towards her

Emma was not happy about the arrival of little Boo in the summer of 2013. On his first foray into the house at large he had to climb the stairs first past Ellie, then Sam, and finally Emma at the top. I spent most of Boo’s first month with Emma, letting her know this was still, and always would be, her home. She was a sweetheart and in time not only came to accept the little fellow but let him snuggle up with her. It’s still hard for me at times to edit pictures of her, knowing that in a year and a half we’d be going through another introduction, this time getting Boo to accept young Trixie after Emma died far too young.

Both Sam and Emma followed Boo around as he explored but Sam watched Emma as much as he watched Boo, here looking up at Emma atop the stairs as she growls at the intrusion of the young kitten. Sam loved his life with his two older sisters and never wanted it to change, but when they both died young he accepted his new siblings pretty quickly.

Our cat Sam in the landing between the kitchen and the basement looks up towards the top of the stairs where our cat Emma (not in the picture) was sitting

We’re Going to Be Alright

Our black cat Emma and our orange tabby kitten Sam sit side by side as they look out the window in my office into the backyard

We adopted Sam and Emma on the same day and kept them together in isolation for the first couple of weeks so they bonded quickly as they played and adapted to their new lives. Emma was about a year older so she and Scout helped raise the little fellow and he was naturally devastated when both his older sisters died young.

Let’s Get Outside

Our cat Trixie sits in a cardboard box from my hiking shoes emblazoned with the slogan Let's Get Outside

“Let’s Get Outside” is an apt slogan for my hiking shoes but not for little Squeaks who, like all our cats, is indoors only. She doesn’t spend much time in cardboard boxes, sometimes I think she tries it just to understand why brother Boo loves them so.