Daily Photo: The Meeting
“We’d like some privacy from prying human eyes and ears here.”
“Don’t worry, she has to wear those shiny things on her face and humans can’t hear worth a frozen mousie.”
“Why doesn’t she ask us about these things before she does them?”
“I like the old ones better. These little ones, you can keep them.”
As I worked in my studio today a meeting of four great minds convened on my work table. I was not privy to their discussion but overheard nips and chirps, at least for three of them. Bean apparently slept through the whole thing, unless he was meditating in an effort to achieve a higher spiritual plane or divine inspiration.
“The last one was pretty cool.”
“I really want the bathroom window back.”
At one point the discussion grew quite heated then completely silent as Giuseppe and Mr. Sunshine engaged in a stare down. No paws were exchanged, but the siblings were silent for a while afterward.
I get the feeling it was all about the intruder in the bathroom who has been getting special foods and stealing the human’s attentions. “The thing is trying to be cute,” Bean said in a brief moment of conscious engagement. “It ran to its gate and started gabbling nonsense about meeting ninjas. I told him to stop acting like such a fool.”
You hissed at him, I interjected. Several times. Several long hisses from across the landing.
“Relax human. That’s how we adult felines talk to [snicker, snicker]…kittens. That’s how they learn their place.”
Somehow I think the little guy understands this already, and he just can’t wait for the ninjas to beat him up.
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What other photos did I feature around this date?
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We’re All Nuts Here, 2013
I’d shelled some peanuts to add to my dinner and left the remainder on the cabinet after I’d eaten and Mimi and I went outside to the compost bin and other destinations in the back yard (good thing we went when we did, it’s storming out there now), and when we came back in, this is what we found—Mewsette with her face in the measuring cup of shelled peanuts! And she wasn’t just sniffing them, she pulled one out and proceeded to nom it down. That Mewsette, she has such strange food preferences!
Then she decided to stock up and pulled out a bunch to drop onto the cutting board.
Of course, Mr. Sunshine can’t ever be out of the loop on a new discovery so he came over nose first and decided he liked them too. That was when I decided I’d remove them, and peanuts probably aren’t such a good snack choice for cats anyway as a possible choking hazard, but then dry food would be a hazard as well as many treats, and I would bet a cat’s sensitive digestion is not prepared for a crunched up groundnut and all its starch and oils. Mewsette likes all nuts—good thing, living here—but there are nuts that are toxic to cats and she likes those too: macadamia nuts. I opened a bag of my favorite trail mix and she dug her paw right in and pulled out a macadamia nut and would have eaten her way through all the other contents including raisins. I don’t get that trail mix anymore.
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The Night Shift, 2013
Working on a project on my computer last night, I was closely supervised by not one but three black cats. Though last night was the evening of Labor Day, still they saw fit to cease their resting and get back to work to start the week a little early with me. I certainly appreciated their assistance.
Below, what the three of them looked like, Giuseppe and Mewsette touching front paws in some arcane black cat communication code while they’ve left Mr. Sunshine to watch me. Note the letters and papers slipping off the desk under Giuseppe and Mr. Sunshine. Note that I am taking a photo and letting it happen, in fact I didn’t even notice. Cats will do that to you.
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Changing Light, 2012
Giuseppe stands at the door watching the birds and chipmunks, hence his very alert and somewhat aggressive stance. The sun comes down the hill at an angle and filters through the leaves and branches of my river birch and then through the garland of grapevines around my door, creating lovely and changing patterns at all angles on the porch outside, the screen of the door, the floor inside and on Giuseppe, who has no idea he’s modeling abstract shadows and seems to emerge from the sunbeam itself.
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Kitty in the Courtyard, 2011
I saw this exact kitty skitter across a street when I was photographing something else in that neighborhood and slip through the posts in a gate. Luckily the street isn’t very busy at all, but the cat’s actions, and the way it ran through the gate as if it was heading home, made me concerned that it might be a stray nursing mother cat.
I finished my photo session and slowly rolled down the street in my car; I have often found stray cats are less suspicious of a car moving slowly by on the street than of human footsteps. Even though I was barefoot and walking on a sidewalk, highly unlikely to make much noise myself amid all the ambient noise of a late afternoon in a small town, I felt the car more appropriate.
As I rolled past the gate I saw the cat through the posts on a sidewalk bathing, and the cat saw me. The gate and courtyard were adjacent to an huge old abandoned rooming house that had been condemned after our flood in 2004, but people and animals regularly made it a home. I pulled over and got out leaving my engine running to mask my sounds, and aligned myself with the openings between the slots on the fenceposts.
A good camera with a viewfinder and a zoom lens makes a dandy telescope. I zoomed in on the kitty as it alternately stared at me and sat, turned around and reclined while bathing. A quick check of the white belly didn’t reveal the telltale signs of a nursing mother, and while the kitty was black in the important areas I think I detected the presence of a matched set of identifiers under the tail. Plus his, as we’ll assume, face looked as if it was developing the jowly look of an unneutered male.
As I got closer to the fence he got up and ran to the back of the courtyard. No sign of other cats or of kittens, and I was surprised to see the courtyard looking fairly neat. I’ll swing past there a few times as I pass through that side of town to see if I find more cats. If I do, I’ll talk to the neighbors, of which there are only two left on this street, but I think this one is on his own for now.
I did talk to people who lived around there but they all produced their own cats; I never did find out who this cat belonged to.
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Your Manner of Housekeeping is Exceedingly Deficient, 2010
Mimi reports to my desk with cobwebs all over her face. You can see she has something important to say.
You’ve heard of the “white glove treatment”, wherein the lady of the house, wearing white gloves, follows the cleaning person around and wiping the gloves on freshly-cleaned surfaces to see if any dirt was left?
Well, this is the “black cat treatment”, wherein a black cat pokes her nose where it doesn’t belong and shows that her human is simply inadequate in yet another way.
We love our kitties, even as they try to set higher goals for us and improve our performance.
Hard to believe, but this was one of the first photos I took of Mimi without one of her children, and it was only at about this time in our relationship that she began to be friends with me! It takes a long time for the “mom” to wear off.
Browse some rescued cats and kittens—browse here or visit PittsburghCAT!
All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in using one in a print or internet publication. If you are interested in purchasing a print of this image or a product including this image, check my Etsy shop 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!
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bean….dood…ewe haz everee one fooled !!! tee.. good job 🙂 ♥
I’m afraid you’re right, Tabbies!
Ninjas they are huh..lol..I love the Changing Light photo..
Bluemoonalone, you should see the little guy–from the very beginning he’s been so excited whenever he sees them! And for some reason I’ve always liked Changing Light too.