From the Archives: An Exciting Morning July 30, 2005
July 30, 2005, was a sunny, temperate morning just like today when Mewsette and Mimi are waiting at the door to go outside while I water the plants and play in the garden for a bit and likely take some photos. All those years ago it was Stanley and Moses stubbornly sitting at the door until I opened it and we went outside. Stanley was 23, Moses was 18. My digital camera was having intermittent issues and this particular morning was not a good morning for it, but I took photos nonetheless. I may have film photos from some of these days too, and I still need to get them organized.
I checked under the deck while Stanley and Moses were enjoying the sun before it disappeared and the deck was in shade.
Those glowing eyes would be Sputnik, Moon’s kitten, peeking out at me from the wood atop the former groundhog burrow where she’d stashed him and his sister, Thistle. Moon was friendly and belonged to the neighbor in the same house Mimi came from. The kittens were about six weeks old at that point, and he was quickly getting accustomed to me, though his sister was still skeptical. There was no danger to Stanley and Moses because Moon knew them through the doors. Stanley might approach the kittens, but Moses never paid more than a glance at anything that wasn’t part of her main purpose right then: napping in the sun for her thermonuclear treatment, and possibly nibbling a blade of grass or two.
Moon was able to return and nurse the kittens while the sun shone on the deck and I took care of the plants on the deck and took photos.
Moon’s kittens do look black in the shadows, but they were dark gray, darker than her coat. She was glad for the food and water I provided under the edge of the deck and told the kittens to stay under there. They did. I thanked her every day for keeping them so close, and she didn’t mind my efforts to befriend them. You can read their story in Rescue Story: Sputnik and Thistle.
While watering the plants I checked on the wren’s nest in the hanging pot of geraniums, something that had the cats lining up at the door when the wren came to feed.
And a silver-spotted skipper came to visit the butterfly bush.
As the sun disappeared, the two feline sunbathers made their way down the steps to the second best sunning spot, the bricks.
The two would check in with each other now and then, and go back to their napping.
They would sit, lie, roll over, resume napping, until they were completely toasted and I would take them indoors.
It’s those simple everyday moments that seem to be the sweetest.
From Previous Years
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From the Archives: Mousewatch and Evening, 2005
Above, it’s hard to tell that there are two feline shapes reclining, almost hidden, on the left side of the steps.The top one is Kelly, two steps down is Cookie. It’s too hot to sit in the sun by the basement door, so the girls are on the basement steps where even on the hottest day a breeze blew in the door and up the stairway, and they could watch the wildlife running past just outside the door. Most importantly, they were ready when a mouse might come running in, which one would regularly do. Cookie occasionally joined in this activity and the two were the best mouse catchers ever, but it was Kelly who I most remember on the steps on summer days. For nearly all the years I’ve worked at home ahe spent all the daylight hours of a summer day patiently lying on the step, paws curled under, watching out the door, now and then lying her head on her paws for a nap. Somewhere in my archives I’ll probably find a good photo of this, but this one, at least, was taken on this date.
This photo was taken on July 23, 2005, and I’d tagged the folder “mostly cats” though most of the photos were a little odd, like this. That was because they were memories I was trying to capture, but the conditions weren’t optimal for photography. No harm in trying. The photo below was in the same folder, and it’s Namir cooling himself on the concrete step as evening drew to a close. More memories.
Photos From the Archives and Vintage Photos
Photos pulled “From the Archives” were taken by one or another digital camera of mine between 2002 and, well, yesterday, but usually they are older than that, and I had never had the chance to feature them. Vintage Photos are from my film archives back to 1983 when I purchased my Pentax K-1000 camera. They’re a fun way to “introduce” other members of my feline family who came and went before I began blogging, and to illustrate my feline family in general from days gone by.
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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!
