Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Daily Photo: Warm Weather

Mimi's sunbath
Mimi’s sunbath

I’m on the fence about a 65-degree day in Pennsylvania at the end of December. But all the felines loved having the basement door open for a few hours, and Mimi enjoyed her unexpected sunbath outside. I certainly enjoyed watching them.

Five at the door.
Five at the door.

 

The rest of Boxing Day

We’re still celebrating #boxingdayforcats but yesterday we received a package of gifts from our family in Savannah! Most of it was for the human, but kitties got their new scratcher first and also a new BOX. You’d think they didn’t get all the gifts this year!

December 12

Is Mr. Mouse part of my holiday decorations?

In the shed I lifted the bag of colored Easter grass to get to the box of Christmas stuff beneath. Bag had so many holes all the plastic eggs fell out and a little field mouse showed up on the shelf looking very distressed, then ran to hide. Oh, no, what if she had a family in there? I put the bag with the grass back on the shelf.

Carried the box up to the porch and started distributing the sparkly blue balls, and suddenly Mr. Mouse appears in the bottom, looking desperate. I took him back to the shed to reunite him with Mrs. Mouse, laid the box on its side on the ground and he was out of there. Hope I haven’t ruined their holidays.

I actually think Mr. Mouse is a brown field mouse and so they likely know each other, but aren’t cohabitating.

. . . . . . .

Photos from around this date in previous years

Giuseppe Works So Hard, 2018

black cat sleeping
Giuseppe, hard at work.

Giuseppe takes his job in a retail shop very seriously, and that makes him very tired. Still, he manages to make it through each day.

~~~

I have some catching up to do, again!

December 10

Quite a gathering in the kitchen last night. Great way to warm up and get a purring massage on tired hands.

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

 

December 18

Look which two brave girls stayed in the kitchen while unknown humans were in the very next room! Twice! A few days ago they were hidden in the basement, but they’ve been a little braver each day as we’ve had visitors. Mariposa has been curious but Sienna is painfully shy. Sienna is also fond of the rice sock I heat up for my back, she thinks it’s made for her because it fits her purrfectly.

Sienna and Mariposa in the kitchen.
Sienna and Mariposa in the kitchen.

Mimi may be small but she casts a big shadow, especially on a clear sunny afternoon. Big dreams for a little kitty.

Mimi and her shadow.
Mimi and her shadow.

December 19

Another sunny afternoon inspires a lot of cheek and chin rubbing on warm, rough edges of things. Yes, Mimi owns it all.

Mimi in the sun.
Mimi in the sun.

December 22

My little sweet potatoes, including the actual potatoes.

Sweet potatoes.
Sweet potatoes.

This is what my studio looks like now, well, about a third of it. The rest of it is actually piled higher. The cats complained because there was nowhere for them to sit. Guess I know what my next project is.

My studio.
My studio.

December 23

Waiting in line to sit on our visitor’s lap. Mimi had it first, Giuseppe is enjoying now, and Basil is next in line. Everyone is getting spoiled with all the extra attention as I’ve been preoccupied. Thanks Mary Fink for making them even more happy than last week when you brought a bag full of treats and tiny mouse toys! Mary also had the chance to pet Mariposa! No photos of that, but the little social butterfly did very well interacting with a stranger. She’ll be greeting guests next. Hope everyone is having a happy Christmas Eve Eve!

Mary with the kitties.
Mary with the kitties.

What’s that strange noise you’re making?
What cats think when you sing along with holiday music on the radio.

What cats think when I'm singing.
What cats think when I’m singing.

. . . . . . .

What other photos did I post on or around this date?

.

Always Keep a Basket of Cats at Your Desk, 2017
A basket of cats.
A basket of cats.

Just in case you need to pet a cat really fast it’s best to keep a basket full of them on your desk.

To the right of these three are two other baskets and a box, and they were empty. Mimi, Sunshine and Jelly Bean stashed themselves in this basket like a bunch of balls of yarn. My camera had a hard time focusing on them. It kept beeping and saying, “Everything is black, everything is black!”

. . . . . . .

From Instagram

Mimi and I needed to be outside for a bit even though it was dark and cold today. Nothing like a good scratch on her favorite scratching post.

Mimi using her favorite scratching post.
Mimi using her favorite scratching post.

. . . . . . .

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

.

Suffering a Fool
Mr. Sunshine suffering a fool?
Mr. Sunshine suffering a fool?

Mr. Sunshine ponders the wise cat’s suffering of fools while Basil looks gently upward at apparently nothing. But you are both in the same spaghetti sauce box, Mr. Sunshine, and Basil could see something far more wise and wonderful in his imaginings than you could ever hold in your paws. From November 29.

~~~

A Meeting

A meeting of cats was called in the kitchen this afternoon.
Eight out of nine cats attended.
Each cat brought a different interest to discuss.
No consensus was reached on any point.
The meeting was adjourned for late afternoon nap time.

From November 29.

 

A meeting.
A meeting.

 

. . . . . . .

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

.

Gray Kitty Birdwatching, 2015
Teddy Bear watching the birds. gray kitten at window
Teddy Bear watching the birds.

I’m so accustomed to photographing black cats at this window I had to change all my settings for a gray kitty. Birdwatching is one of Teddy Bear’s favorite activities, right after eating and chewing on paper, with a lot of napping to keep up his strength. He’s even been carefully observing Mewsette and he’s been hearing the call of the cardboard. Quite the talented kitty, this big gray boy.

. . . . . . .

Shared on Instagram/Facebook today.

Okay, so I won’t make the bed right now. Bella wins

Bella wins.
Bella wins.

. . . . . . .

What other photos did I post on or around this date?

.

Daily Cat Photo: A Sleep-on-your-back Kind of a Day, 2014
black kitten sleeping on back
Smoky has a rainy-day nap.

It’s a lazy cold and rainy day and everyone decided a nap was in order. An all-day nap.

. . . . . . .

What other photos did I post on or around this date?

.

Waiting at the Window, 2013
black cat with candle
Mewsette watches the street.

Mewsette watches out the window over the single candelabra, a nice, warm look.

Stay safe and warm in this bad weather. Your kitties are waiting for you.

. . . . . . .

2012: Leaving Her Mark
black cat scratching deck rail
Mimi makes her mark.

Mimi really puts it all into leaving her mark on the end of the deck railing—after she’s run around most of the railing and stopping every foot or so to scratch again. All the cats who’ve gone outside with me have left their mark on this railing over the years, except for Moses, who had no interest in scratching anything because she might hurt it. But Cookie, Kelly, Namir, Stanley, Sally, Kublai have all made good use of the untreated, unfinished wood of the rail (I apply a coat of water repellent once each year, and a coat of blue stain several years ago). She had a really good time of it back in the spring and in September too.

Mimi and I go out on the deck most days, and the surprise to me is her timidity. She rarely leaves the deck to join me as I fill the feeders, but sits on the steps or the railing and watches me. The surprise is that this was her territory for years, and the neighborhood was her stomping ground. Perhaps the memories are not so nice. Not that I mind—I like having Mimi outdoors but she is so small and quick that a few times when she did take off for the next yard or the front yard I was sure I’d never catch her, so we went with a collar and leash for a while, and have gotten down to the breakaway collar with noisy bell so I’d at least know where she was. I still keep an eye on her, but she has plenty to do on the deck what with marking the railing and smelling everything, like this rocker, which needs to be thoroughly inspected each day.

black cat sniffing rocker
Mimi checks her pee-mail.

. . . . . . .

Is There Anything Good in This Cookbook?, 2011
Mimi and Giuseppe hold my cookbook hostage. TWO BLACK CATS
Mimi and Giuseppe hold my cookbook hostage.

Why don’t you ever cook anything good?

What would you consider to be good?

Fresh raw mouse, with a side of fresh Kentucky bluegrass to cleanse my palate.

Kind of defeats the idea of ‘cooking’, doesn’t it, Giuseppe?

Well, you could still serve us something like that.

In the first place, it’s not my job to catch the mice around here. Second, you can get the mouse part yourself in the basement—in fact, you’d better—and no doubt the mousie would have recently eaten some fresh grass from the yard. You don’t need me to do that.

There aren’t enough mousies to go around. You need to go get some or let some more in.

I’m perfectly happy with the number of mousies in the house. Besides that, ask your mom what she thinks of raw mousies.

Mimi Mom?

I don’t care if I ever see another mousie again, dead or alive, raw or cooked.

But mom!

It’s a totally different story when that’s all you have to eat.

But I hear they are so good for you.

They are, but they aren’t worth the trouble. Now those freeze-dried mouse treats our human mom gave us, those I could live on.

I remember those…

You were very young, but I think our mom saved most of them for us adults when you kittens were running around torturing us.

Freeze-dried mice…

Giuseppe, don’t get any funny ideas. The basement is not that cold. Can I have my cookbook you two?

Are you going to cook pasta again? I see the olive oil in the bottle with all those strange cats on it, and parmesan cheese.

You aren’t going to get any anyway! Now both of you need to move so I can look up my recipe.

N.B.: Giuseppe hopes Mlle. Daisy Marguerite doesn’t think any less of him because he’s hanging out with his mom. He heard someone called him a “mama’s boy”.

. . . . . . .

…but they found a good place to sleep…
A 3-D Five-Cat Puzzle
A 3-D Five-Cat Puzzle

…so we’re not moving. All FIVE of the family, including mom this time, took a nap while I was trying to figure out the new blog system and lost interest in moving. They just can’t understand why mom spends so much time staring at the computer and saying bad words—just when they’ve completely cuddled and dropped back to sleep, she makes some loud remark that wakes everyone up and they all have to mill around and settle down again. It takes time to fit five cats together like that! Stay tuned.

WordPress added a widget to make signing up to receive postings so much more easily than the old sign-up procedure. Stop by and say hello!

This was from way back at the beginning of my blogging career when I tried to move to a different blogging platform others said was “better” than WordPress. I decided to stay, and I’m still here! So are the Five.

~~~

From “Today”

“Exotic” from The Light in the Darkness

Exotic
Exotic

“Exotic” is one in a series of photos I took late on a very dark day, and only in that darkness could I capture the delicate beauty of these dry remains of wildflowers I’d photographed through the rest of the year.


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Remember to Dream
Cool Mimi

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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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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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