Daily Photo: Mimi in the Rain
Mimi wants me to make it stop raining so she can run around in the yard.
We are at the top of the steps on the deck, and both of us are disappointed.
Shared in Previous Years
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Daily Photo: Meet Josephine, 2015
No, the universe did not bring me a new tortie cat for my birthday!
Josephine was found offered “free to a good home” on a Facebook neighborhood site. You may remember last summer the kittens Cookie and Jelly Bean who were trapped and rescued with terrible URIs but nursed back to health by Debby Christy Nicola. They were, of course, named after my kitties, and the name “Cookie” infers that kitty is “on tough Cookie”, as the little long-haired tortie proved to be. It was the woman who rescued and later adopted Cookie who saw this kitty, who reminded her of her Cookie-pie. When I saw the post she reminded me of my Cookie-pie and my Kelly too. This kitty had been taken in from the street but was not fitting in. A lot of discussion ensued of what to do and in the end Cookie’s rescuer went to get her and she stayed the night here last night. Because she was originally found on Josephine Street, we decided to name the petite little girl Josephine. I have always liked that name.
Little Josephine was a little traumatized by her experience, and settled in the corner of the windowsill last night and would not move, nor responded to petting, though she did not object. I welcomed her, gave her food and water, petted her, applied a few soothing essences, then let her rest. A few hours later she had not moved, so I got her started, hugged and kissed her lightly, and showed her the food bowl. Eventually she drank lots and lots of water, then began to gently explore, but though she made progress when I was in the room, she returned to the little cubby storage next to the tub. She came out hesitantly each time I came in but was friendly, just very quiet. She ate well overnight and used the litter box. Dr. Michelle took a look at her today, and she did well with handling, and in a room with two relative strangers. And I took about 102 photos of her.
The plan was to check her out and surrender her to the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society today in order to be scanned for a microchip, spayed if necessary, have veterinary care and be put up for adoption. So after I had the joy of spending nearly 24 hours with this precious little girl, this afternoon I took her over, talked to the people I usually talk to, and received her shelter number. I offered to foster if she needed any more socialization or ever became ill or in danger of euthanasia, and I have her intake number so that I can call about her and follow her.
No, I cannot keep her, and even fostering for a long term is difficult for my household right now. I won’t say how many cats I’ve packed into this tiny little house in the 25 years I’ve been here, but my average was nine, and only once, for a week, I was down to four. That’s a lot of cats, and I know the toll it took on my household. Right now, with the Five and Smokie and Bella, we are comfortable. Two in the bathroom was okay while Bert and Ernie were here, but it puts pressure on everyone’s behavior.
The WPHS is an open-door shelter, one that some people might call a “kill shelter”. But rather than call them names we choose to work with them, to help them with their goal of saving as many lives as possible. This is the shelter where Smokie came from, and Bert and Ernie too, surrendered to the Homeless Cat Management Team to give us a chance to socialize and find homes for them, or if that wasn’t possible to then find a community colony where they could safely reside. I regularly pick up cats from surgery in their TNR program and hold them for caretakers to pick up from me.
There are so many cats like Josephine, and many of them don’t find the best homes when given away free, or if they are out on the street they never find the help they need. This shelter, as well as others I’ve known, used to be a hell for animals, and I would never have considered surrendering a cat I’d rescued to them, one of the reasons I had so many for so many years. But with their own hard work and the help of the public they serve, they have turned their numbers around, and I know that, next to my quiet little bathroom, Josephine will get the best of care and love from the staff, and if she needs anything I can give her, they will let me know.
And you can bet you’ll see more about her too! I hope to help little Josephine find a very loving forever home!
Josephine was adopted very soon after this!
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Daily Photo: Just Try To Look Intelligent, 2015
I have no idea what they were trying to convey by all staring at me, but Jelly Bean is trying his darndest to look intelligent and awake. He’s usually pretty sleepy-eyed, so you can tell he’s acting awake because his eyes are open, but it might be a struggle to keep them that way. Sunshine is certainly alert.
Apparently, Bean didn’t do as he was requested and Giuseppe does not look happy about it. Mr Sunshine is in the background either crying, or laughing until he cries. I can never figure these guys out. I just take the pictures.
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In the meantime here is a photo I posted on Facebook yesterday, on my birthday. And for real, they wanted to eat my blueberry muffin.
Blueberry Muffin
Well-fed carnivores want their blueberry muffin for dessert! But that’s my birthday muffin–and I’m not sharing! Thanks everyone!
Other daily photos shared on this date
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Three Cats Share One Sunbeam
We haven’t had a whole lot of these lately!
The sun’s angle is finally changing so that we get a sliver of sun at the end of the afternoon. Mimi was the first to find it and settle, then as if drawn by some call that I couldn’t hear they each wandered in and sauntered through the sun while Mimi stayed where she was. Mr. Sunshine and Giuseppe ended up sharing it with her and, believe me, not one sparkle of that sun beam escaped their gleaming black fur.
I am transfixed by their beauty when touched by the sun.
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Wordless Wednesday: Green!
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The Eyes Have It, 2010
Not only one of my favorite photos of these two, but a momentous one…do you believe there was a time I wasn’t sure I could find a new photo of my cats each day?! Read to the bottom for more on this concept.
Mewsette and Giueseppe open their eyes briefly to be photographed, otherwise don’t move a whisker, then go back to sleep.
Just as it was on this day in 2010, this is (one of) today’s feature photo on Today, my daily photo blog. But you won’t have to go there to see what I wrote about them on that day! This was a while before I began posting daily photos of my cats in August 2010 (seems like longer than that for some reason, not out of photos yet), and I often posted more cat photos there than here on The Creative Cat.
So here is what I had to say:
Eyes are striking no matter the species, and cats’ eyes especially because they are usually very bright colors. In a black cat’s fur, they look like gems and often appear quite large in proportion to their facial features because of the contrast. Here they look like crescent moons in a deep night sky.
Mewsette and Giuseppe are brother and sister, two siblings of a litter of four I fostered and who still live with me. It’s a long story, but in the end they became such excellent art subjects for photography, sketches, painting and block prints. Even as adults, they are still close and tend to hang out in pairs or threes, and they sleep in a heap like kittens do, though they range form 10 to 13 pounds each.
While they look identical at first glance, I have always been able to see the differences in their features. Part of the fun of working with their images is to show those differences, and their eyes are one feature unique among each of them in color, shape and angle.
The light in this photo is somewhat cool coming from a north window with a lot of reflection from snow, so their eye colors are a little muted, but Mewsette, on the left, has very light, bright green eyes, the greenest of the litter, with very little yellow. Giueseppe’s, on the other hand, are a warm yellow amber, just enough orange so the yellow doesn’t appear lemon. Mewsette’s eyes are round like all her other features—face, head, paws, rounded ears, blunt nose. Giuseppe has wide oval eyes that are pointed at the corners, and he also has an elongated face with a prominent nose, large ears and a long body, as everything seems to be stretched.
I photograph them all the time and often use their images in my own designs as well as selling their images as stock photography. This litter is only the most recent in my household—I have about 30 years of cat photos and have the last ten years of my digitals on my website. You can see them in action in almost every entry on my blog The Creative Cat, and on my Marketplace blog you can see them in my Animal Sympathy Cards. I have eight galleries of them in the photo section on my website.
Black cats can be difficult to photograph, especially if you don’t like to use a flash, as I do not; it tends to reflect off of black fur a little harshly, creating a photo that has too much contrast, highlights flashed out and missing detail, shadows saturated with black, and very little in between. A good bit of bright ambient light from more than one direction helps to capture the details without flashing highlights. My camera is a digital SLR, but I still use many of the same lenses and photo techniques I used with my film SLR in opening up the F-stop as far as I could while reducing shutter speed to avoid motion blur and ensure a sharp clarity of all those details I had worked to preserve.
So there you have it, one of the entries that led me to consider posting daily photos of my cats here along with daily photos of other subjects on Today, which I had begun in June 2009. I was concerned I wouldn’t be able to find a good photo of my cats every day, or that people would get bored with them. Neither one seems to be the case!
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Three Great Minds, 2013
Really, sometimes they are too easy, posing in ways like this.
This is in the same place as yesterday’s three, but not the same kitties—this is Giuseppe, Mewsette and Mr. Sunshine, apparently thoroughly enjoying each others’ company.
At times like this it’s so clear they are siblings.
Browse some rescued cats and kittens!
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. Subscribe to The Creative Cat Preview E-newsletter. © 2022 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski 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!
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Feline Photography from Portraits of Animals!
I have to say, I do like it, Mr. Sunshine, subtle, almost abstract. I have some talented cats here. I do like the photos that show all the assets of my beautiful cats, but I also like the abstract shots that happen to have a cat in them in a very artful way. Read more and order this photo and browse other feline photos on Portraits of Animals.
© 2017 | www.TheCreativeCat.net | Published by Bernadette E. Kazmarski
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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!
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