Daily Photo: Listening Without Moving
Basil is saturated with sun and unmoving, but he has an ear turned in my direction. If he is actually listening, only he knows.
I, however, was enamored of his saturation with the sun because of the way it caught his fur and whiskers in highlights. I quietly walked around him and took quite a few photos, but right here I really wanted him to turn toward me ever so slightly. He did not. I took the photo anyway. It may be a little confusing, but cats are puzzles anyway.
This must have been a day for Basil in past years. You’ll find plenty of him all the way down this post.
From around this date in past years
Basil in Patterns, 2022
With this wonderful temperate weather we can let the sun shine in! There isn’t much that kitties like better. And the soft rounded shape of Basil on the cabinet overlaid with a pattern of the muntin bar shadows is a nice semi-abstract counterpoint. The sun works for me too, as it caresses my kitties in a very inspirational way.
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From Instagram
Nearly symmetrical sunrise girls.
Reliving a memory from her distant past perhaps? Years before Mimi joined our household, she ran the neighborhood, though she was an “owned” cat, and my garden was one of her favorite hunting spots. I saw her here frequently, and there she is all these years later standing in one of the same spots I’d seen her in then. She even wore a bell collar in those days. The difference now is that she owns the place, she is spayed, and she has a human to boss around.
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From the back yard and beyond.
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From Portraits of Animals
Deserted Cottages, a Long-ago Image, and a Childhood Friend
From around this date in past years
Album Dropping Soon, 2021
It’s a girl group, and they know how to handle themselves. They are eartipped, with belly tattoos. The panther is Bruiser, the Siamese is Lucky, the tortie is Grandma. Have a little fun. Their album is dropping soon. What’s the name of their group, and what’s the name of the recording?
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From Instagram
No posts yet today! Typical overloaded Friday. We’ll catch up with IG on Monday.
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From the back yard and beyond.
Same here, plenty of photos, no posts!
From around this date in past years
Find Bella in This Picture, 2018
Can you find Bella in the photo above? She’s impurrsonating a handmade cat to fit into the shop display in my office. If you’re not entirely familiar with my cats, I’ll tell you right off that the big black kitty on the left is Giuseppe, who thinks he’s the subject of this photo shoot.
Purrhaps the photo below will help.
That should make it a little bit easier, and possibly you’ve found her already.
If not, you can’t miss her, below…
Isn’t she darling? Not bad for a formerly feral kitty who wasn’t so sure about people. She loves attention and is quite the model now!
I knew when I set up this display that my cats’ reaction would determine whether or not it remained in place. I set up the shelves first and everyone slept in them. After they got tired of that I started adding larger items in the display first, then filled in with smaller things, including the jewelry display. Bella was quietly very excited and inhabited the area for about two weeks off and on as in her photos in the last two weeks’ Marketplace posts where she is posing with the Bella! bags behind her, and of her modeling, sort of, the handmade cards and notebooks.
Yes, I held my breath as she wove herself in and out of the area around the jewelry display and gave it a little more support at the top so it can’t tip forward. She loves it back there, and she visits the display at least once each day. I’ll have more photos of her in there as well.
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Photos I’ve shared on or around this date
Total Relaxation, 2016
I’d say they’re pretty relaxed. Hamlet sleeps in the basket in every position of blissful abandon; here you see his toes at one end like today’s Wordless Wednesday, photographed at the same time, and one front paw stretched as far as it will go at the other end of the basket. Then Ophelia with all her fluff sleeping with her head upside down looks like a stuffed toy. She never gets on the basket and I’m kind of glad because I’d probably faint from her cuteness if she did.
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Facebook and Instagram
Fitness Monitors
No, you still have 10 minutes to go.
My fitness monitors observing my morning ride on my exercise bicycle in the basement.
Ophelia is today’s studio supervisor. She looks unhappy, but it’s just that she couldn’t catch the stink bug.
This pretty green-eyed housepanther will never have to worry about kittens again–after at least a half dozen attempts by some of our best cat trappers and at least four litters of kittens, her caretaker finally managed to trick her into the trap.
Pregnant with her fifth litter, totally trap-wise and eluded four of our best. She was finally tricked into being trapped, and she’ll never have to worry about kittens again.
Ophelia and Basil keep watch over the kitty in the trap on the front porch. Something about this whole trap setup feels familiar to each of them.
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Photos I’ve shared on or around this date
Daily Photo: Smokie Meets the Ninjas! 2014
Remember that Basil’s name was Smokie when he first came here.
These are actually from Saturday, September 13 with a little bit from Thursday, September 11 thrown in, but–if you couldn’t tell–I’ve been a little pressed for time lately and also having issues with Smartphone photos and syncing and all sorts of annoying technical stuff and haven’t been able to download and edit photos in a timely fashion. I finally dug through them all and pulled the best ones.
I let Smokie out of his room for the first time on Thursday evening, and just wanted to let him explore on his own without any of the ninjas present so he could get his bearings. The last thing I’d want is for Smokie to revert back to being fearful so I want to be as careful as possible, gave him a pat down with his Trauma Free flower essence and let him go. But Giuseppe has been curious about the little guy from the beginning and hopped over the baby gate at the top of the stairs. Giuseppe was gentle and curious as Smokie went from cautious to stretching his wings and racing through both rooms. Giuseppe followed and stationed himself where Smokie had to run past and there were no swats or hisses, and there were nose taps and even a forehead lick. Here are the photos from when the two met.
Then the next chance I had was Saturday morning for a longer session, and this time Giuseppe and Bean were there, then Sunshine and Mewsette joined very shortly after, and even Mimi came up. I followed through with my plan to hand out catnip toys to everyone, and to hand out treats as appropriate to make it a happy time for everyone. It all went very well for nearly an hour as Smokie ran and ran and played with my apron while adults enjoyed catnip, Giuseppe and Bean played with the kid, Sunshine hissed, Mewsette watched, and Mimi rolled her eyes. In the end everyone was exhausted and kind of fell asleep where they were. Sorry for the lack of captions—but enjoy the photos!
Art and Gifts featuring cats you know! Visit Portraits of Animals
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Feline Photos from Portraits of Animals!
Basil must have thought the yellow basket was a gift for him because he owned it from the day it came into the house, which was the day I was running errands and saw it…atop someone’s trash pile. Read more, and purchase.
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!
He is totally relaxed! So good to see.
Oh Basil, I can tell that sun sure feels so good!