Tag: tuxedo cat

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.

Keeping an Eye on Me

Our cat Boo watches me with one eye open while sleeping on my couch in October 2019

Boo may have hissed at Sam when we brought him home after his surgery but he was the opposite for me after getting a wisdom tooth removed. They put me under for the oral surgery so I was pretty out of it for a while and slept when I came home, bleeding a little onto the pillow. Perhaps between the smell of blood and seeing me so woozy it alarmed the little fellow, given how upset he got when Ellie died this spring, as he was glued to me for the first few days. At first he insisted on snuggling up tight between me and the arm of the couch, or if he needed more space on the floor near my head, until eventually he relaxed and moved further down the couch. He’s a sensitive sweetheart, our Boo.

My Guardians

Our cats Templeton and Scout play in the backyard during their supervised outdoor time, Templeton in the foreground and Scout back by the window under my office, taken at our house in Portland, Oregon in August 2003

Tomorrow I’m scheduled to meet an oral surgeon to get my last wisdom tooth removed, I wish they had removed them all when I was young but it is what it is. The other lower one was removed years ago while we were in Portland and the dentist struggled to get it out, I was laid up for a couple of days on heavy pain killers. What I remember from those days was waking up every four hours or so to change the gauze in my mouth or to take new meds, and every time I woke up a different cat was sleeping on my chest. It may have been coincidence but at the time it felt as though Templeton and Scout were working in shifts, making sure I was alright, and indeed I was thankful for their devotion. Here the two play in the backyard in 2003 during their supervised outdoor time, Templeton in the foreground and Scout back by the window under my office.

Lazy Saturday

Our cat Boo yawns while resting under my wife's desk in September 2019

While he has his favorites Boo enjoys trying out new sleeping spots so you can never quite be sure where you’ll find him. Yesterday morning when I got back from my hike he was under my wife’s desk, serenaded by the birds on the other side of the wall. Thankfully he has bounced back from Ellie’s death, he took to her from the start and especially enjoyed sneaking under her when she got up from a dog bed, reveling in the warmth left behind. I don’t know how we made it six years with him never getting squished as sometimes she wasn’t getting up but rather shifting positions, but thankfully it was never an issue.

Current Mood

An overhead view of our cat Boo sleeping on a blanket on the window seat with his head and arms stuffed into pillows in July 2019

I’ve been a bit worn out this past month and haven’t been hiking in a couple of weeks, we’ll see how this weekend goes. I’m not completely exhausted like I was when we moved and during the last weeks of Ellie’s life, and I haven’t had to work long hours, rather it’s just that there’s been a lot going on, a lot to learn, and it’s taken a bit out of me. It hasn’t helped that this past week the night owl has been reasserting himself, if only I could sleep like Boo! Thankfully while he was pretty stressed after Ellie died our resident philosopher has been doing better lately.