Friday, March 29, 2024
Bellablack catscat photographsdaily photo

Daily Photo: How to Test a Watermelon With a Cat

Bella has to inspect everything.
Bella has to inspect everything.

Bella has first right of refusal to anything I intend to eat or use for any purpose. I carried the watermelon out of the refrigerator and she bobbed her nose at me to say, “Bring that here, I need to inspect it. It may be something I want.”

It wasn’t. This test of a watermelon using a cat will only tell you if the cat wants some or not.

It’s been hot. We are feeling silly.

Kitty things

The kitty trim on a very old curtain on my basement door, and the pawprint pattern of spots on the floor made by the eyelet holes in the flowers. Basement door closed this morning, too hot, too much sun.

Kitty curtain and light pattern.
Kitty curtain and light pattern.

I purchased these curtains when I lived in the house I rented before I moved here and used them on my kitchen door. The colors are the colors I used in that kitchen: navy blue, red, green and yellow, primary and tertiary colors for a bright space.

In this house, I have the valance on my kitchen window. The dark area is actually navy blue with tiny white polka dots and when I moved here I hung the valance over the sink and the curtain on the door, then got some navy and white polka dot valances and made red bows to use on the dining room window. When I moved the kitchen door down to the basement and replaced it with a 15-lite door I moved one of the kitty valances to that door and kept the curtain on the door I moved to the basement.

I associate the curtain so strongly with the cats who lived with me in the other house that, although this curtain is getting ragged, I will always use them somewhere. It’s one of those attachments, I guess.

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What other photos have I posted on or around this date?

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Sweet Basil, 2016
Sweet basil
Sweet basil

Basil took the chance on a nap in the sun, and it was actually okay for a while. I had the chance to enjoy all the colors and warm and cool tones in his fluffy fur, from the velvety black areas to the warm chocolate sunny areas and the blue highlights.

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From Facebook and Instagram

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Two Cool Cats

Hamlet and Ophelia on the bedroom windowsill, keeping cool.

Two Cool Cats
Two Cool Cats

 

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What other photos have I posted on or around this date?

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Bella’s Belly, 2015
Bella sunning her belly.
Bella sunning her belly.

Bella naps in the little bit of sun that comes in the dining room window, careful to make sure she toasts evenly by putting her belly up to the sun. She always curls her back toes when she sleeps, it’s incredibly cute.

I also liked the composition here, Bella’s gentle curve and the green glass platter above her, and the circular lamp in the upper left. The light had so much color I decided to posterize it to minimize the shapes and see what happened.

Bella sunning her belly, posterized.
Bella sunning her belly, posterized.

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Posted on Facebook

These first few are actually from yesterday when Charm discovered the top of the door.

And then this. The little street girl aspires to higher places. Charmee is moving up.

So what are you looking at?
So what are you looking at?
Just try to get me up here.
Just try to get me up here.
Great view of the squirrels from up here.
Great view of the squirrels from up here.

And from today…

Another exciting channel on CatTV: “Back Yard Basement View”, enough room for everyone to watch (only six are shown). From top, Mimi, Bella, Charm, Bean, Giuseppe, and Basil behind.

Basement door view.
Basement door view.

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What other photos have I posted on or around this date?

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Eleven Black Cats—a Free for Ferals Clinic, 2014
Four hissy kittens!
Four hissy kittens!

This weekend also held a “free for ferals” clinic hosted by the Homeless Cat Management Team, my chosen charity if I win any of the three Petties awards for which I am a finalist. The clinic was intended to serve cats living in colonies outdoors since the surgery and rabies vaccine are free and colony managers could take care of lots of cats at no charge. I had wanted to leave this weekend open for this clinic, both trapping on Saturday and transporting and volunteering at the clinic on Sunday, but Deb had offered the Family Pet Expo.

I decided I could still do some of the work if I could get help from others. I work with an incredible group of people, and I did get the help I needed. One woman on the other side of Pittsburgh just needed traps and she would do the rest, so I asked about traps, everyone organized who had what and Debby Nicola said the woman lived very close to her, so she dropped them off.

Then there was the mama kitty, Liam II (yes, Liam) and her four babies who had been born the day before the last clinic and while I had the babies in hand I was not able to trap Liam that day. Here they are below in May, as tiny newborns.

four newborn kittens
Four newborn kittens.

And their mom.

black and white kitty
The mama kitty.

On the day we had tried to trap her, we had placed the kittens in a box behind the trap in the garage where she’d run to hide, hoping to lure her into the trap. No go. We put the kittens in a box in the garage hoping she’d come back to care for them and they weren’t seen again until just before the clinic. Both mom and the kittens needed to be trapped, which can be tricky, and the mom would return but the kittens would go to a foster home. The kittens are very mobile and they and mom are wary. Kittens are often trapped in smaller traps called squirrel traps, or caught with a drop net. I put out the request for someone to trap them and Dr. Michelle Elgersma offered to do the honors on Saturday. Success! At the top are four hissy kittens! hhhhh!!! hhhhhh!!! pfffffffttt!!! pfffffffttt!!! pfffffffttt!!! They are related to Salem and Sabrina, although one looks just like her mom, and I’m sure they will be friendly, sleek and beautiful in just a couple of months.

Below is yet another black mom cat with kittens!

three black cats
Mom cat with two of her kittens.

This black mom cat and five kittens were from a person who had waited too long to get the mom cat spayed and has many cats.

three black kittens
The other three kittens.

Susanne Lewis, who helped rescue Bernie and his mom and currently fosters them, offered to organize the woman the night before and get them to me in the morning.

Then I had to find someone to bring the cats back to the area—thanks to Margo Cicci Wisniewski—and Susanne Lewis for meeting her and distributing all the cats back to where they belonged.

two orange kittens in carrier
Two friendly kittens ready for spay and neuter and adoption.

This sort of teamwork goes on every day with trading traps and arranging transportation, medical care and rescuing cats from wherever they are. And this was just the 11 cats I was working with plus the four for the woman who needed the traps! Imagine what else went on behind the scenes. I didn’t get any photos while I was at the clinic because I was busy unpacking food I’d brought to donate and eating doughnuts, but I did get the orange kittens above and an array of traps with cats in them.

cats in traps
Cats in traps ready to be checked in.

The clinic served between 85 and 90 cats, began with registrations about 7:30 in the morning and Margo was on her way home after 9:00 at night. Thanks to all the volunteers, veterinary technicians and veterinarians who put in a very long day to help stop the overpopulation of cats.

cats in traps
Cats in traps waiting in line!

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Two Other Kittens

two kittens
Two new kittens, Lindsay Joyce and Elizabeth Bennet, or Lizzie!

Two kittens went through our rescue group who did not go to the clinic. A young woman who lives south of Pittsburgh had been rescuing cats and kittens from a farm near her, and recently found two kittens in a barrel on the farm. They were dirty and had goopy eyes but did not look weak or malnourished, and were frightened but not unfriendly. She could not take any more cats home and was desperate to find a place to take them. They were to go to Debby Nicola since many of her fosters will be leaving. Maggie May is being adopted, her kittens are looking for homes, and kittens Cookie and Jelly Bean will go to ARL through the Foster Finder program this week.

The young woman lives not far from where I would be at the Pet Expo, and Debby was planning to stop down to see me there. I mentioned that they should just meet at the expo to save themselves some travel time ans so they did…caught trafficking in cats once again! But these two sweet little girls are cleaned up and well fed already, and heading to the vet.

Thanks to everyone who spends weekends helping rescue cats out of bad situations, getting them spayed and neutered, feeding them, socializing them, showing them for adoption, and just for caring. We can’t save them all, but we can help as many as we can, hundreds every year.


Art and Gifts featuring cats you know! Visit Portraits of Animals

AfterDinnerNap-Etsy~~~

Feline Photos from Portraits of Animals!
Bella's eyes certainly have it!
Bella’s eyes certainly have it!

The eyes really have it! It’s the most extraordinary thing about black cats, the way their eyes just glow against their fur, no matter what color their eyes happen to be. And Bella has those round eyes in that round face, and if that wasn’t enough she was sitting with her tail curved just so. I did all I could to have her look directly up at me without standing up, and I got my wish. Though formerly feral, Bella is a very talented feline model! 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

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Wednesday: Commissioned Portrait or Featured Artwork

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Friday: Book Review, Health and Welfare, Advocacy

Saturday: Your Backyard Wildlife Habitat, Living Green With Pets, Creating With Cats

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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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