Daily Photo: Silly Studio Supurrvisor

I’m trying to paint and he does this. Sometimes my studio supurrvisor is more silly than serious.

As I organized photos I’d posted on IG I realized I had a little collection of the boys upstairs, so, enjoy!

Watchcats.

Some sort of negotiations going on here. Simba is guarding his doorway, while Giuseppe and Jelly Bean, and out of sight to the right, Mr. Sunshine, conspire to get in and steal their food.

Apparently some sort of nature program out in the neighborhood last night. I heard baby raccoons, a mama raccoon trying to round them up, some rustling, and is surprised robin in the spruce out front. I also note that the catnip garden was visited overnight.

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From Instagram

Mewsette is considering hunting some venison for dinner.

Mariposa’s hideaway.

Unimpressed with oat milk.

It’s a jelly bean sandwich between a slice of Bella and a slice of Sweet Basil.

From the garden and beyond

Lavender Bees

Lots of people on IG and FB said they enjoyed this video, so I’ll just share it here. Enjoy about 30 seconds of bees enjoying the lavender in my front yard, bird conversation overhead, a little breeze and the scent of lavender everywhere.

 

 

From around this date in past years

Garden Supurrvisor, 2021

Our garden is important to Mimi, not because she eats what grows there, and not only because she likes to prowl and nap there, though she does. It’s where Mimi and I met because she came over to hunt in my garden for the years she had kittens and lived largely outdoors. The very path she’s walking on here is the one where I photographed her in 2007, the day Lucy died, and just a couple weeks before she joined our feline family.

So the work I’m doing to restore it to a place of joy and productivity that still needs an attentive kitty to keep things in order is regularly scrutinized by Mimi. When I dismantled her beloved pile of wood that’s been there for two years she was not happy, except that I’d reconstructed it, pretty much, just a few feet away. Then I moved it again, and then I sorted it into several piles, as you can see in the photo above, and a little bit below. I keep letting things grow in certain areas, then I cut it down. Sigh, she’s gotten used to it and knows she has changed to inspect each time she goes outside.

I began a new section of it and got one portion of it finished on Monday, and it’s finally starting to look like a garden again. I probably won’t get it all done this year, but every time I get another portion done and Mimi approves, I’m happier with what’s happening in this little slice of happy place for me and Mimi. I will share notes soon.

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From Instagram

How a #littleblackcat can be cleverly camouflaged. #littlemimicat is in there somewhere.

“I’ve got her, Bella, she can’t go anywhere! She has to give us anything we ask for!”

“Basil, get over yourself.”

How am I supposed to work under conditions like this?

From the garden and beyond

Garden report: I planted some vegetable and flower seeds a week ago today, they actually sprouted by Wednesday! They are eager to be here. I am eager to see the tomatoes and cucumbers and dill and a whole bunch of flowers. I’m a little late, but everything will grow eventually.

Along with bent spoons, cat’s eye marbles, and little Hot Wheels model cars, another thing I’ve dug up in my garden was coal. Buckets of it over the years, from all over the yard. Pennsylvania’s bituminous coal. The hill I live on was deep-mined, shallow-mined, strip-mined and backyard-mined by people who lived here over the past century. Every year, more rises to the surface. I’ve used some for grilling, and I’ve used some to burn in the backyard in the autumn or spring when I want something to warm my hands. Other than that I gave buckets of it to the kids who thought it was really cool, and I gave a bucket or two to some artists to use for carvings. We’ll see what I do with it this year.

 

You can find more about each of these photos on bernadettestoday.com or click the photo to go to the post.

Last Light

My heart brims with longing at the last light of day.

At Dusk on the Trail

Clouds in Waiting

 

From around this date in past years

Backyard Adventures, and a Video, 2020

Mewsette’s big green eyes! Mewsette and Mimi enjoy a cool visit to the back yard before the sun comes over the trees.

The girls reconnoiter, and possibly plot.

Mewsette is on the prowl—for the best blades of grass.

Mimi looks longingly at the magic portal to the neighbor’s yard

And now Mewsette would like to share a bit of her pole dance routine. She’s done this every time she’s out there for years. (Sorry, you can hear my neighbor’s radio in the background.)

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I’m trying to get back up to speed on Instagram! I have so many flower and wildlife and garden and cityscape photos. Not quite there yet.

 

From around this date in past years

Caught!, 2019

I found Bella in the portal but managed to catch her before she left. I think she was considering getting away from it all for the weekend and was not happy. I really have to do something about that feline Narnia portal.

From Instagram

Boys, I know you’re happy, but I have work to do right now. If you don’t move voluntarily we will have to have the dreaded “if you like to eat” conversation.

Also, Mewsette is behind the computer on the cabinet to the right and Jelly Bean is on bins of mat board under my worktable to the left. I am surrounded and outnumbered.

Photos shared in past years

Sunshine’s Sunny Thoughts, 2018

Sunshine was enjoying the sunshine on his back, and watching reflections around the room. I like the dust motes around him. I considered this in black and white and it is very nice, but all the warm colors are what make it special.

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From Instagram

Mimi sez, “Stop complaining. A little rain never hurt anyone. You need more furs.” I’m only complaining because it’s too wet to work in the yard this morning.

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Other Photos Posted On or Around This Date…

Wordless Wednesday: Green Eyed Camouflage, 2017

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Kitty Cuddles, 2016

Now this was a sweet moment. The long-haired black cat is not Hamlet cuddling with Ophelia, it’s Basil. Ophelia was there first when everyone gathered for a big afternoon nap, but Basil naps there too. They are both such nice cats that they compromised and cuddled, but first they rubbed their faces together, exchanging their scent with each other. A nice act of acceptance, and another big step for Ophelia!

They quickly settled down to the business of napping, though, head to head.

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Shared on Facebook

Yes, I have a few days to catch up on again. I had quite an intense week last week and didn’t even manage to share photos on Facebook most days until the weekend.

MONDAY

 

SUNDAY

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Other Photos Posted On or Around This Date…

Cats-up Time!, 2015

Tee hee, that’s a pun on “catsup” or “catchup” or “ketchup”, but I’m not going to put any ketchup on my cats! Every once in a while there just aren’t enough hours in the day, and when this week looked as if the days might run long after Sunday’s clinic, though I had posts planned and drafted, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to post on time. Rather than post scattershot, fall asleep editing photos because I took too many, lose track of where I was and have way too many errors in my articles, I decided to just wait until the weekend when I could start “catching up” with my week and enjoy it all. I’ll be posting most of this past week’s articles today and tomorrow, then next week’s articles will be on time, in part because there is a certain important date next week.

Above, Charm finally settles into the basket and is totally cute!

Look who’s in the basket! Charm is killing me with cute. It’s just who she is, even after being abandoned and kittens. Haven’t seen a drop of tortitude, she is just all sweet.

I posted this photo on Facebook to a lot of likes and comments, and why not? This one is from my phone, and in the one I took with my good DSLR her head is turned just a bit to the left and she’s looking out the window. I think I need to paint this one anyway.

And that’s another consideration with fostering and what it does to my schedule…no daily sketches, falling behind on artwork, and the studio activities that involve the bathroom for water or washups or hanging things to dry don’t get done, or take way more time. So after a meet and greet and an adoption of Zorro and Crayola—together—integrating Charm and arranging a meet and greet for her, rearranging the upstairs now that the bathroom is open, catching up on artwork and handmade goods, a big design project and a second one the customer and I wanted to finish, sending out queries as always for new work and articles, I’m ready to get back to posting and my daily photos and sketches. And helping to catch another litter of kittens from where Charm and her kittens were found…

Get YOUR house full of foster cats and kittens during Adopt a Cat Month!

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Looking at Zorro Looking at Zorro

Nope, not a mistake, but you are literally looking at Zorro looking at herself, and a few other things. She is of course adopted now, but this is a post I prepared on Monday to feature her again for adoption, but didn’t have time to post it that day. The next day her adopters came and the rest is history! But I still wanted to share these lovely photos of the little girl who wears the mask.

The photos were taken with my phone and the light is chancy for that. Only one of them was clear and balanced, but I liked the other two and decided to play around with filters. Above I used a diffuse glow, converted to black and white, then added a yellow filter to soften and blend all the lighter toned elements of the photo so you could just focus on little Zorro and her reflection, along with the semi-circle of the mirror. Below is the clear one, and I love that I caught her reflection looking at the ball, which is actually just sitting on the wood.

And if I can get a photo of any of my cats looking at themselves in the mirror, I do my best! But this was so blurry it was painful to look at. Hmmm, if I were to do a quick color sketch, what would that look like? I used the dry brush filter with broad settings, a large brush and coarse detail settings, just catching the little one looking at herself!

Get your house full of foster cats and kittens during Adopt a Cat Month!

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And some goodbyes to some of Charm’s children

Bon Voyage

Sunday, yesterday, was clinic day, the day the five kittens would be spayed and neutered, and Splash’s new person would meet us there to take her home. Charm has been fussy about nursing the kittens for the past few days, they are so big compared to her and often she had to sit up or stand to fit them all to nurse at once. But just before dawn on Sunday she called them all over and they happily ran while she laid down and put her arm over little Splash.

Perhaps she nursed them at that time every day, which would not be unlikely knowing cat schedules for such things, or perhaps she knew. Mom cats can be very intuitive. Mimi taught me that. But soon enough after this I let Charm out of the room and packed the kittens into carriers, then let her back in and gave her a big breakfast so she could eat, alone, all day. When we came back, Higgins and Samwise would meet their person and go home in the evening, so this was really the last time we’d all be together.

Compare this to the first time she nursed them the day they all came here—how big they’ve grown!

What sweet memories.

I am a huge proponent of pediatric spay and neuter and have seen dozens of kittens come through just fine at clinics, and still be small enough to feel like little kittens to adopters while no one needs to worry about an unwanted litter when they get older. This was the first time the kittens were mine though, and they just seemed so small! But each of them was over two pounds, and only Zorro was slow to wake up. She was groggy and shivered a bit so I picked her up and held her against me and carried her around. One of the reasons my cats like me is that I am always warm, and Zorro soon stopped shivering and calmly looked around the room. In all we served 69 cats and kittens at the clinic, most of them stray and feral cats, plus kittens fostered by Pittsburgh CAT foster homes who will now be ready to go to their forever homes.

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Shared on Facebook on Sunday

First, Sheri and her son came to the clinic in the afternoon to take home little Splash. She has already sent many photos and a video of Splash being confident and affectionate and curious.

Bon voyage on your new life little Splash! Congratulations Sheri O’Leary on adopting one of the sweetest kittens I’ve seen in a long time. There isn’t anything I love more than sending a kitten I’ve rescued and fostered and loved to her excellent forever home. It’s like giving a gift to both the cat and the person–the gift of each other, and a lifetime of love in the bond between human and animal.

I headed home with Higgins and Samwise and Crayola and Zorro, and had a few cats to deliver to the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society on the way home. Everyone was glad to get back to their room and were eating and even playing right away.

Higgins and Samwise

Off to another adventure! And another incredible adopter! My two little hobbits, Samwise and Higgins, just went home with Kerri Laur. I can’t wait to see these two little fuzzballs grow up with a person who obviously adores them. What an incredible day, the culmination of being able to change the lives of these two beautiful kittens from homeless to cherished forever companions and see a human smile with happiness at meeting them and taking them home, that gift of each other.

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Today Zorro and Crayola are pretty relaxed in the bathroom, having it all to themselves!

Yes? What can we do for you? Crayola had been spoken for a couple of weeks ago and was also to have gone from the clinic to his new home, but that person adopted another kitten from Pittsburgh CAT in the meantime and in the rush I didn’t find out until I called her on Friday. But Zorro and Crayola will be seeing a potential family tomorrow and would be adopted together!

Zorro shows off her little incision.

Crayola puts his paw behind his head and goes back to sleep.

And Charm isn’t so insistent to get out of the bathroom, and even wanted back in. She is feeling pretty relaxed and hopefully I’ll be able to fatten her up a little more. She may also go to an offsite adoption place or to the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society for adoption too. But in either case, you’ll be seeing more of her here! And speaking of WPHS, I also had the chance to see Scarlett today! You’ll be seeing her again too.

Get your house full of foster cats and kittens during Adopt a Cat Month!

Oranges

Samwise and Crayola together in the sun, watching one of their sisters on the windowsill. They make a journey tomorrow.

I posted many photos on Facebook today of the kittens and Charm, and shared them below.

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Shared on Facebook

Kitten cuteness! Bittersweet, this is the last day we will all be together. Tomorrow they have the rite of passage for domestic cats–spayed and neutered at the clinic–and Splash, Samwise and Higgins will go to their forever homes. It’s been a great month, kittens, and you’ll be an inspiration for many things to come. (Splash asks Samwise, “What is spay and neuter?” “Maybe that’s what’s for second breakfast?” he answered.) PS: Crayola is still up for adoption!

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Crayola is very orange! He’s already a husky kitten and very adventurous and helpful, climbing the baby gate on the window and balancing on the bar, and helping to make the faucet work! He loves beat the crap out of fleecy mouses and chase his tail and wrestle with his siblings but he’ll always take some time out for love and kisses. He is orange all over–nice red stripes on his face and legs and big swirls on his sides, and creamy orange in between. He’s probably going to be a big boy, and lots of fun!

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Second breakfast, elevensies, lunch, I’m fattening them up in preparation for taking food away tonight. Good to see all those colors together too.

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