Daily Photo: Watching
Bella sits quietly at the front door, watching whatever is out there. At this moment it was a big fat robin on the sidewalk, flipping over leaves and debris to get to the tasty bugs underneath. Apparently it was a good performance because Bella did not move for whole minutes.
This was not taken at the same time, but it’s what Bella looks like from the outside when she watches out the door. Hard to believe the weather variations on this date through the years!
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From Facebook and Instagram
I’m catching up on some photos I shared while I was AWOL building my site.
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Rainy Day
Giuseppe and Mewsette, March 13
Mimi in the Rain
So it’s drizzling. Mimi hasn’t been outside for two really nice days, she’ll take what she can get. Look at that happy tail! A little drizzle never did a kitty any harm, just made her furs and mine a little extra frizzy. March 13
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What other photos have I posted on or around this date?
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Sunworshipper, 2015
I took way too many photos of Smokie in the sun here not to use a few different ones. Here I was trying to capture all the shadows splayed on the top of the wardrobe from the lace curtain, Smokie’s profile and the window, but keep the focus on Smokie’s profile. I also angled it to keep the palette limited in golds and sable, though there’s a bit of green reflected in there too. Smokie is learning to be a good model through my many experiments!
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What other photos have I shared around this date?
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Looking for Spring, 2014
Mimi and I went out into the back yard to look for the spring that arrived today.
Mimi sat on the deck rail and surveyed our yard for quite some time, looking for signs of spring, but only found some wan sunshine.
We looked in the garden.
I’d left all the plants standing for the animals to nibble through the winter and brush for cover to find protection, and tomato stakes and plant cages for birds to land on when the world is covered in snow and ice. Mimi rubbed her face on everything, and we noticed that our bunny, Hester, liberally fertilized our garden. Usually I would have set up my cold frame and planted lettuce, and planted peas by the fence and potato sets in the sunniest bed by now, but the ground temperature is too cold, and in many places it’s still frozen. I hope this will take care of some of the insects who’ve been able to overwinter with our recent mild winters.
We looked in the compost pile.
I don’t have a bin for compost at the moment—that was crushed when the neighbor’s tree came down last May, and it’s a project for this spring. But the pile is alive with not only good soil bacteria but also little critters who appreciate the heat it generates and the occasional tasty snack they find. My brush piles for wildlife also line the fence, stacks of twigs and branches birds and little bits can climb through covered over by a heavy, waterproof covering of last year’s dry leaves. Mimi and I held very still and quiet to hear rustles and peeps and squeaks and whispers coming from all along the fence, yet not one thing moved.
Buddy yelled at us the whole time we were outside.
Buddy, the bird feeder destroyer.
Mimi told him to get out of her tree.
I think she also told him to watch his step or he’d be cat food.
We did find Vernal Equinox, but she is very tired from her journey and will rest a while under a blanket of leaves.
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The Big Branch, 2010
Most of the snow is melted out there, and new snow falling is pretty but not amounting to much as Mimi and I continue to “look for spring”, but four years ago this is what it looked like—nearly a foot of snow still to melt though it was warm and dripping, and that big branch had fallen from one of the neighbor’s maple trees and immediately became one of Cookie’s favorite places.
Cookie was my longest-standing garden kitty and browsing photos I often encounter her interacting with the yard, including these from March 2010, as the snow slowly melted after a series of heavy storms in February and on our first excursion outdoors in over a month she first discovered “the big branch” that fell from high up in one of the trees from the weight of the snow, its heavy end landing right next to the picnic table and the branches leaning on the fence. While I had every intention of cutting it to pieces and using them to trim my flower beds, Cookie immediately stepped up onto it and walked all over it; the branch would be her second favorite hangout for the next two years, and also became her step up onto her first favorite hangout, the picnic table.
Even though I shoveled paths into the snow it was weeks before it melted down to the soil, and at 17 Cookie finally found that walking on snow for any length of time was just too uncomfortable on her tiny tortie paws and she would wait on the deck or the steps for me.
One day enough snow had melted that she decided to follow me around as I filled bird feeders and Cookie explored her strange new world.
One of the most endearing things I always enjoyed about Cookie was her fearless curiosity. If there was something new, she explored it—a box in the house, my art materials, a visitor, Cookie immediately and wholeheartedly acquainted herself with it.
Curiosity is legendarily a cat’s province, but a reason to consider this a little extra special in Cookie was that she always had difficulty walking just from weakness in her hind legs, likely from her early deprivation. Even when younger she couldn’t run or jump very high and while still young quit jumping altogether to climb step by step onto things.
This never stopped her, and it didn’t even slow her down because she got herself everywhere she needed to go, and her ingenuity at finding a stepping stone path of different levels anywhere in the house to get anywhere she wanted to go is something I’ll always remember. She never complained, just happily made her way around things; as she grew older I surreptitiously added things she could step on in every room.
So I look at her on this log at the age of 17 with fine balance but without a whole lot of strength in those legs. She walked down the muddy path in the snow, met the branch and happily stepped up on it and looked around, took a few more steps up and looked again, then walked out as far as she dared, then walked back. She was also wise in knowing exactly how far she could go, literally, and still be able to get herself safely back to where she needed to be.
The branch fell at just the right time because the previous year she had been able to pull herself up onto the picnic bench, but it was an increasing struggle. The first thing the next spring the branch had fallen and I guess she thought it had been provided for her. She used it from then until just a few days before she died to both sit on, scratch on and step up onto the bench.
“It’s just a tree branch, and I’m a cat. What’s the big deal? I’ll still be doing this years from now.”
And in browsing yet another folder on my computer I found a folder of photos I’d been gathering to use for another totally separate blog entitled “animal photos” where I’d feature my cats and all the animals who lived out in my back yard. I’d forgotten all about that plan, and I need another blog like I need another cat (I always said that when I had nine or ten) so these photos, prior to my daily photo days, sat in the folder. The photo below is Cookie on the same branch, but a month later, in April. What a difference in the yard! And Cookie looks so happy.
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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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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