Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Bellacatsdaily photofoster catsgiuseppejelly beanMariposamewsettemimimr. sunshineSienna

Daily Photo: A Crinkly Bag Does the Trick

Seven cats in the kitchen.
Seven cats in the kitchen.

Just get a crinkly bag, any bag will do, and they’re all yours.

Seven cats in the kitchen.
Seven cats in the kitchen.

This is what happens when I’m busy and occupied as I have been for all of September. Even when I’m busy with design work, I’m also sitting in one place for a period of time. This month I’ve been all over the place. I know it’s a little disturbing for them, and for me too. It’s been fun, though! I’m ready for a break, and I thnk my fine felines are too.

~~~

From Instagram

A little video of Giuseppe and Mewsette. Brother and sister cats co-groom for a while before snuggling down for a mid-day nap. I love being able to get these little video snippets. I love sharing my photos, but sometimes getting to share little moments like this one is special to me.

 

From around this date in past years

Time for Sleeping Undercover, 2019

Giuseppe Undercover
Giuseppe Undercover

I walked past my bedroom and thought, “Darn, I still need to make the bed!” Then I stopped to look. Giuseppe is famous around here for totally unmaking my bed to cuddle in underneath the quilt. It’s still feeling pretty warm to me, but I guess Giuseppe is practicing for colder afternoons, and looking darned cute at it too.

His mom came in to see what he was doing.

What's he doing under there?
What’s he doing under there?

Then if there was space under there for her.

Mimi checks to see if there's more room.
Mimi checks to see if there’s more room.

From Instagram

Friday

All 10 #cats are in my messy morning kitchen, only 8 are in this photo, and only 7 of those are #blackcats. Are you lucky enough on #fridaythe13th to find them all?

Saturday

Stop doing housework, we need to go outside now!

Saturday

Something malevolent is living in the back of my cabinet. Mr. Sunshine is pleased to give that impression.

Wednesday

Negotiating today’s best nap spot — snuggling into the dishtowel drawer.

 

Photos from years past

Mimi and the Angry Rabbit, 2018

Mimi and the angry bunny.
Mimi and the angry bunny.

I’m not sure if Hester the ceramic bunny is angry because Mimi is in her space or if it was too hot for her too. Either way Hester has looked like that since she was guarding the petunias in my mother’s yard decades ago. I took this photo back in August when I was photographing things for my Panhandle Trail exhibit. Of course, Mimi directs my photo shoots, especially outdoors, and she found her way under the chair with Hester to watch me photographing on the side steps. It was much too hot for her to be working at all, let alone anywhere not in the shade. But at least she doesn’t look angry about it!

. . . . . . .

Photos I’ve shared on or around this date

Kitty Things, 2017
Cat figurine.
Cat figurine.

Above, an Impressionist figurine of a person sitting and holding a cat. I like loose sculptures as much as I like loose paintings, and I’ve always like this series of figurines. They are difficult to photograph because they are small and they are black, so I always try to catch them in good varied light.

I was a speaker at Pet Memorial Sunday and also photographed the event. We always decorate with cat and dog and bunny and bird and other animal figurines and urns and I like to capture those because I like them, and so that I can use them on Deb’s website and with my articles here and other places. I also use them for inspiration.

Below, a pretty kitty figurine in the grass, just waiting to greet you. Kitty figurines are another idea I’ve been working on lately.

Kitty sculpture.
Kitty sculpture.

. . . . . . .

Photos I’ve shared on or around this date

Up in the Treehouse, 2016
Up in the treehouse.
Up in the treehouse.

Up in the treehouse in the morning, with two of my silhouettes. It’s what I call my studio in the summer with all the trees outside the window, and even in other seasons when the branches are bare. In the morning it’s very cool and leafy and it feels private, and literally above it all, just like being up in a tree in a secret place looking out on the neighborhood. Apparently Mimi and Giuseppe are keeping an eye on the neighbors going to work and school.

. . . . . . .

On Instagram and Facebook

Mewsette enjoys a good stretch in the sun and scratch on the basement cat tree on this wonderful late summer morning.

Mewsette's Morning
Mewsette’s Morning

Meanwhile, later…

Oops, Mimi is napping in my greeting cards, can’t fill my orders until she wakes up! Cats’ rules!

Mimi naps among the boxes of cards.
Mimi naps among the boxes of cards.

. . . . . . .

Photos I’ve shared on or around this date

Daily Photo: On An Adventure
Mimi goes on an adventure.
Mimi goes on an adventure.

“Every day should be an adventure. Mimi and I explored a small section of the neighbor’s yard.”

I posted this on Facebook this morning, and decided it needed its own post rather than added into another. I like the composition right away, Mimi walking through a passage or sorts; I had posted one like this earlier this year as well. I love those two trees, the one with the “toes” is a maple and the other is a tulip poplar, each at least 70 feet tall, and I study them all the time, looking at them out my kitchen window and door in all seasons, and sketched and photographed that little scooped opening through the trees. Because they are so tall it’s very shady in my yard, but the neighbor’s yard in the morning is full of sun and the contrast adds to the feel of a passageway. When I saw her heading there I positioned myself to get the angle I wanted, then followed her. Then the first of the colored autumn leaves with the rich green of summer, the rough bark of the trees, the light, and little Mimi going fearlessly into new territory. Well, sort of. She still knows the neighborhood pretty well. Adding the vignette shading around the outside just added to it. I may do something with this at some time.

And some days I just have too many photos and have to post more.

. . . . . . .

Photos I’ve shared on or around this date

Smokie and Mirrors, 2014
black kitten on windowsill
Who is that kitten?!

There’s a kitten in here!

So Smokie discovered “up” this morning. I’ve been a little surprised that a kitten his age wasn’t already up on the windowsill. I’m accustomed to kittens half his age hanging from curtain rods, yet he’d only begun to explore the tub. I heard some strange sounds that I might have attributed to Fatso the Squirrel running around on the roof or climbing the trees and making the branches tap against the walls, but I didn’t see anything from the windows. Then I realized I was hearing it through the ceiling.

I went upstairs to find several things on the floor and Smokie on the windowsill. Time to move a lot of things out of the way…It’s really fun to see him up here where I’ve seen so many other cats through the years.

black kitten on windowsill
Checking the weather–a little cool this morning!

. . . . . . .

Black Cat Kitchen Ornament, 2013
Black Cat Kitchen Ornament, every home should have one!
Black Cat Kitchen Ornament, every home should have one!

I have found this Black Cat Kitchen Ornament to be quite beautiful and easily adaptable to any conditions in my kitchen, whether I’m cooking or canning, putting away groceries, washing dishes, working on my computer or pushing papers as I often do in the kitchen. While this highly flexible and mobile item adequately holds cookbooks open and keeps recipes and other papers from blowing away, I haven’t found a real purpose for the elegant and realistic sculpture yet, but I can’t imagine my kitchen without it.

Mimi says, “Perhaps my method of subtle supervision isn’t working.”

I must always leave space for Mimi in whatever it is I’m doing. Not even the box on the table will work—that’s too far away. She must be as close to me as possible. I am honored. And a little crowded.

 

. . . . . . .

All Cats on Desk, 2011
 Seven cats on my desk.
Seven cats on my desk.

Okay, there were the five yesterday, and today I had the opportunity to get all seven, which is the typical morning arrangement. They’re not as nicely grouped, but that’s partly because I ad to stand up to take the photo, which caused Mimi and Jelly Bean to also get up and get ready to accompany me wherever I was going.

Two torties on my lap.
Two torties on my lap.

Cookie had been trying to get back on my lap, but I’d never be able to get up then. She and Kelly had been on my lap, and I was trying to keep them both on the keyboard shelf so that I could quickly stand up and take the photo.

From the back this time are Mimi and Kelly on the shelf; on the desk are Jelly Bean, Mr. Sunshine, and Mewsette and Giuseppe cuddled in a heart shape. Cookie is on my keyboard shelf, getting ready to jump down to my chair since it’s nice and warm after me sitting in it.

I think the heart shape cuddling is usually Mewsette’s idea. In every photo I have of two of them cuddling in a heart shape, Mewsette is one of the kitties!

Nonetheless, this is what my mornings are like. I gave up keeping my desk neat because anything that is set on it is moved around for kitty comfort. I’m actually looking for a new desk, shelves and whole workspace in this little corner with lots of cubbyholes to tuck things out of kitty reach, so I’m not too concerned at the moment.

As I said about yesterday’s photo (from 2011) (and don’t miss the update from just yesterday, 2012!), I’m sure they all like me and enjoy spending time with me but I know their dedication to my desk has to do with the “kitty keep-warm lamps”. During the summer I don’t use the task lights very often because the room is generally bright enough, and the lights are just too darned hot. As the air cools and the sun drops down lower in the sky, my office is suddenly darker with all the trees outside. From then I turn the lights on, and if I ever needed a passive cat-herding apparatus it would be these lights. I have actually set up lights elsewhere just to see what happens, and they are immediately popular.

. . . . . . .

Two Kellies for the Price of One, 2010
Two Kellies for the price of one.
Two Kellies for the price of one.

Kelly bathes in front of the mirror on top of the tallest books in the cat book library, unaware that another tortie girl is bathing behind her, sort of.

Kelly makes the sweetest disgusting noises when she’s bathing. She’s talkative but a little timid, and it’s always a surprise to hear the snorts and slurps coming from her, knowing this neat and precise personality, as she keeps her fur impeccably clean. She can overdo it though; being timid, when she can’t decide if she should run and hide she just has a bath, which I call, “When in doubt, wash” or “Fight or flight or wash my face”.

She does love to be petted and gives big, deep nose rubs, but as soon as it’s over she has to begin to bathe her entire body all over again. I try not to be insulted that she feels I’ve polluted her body with my human cooties.

Also being particular about her appearance and surroundings, I’ve always thought that Kelly, a very speckled tortoiseshell, was horrified at all those irregular spots all over her body and was always trying to organize them into some kind of order.


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AfterDinnerNap-Etsy

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charcoal sketch of cat watching
“Bella Birdwatching” revised photo reproduction (more accurate), black and white charcoal on gray toned paper, 5.5″ x 8.5″ © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

So Bella is an avid birdwatcher. She spends long hours by the big north window watching the birds at the feeder. I spend long hours studying her profile while she does so. I decided to finally sketch her and thought of the toned paper with white and black charcoal, and I also added a bit of pale yellow green in her eye. Read more and purchase.



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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:

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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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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.

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