Daily Photo: He’ll Never Know What Hit Him
He looks really cute, but don’t ever trust that little Bean. He’s always up to something. Right now, Giuseppe doesn’t stand a chance. Even if he happens to turn his head and notice Bean eyeing up a good spot on his head, it’s too late, Bean is going to get him one way or the other.
From Instagram
If it’s Whisker Wednesday, Mariposa haz em. Giuseppe haz patience.
Photos shared in past years
Something About a Basket, 2018
There’s something about a basket that changes a cat. Like what it’s done to Hamlet, here. Often he shies from being petted, though he enjoys it when it happens, and sometimes he runs when he’s startled. But here he’s lying in the basket as if he was tossed there, and I can stop by and run my fingers through all that floof any time I go past. And Hamlet curls his toes and sighs. How sweet it is.
From Instagram
Not now, I’m having a pawicure.
We’re just waiting for dinner. Whenever you get around to it.
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From Previous Years
Wordless Wednesday: Turn Out the Lights!
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Internal Thermometer, It’s 88 Degrees
“Paint me like one of your French cats,” Mr. Sunshine expresses. I wasn’t aware I had any really French cats, though they were named after characters in an opera that took place in France though it was authored by an Italian and sung in Italian. I don’t know if that makes them really French cats. But I do paint them.
I can always tell when the temperature has reached 88 degrees when Mr. Sunshine tips over on his back. He did so on Monday.
But the other views were even more funny. Like the view as I walked into the kitchen..
It happened again, late afternoon Wednesday. Guess I’ve got a pretty reliable thermometer.
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What other photos have I posted on or around this date?
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Wordless Wednesday: Bella Shipping Su-purr-visor
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Two Cool Cats
Hamlet and Ophelia are still the age that they zip around the house and are busy all day, especially Hamlet who runs like a little wild man through the rooms. But hot days are hot days, and a cool marble windowsill is cool enough to share with your sister.
Below another view that I thought just lent itself to an interesting black and white.
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What other photos have I posted on or around this date?
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Happy, 2014
I have been thoroughly enjoying the kittens I’ve fostered and socialized this year, quite a difference and, honestly, a break from the older and hospice fosters who’ve spent time in my foster room. But I haven’t forgotten the importance of rescuing and fostering those cats who don’t have their lives ahead of them, who are here to be kept comfortable and know they are loved until it’s their time to transition off to another existence. I’m remembering Kennedy as I review last year’s photos one particular morning when, although many things just weren’t right and weren’t ever going to be right, and he wasn’t going to recover, and it just wasn’t fair, he and I both found peace and happiness in the simple things that were right: shopping for cat food, my anticipation of how happy he’d be, his enjoyment of it, and our love of each other.
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I am walking slowly down the aisle of canned cat food in a pet supply store looking for any small can of paté style, any brand. Each one I find I consider the flavor and think of Kennedy, for whom I’m buying them, and how happy he’ll be when I give it to him. I’d love to stay with his “recovery” prescription diet but he doesn’t really need it, and to keep him otherwise on holistic, organic, grain-free foods so I won’t burden his body with ingredients unnecessary for a feline diet, but he needs variety at this point and I enjoy spoiling him a little, thinking how he nearly died of neglect just a few weeks ago, and though he has an end-of-life condition and his time is finite he is unconcerned about his near-death experience and looks forward to his day, and the food, and the affection.
I arrive home and tell him all about his new foods and pet him and show him all the cans and act as if I’m giving him his choice by rubbing his face on the one he wants, though he rubs on them all the same. But I’ve had one in mind from the beginning because he hadn’t eaten much that day. This flavor and variety has been a favorite with other geriatric or ill cats in the past and I’m sending happy anticipation to him as I show him the little can, let him rub his face on it and purr, then open the can, mix in his probiotic and some filtered water as he slowly walks a stiff figure “8” around my shins, bumping his head against my calf and purring some more.
I set it down in front of him. He immediately begins to eat, twitching his tail twice, emanating happiness. This in turn makes me emanate happiness. Perhaps he’s only eating it because he knows it will make me happy, and that will make him happy. Or perhaps it is because he is happy to feel special and loved, as likely he once was before finding himself ill and outdoors alone. Or perhaps he is aware his time is limited and he doesn’t want to waste any of it being unhappy. Perhaps it is all of the above. We fill the small bathroom with happy feelings.
He is not awake too often, but when he is, he is fully engaged. He looks at me bright-eyed every time, gets up and greets me and makes his little “hmmph!” noises, and slowly circles my legs and anticipates pets from his nose to his tail so he can stiffly put his tail in the air, and scritches on his head while he squints and makes smiley faces. And when any or all of the Five come to the baby gate, he struts over with a “hmmph!” and pokes one front paw and then the other through the mesh, often surprising the cat on the other side with a poke in the face, and this makes him happy too. When he has eaten a bit and within minutes of when I’ve left the room, he is back in his fleece bed in the box lid, having a little face wash, then relaxed and flat out sleeping on his side.
I remember this dance with other cats at this time in their lives, and even in this same room. These simple acts are all that are needed to make us both very happy in the moment, with ripples of happiness that carry on with the memories. Isn’t happy what it’s all about?
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Feline Images from Portraits of Animals!
It’s Mimi, Giuseppe, Bean and Mewsette. Everyone smile pretty for the camera…well, sort of…at least try to look at me all at the same time?
Copyright
All images and text used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission, although links to your site are more than welcome and are shared. Please ask if you are interested in using and image or story in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of an image or a product including it, check my animal and nature website Portraits of Animals to see if I have it available already. If you don’t find it there, visit Ordering Custom Artwork for more information on a custom greeting card, print or other item.
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Weekly schedule of features:
Sunday: Essays, Pet Loss, Poetry, The Artist’s Life
Monday: Adoptable Cats, TNR & Shelters
Tuesday: Rescue Stories
Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork
Thursday: New Merchandise
Friday: Book Review, Health and Welfare, Advocacy
Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats
And sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and have fun!