Thursday, March 28, 2024
black catscat photographsdaily photofoster catsSmokie

Daily Photo: Choices, Choices

black cat looking at toys
Smokie tries to decide from the array of toys.

First world kitten dilemmas.

What to do? All the toys look enticing in the sun, even to the human, and Smokie just can’t choose which one to start with—because you can be sure he’s going to play with all of them before the morning is done!

He chooses the green sparkle ball and with great skill and agility paw-handles it among all the other toys as Bella watches. And you can be sure she’s going to steal it from him before the morning is done!

black cat playing
It’s the green sparkle ball as Bella looks on.

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Other daily photos shared on this date

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Mimi in a Mood, 2014
two black cats fighting
Mewsette is not sure what to do.

Mimi has been feeling pretty frisky lately, much to the consternation of her children. She crouches under my scarves on the landing at the bottom of the stairs and leaps out at anyone who comes by. I caught her chasing Giuseppe, more than twice her size, and he with a confused expression running away. What would you do if you mom hid in the corner and leaped out and chased you around the house?

Then today I heard thundering on the steps along with Mimi’s bells jingling and turned to see Mewsette leap from the steps to the top of the wardrobe followed by a triumphant Mimi, ears pinned back, at the top of the steps. Then on the windowsill.

Mimi has to work hard to provoke Mewsette who wants no parts of scuffling.

two black cats fighting
It takes a lot to get Mewsette upset

She waves a paw at Mimi hoping Mimi will get the idea. I can tell Mimi is not getting any ideas than the one she started out with.

two black cats fighting
“Stop that, mom!”

Then Mimi takes advantage of the situation!

two black cats fighting
Mimi gets a shot in!

“Stop it, mom!”

two black cats fighting
Mewsette gets her “licks” in.

The paw on the forehead always calls a truce. But I love it when Mimi plays. Sometimes she likes to be a “bad girl”.

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Camouflage, 2013
black cat and vase of paintbrushes.
Mimi crouches behind the paint brushes to watch a bird outside the window.

A chickadee has landed in the tip of a branch right outside the window and Mimi quickly ducks behind the vase of paintbrushes so the bird won’t see her. Clever use of her environment! I guess if nothing else is available a vase of brushes can mostly hide a cat.

This is the one window in the house where there is no bird feeder within view—unless you can look straight down to the one outside the dining room window—but birds perch in the big spruce and in the river birch which finally reaches to the edge of this window. Birds also land in the maple just a glance away and even on the front porch roof, just to the left, and in summer they perch on the casement windows when they are open, so we have plenty of birds to watch, but no bird feeder.

I still have the open feeder just outside the window but really should take it down. Birds check it out regularly though I haven’t filled it for over a year. When certain kitties saw the birds in it—and this included Cookie and Kelly as well—everything on the windowsill ended up on the floor. I don’t mind removing things, but then things started to get shuffled around on my drafting table, and I have no place else to put those things, but I could manage to rearrange.

The real reason is because, as I was quietly working at my drafting table one day and the birds were happily feeding, two cats raced in the room from the landing just outside the door and leaped over me, landing on the artwork I was working on. It was not a pretty result. So, that particular bird feeder stays empty, but I have to crawl partway out onto the window ledge to take it down. No hurry in that.

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Live Animals, 2012
three black cats around cat carrier
Live Animals?

You can see that Giuseppe is asking where the live animals are. And why I need more when I already have several perfectly good live animals. They are not ordering a live human, but perhaps they should consider it, since there is only one human is she is sometimes woefully inadequate. Even Mewsette looks a little perturbed, though Jelly Bean is just sort of hanging out because that’s where the action is.

They looked carefully inside the black thing and did not see anything at all. Perhaps this human is playing a cruel joke on them.

Anything I add to their environment becomes a prop, even if it’s unintentional. They explore everything, that’s their job. In this case Peg Bowman brought back the carrier we had used for Skeeter when we took him to the vet, and I had no other place to put it at that moment than on that table. And because the Feline Inspection and Quality Control takes their job very seriously and will drop everything to perform their duties at a moment’s notice, the carrier was immediately covered and surrounded by cats. I left it there for a few days waiting for a good shot. There was a second from today, different; perhaps I’ll post that tomorrow.

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Big Sister Is Watching, 2011
black cat looking down from shelf
Mewsette is Watching

Mewsette likes high places. This shelf is nearly nine feet off the floor and used to hold some larger trailing houseplants that got a lot of sunlight from the window at the top of the stairs. Now it holds Mewsette. When the first plant landed loudly on the floor and turned into quite a mess, I moved them all to other places.

She’s discovered she can launch herself from the top of a small armoire and will sometimes spend the entire day up there, especially in the winter when heat rises and is trapped in the corner I imagine it’s quite cozy. I knew she liked to be up there, but the first few times she decided to spend the day there I ran around the house in a panic trying to find her.

Jelly Bean will sometimes venture up there with her, but for all their swaggering neither Mr. Sunshine nor Giuseppe will try it. I’m not unhappy about that.

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Boys, 2011
two black cats by sunny window
Boys

Yesterday it was the girls putting their heads together, today it’s the boys, likely planning their day’s events. Perhaps they’re just soaking up some sunshine and not planning anything at all. Giuseppe in the background, I never know with those intense eyes. Jelly Bean, though, I’m pretty sure he just relies on being cute to get through the day.

I enjoy all the warm tones in this photo, the pale yellow sun in the window, the cream lace curtain, the mahogany tones in the boys’ fur and the deep rose through the thin skin of their ears, even the dark shadowed areas are filled with warm tones of bright late winter sun filtering only through bare branches.


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Bernadette

From health and welfare to rescue and adoption stories, advocacy and art, factual articles and fictional stories, "The Creative Cat" offers both visual and verbal education and entertainment about cats for people who love cats, pets and animals of all species.

4 thoughts on “Daily Photo: Choices, Choices

  • bluemoonalone

    Hard choice indeed..since everything that is not nailed down is a cat toy..MOL..

    Reply
    • Some kittiez like to eat milk topz, so we can’t haz dem…Smokie wants to be like his ninja sensei Giuseppe and wow the ladycats with his mastery of green sparkle balls!

      Reply

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