Daily Photo: Prowling the Autumn Garden
Mimi followed me along the path to the driveway as I took a bag to the garbage cans. I knew she would and had my camera ready. I love to catch her prowling through the autumn garden. It’s such a cat thing, and it’s one of the things I’ve always enjoyed about watching cats. Learning their behavior and understanding why they would still prowl and stalk and hunt when they just had breakfast, especially a cat like Mimi who lived largely outdoors for a while—you’d think she’d be over that at her age. But they keep in practice. You never know when you’ll need to start hunting again. And it’s always good to know all the things that are in your territory.
I can’t bring a full outdoor sensory experience indoors, but watching Mimi in the basement as I moved things around and brought out new cat beds and boxes for winter, I saw her exploring her environment indoors with the same intent as she did outdoors. Of course, there’s always time for a little meditation on the steps.
Back in the back yard, Mewsette is strolling around in the sun. Apparently Mimi told her to go amuse herself instead of tagging along. Mewsette doesn’t seem to have the graceful quiet of Mimi. She enjoyed her walkabout, though, and is headed for a roll in the sun on her concrete slab by the basement door, and possibly a pole dance around the laundry pole as well.
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From Instagram
No posts since last Thursday, though I’ll have photos to share of the above-mentioned work in the basement which everyone joined in. I had brought so much to the basement from my studio upstairs when the boys wanted to help me paint, and then I matted and framed a dozen or more each of photos and prints for shows, some of which sold, and the rest needs to be stored somewhere unless I find a magic wall somewhere in my house to hang them. But I consolidated and shuffled things around, and was finally able to move around more easily and reach more of my materials and equipment, and I cleaned off my work table so that I can use the whole thing. I also had practically all-day conversations with friends and family just to catch up, framed my large abstract sunset for that customer, and missed out on posting all weekend and even earlier on Monday. And autumn is being lovely and will likely be fleeting, and I think I may play hooky tomorrow afternoon and run off to the woods to paint. So just bear with me, you and the kitties, I’ll catch up when I can!
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From the back yard and beyond.
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 Artwork from Portraits of Animals!
Mimi in the formal garden, enjoying our imaginary outdoors. 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!
