From The Archives: Looking at the Snow, January, 2003

January 31, 2021 Bernadette

Moses loved her daily sunbath, even on cold days with snowcover. Had my house had reliable sunpuddles for a good part of the day in winter, this outdoor sunbath may not have been necessary. But, ever practical, Moses considered her options for achieving her daily thermal treatment and decided that a bit of outdoor supplementation would be necessary. She liked the bricks by the basement door best, but later in the afternoon they would be in shade, and she would know this. The boards of the deck warmed up quickly when the sun shone on them as they still do at this time of day on a late January afternoon, just about 2:00.

My deck is covered with far more things now, but when Mimi and Mewsette hop out the door in the morning and I follow to fill the bird feeders and bird bath, I think of those same daily visits with Moses. Where they explore, she would find a sunny spot to sit and observe, soaking in the sun, looking around, swishing her tail back and forth across the deck boards. For another photo of Moses on the deck, visit Late in the Year, and you can find many more photos and stories of Moses, my first feral cat rescue, by using the search box to find her name.

From the Archives in Previous Years

Peaches and Cream, 2006

calico cats in box — Peaches and Cream in their box.

Peaches and Cream share their favorite box. I treasure it because, aside from the ones the woman who brought them to me gave me, it’s the only one I have where they are both together and looking at me. I don’t have too many photos of these two together because the little digital I had then was really crappy, and they spent a lot of time in the studio while they were adjusting to living here and the ambient light has never been very good for film.

They were 15-year-old sisters who lost their person and I took in to foster in 2005. Peaches was feeling okay by this time, after a few months of occasional subcutaneous fluids and nourishing canned food. Cream never really recovered from her level of renal failure, but she had maintained where she was without getting any worse since the previous July. I also fed her recovery food and dosed her for her nausea. When I took away the food and left the door open for the day they would explore, and Cream loved to find me and sit on my lap. We would lose her a couple of months later, and I had decided to quit taking her to the personal care home where my mother lived because Cream seemed suddenly so frail, one of the signs that renal failure is winning. But the studio was, and still is, a nice warm room in the winter.

Peaches was always attentive to her sister, as she looked at me while sharing the box, purring for her sister.

After shifting positions a few times they finally settled into a yin-yang nap. Cream was easily twice as big as her sister, and it was easy to see that here.

From the Archives in Previous Years

Mewsette and Jelly Bean Are “In”, 2008, 2007

two black cats in sorting bin — Mewsette and Jelly Bean are “in”.

They learned very early on that my desk was the place to be. Here are five-month-old Mewsette and Jelly Bean hanging together in my inbox, which is holding just about its maximum capacity in kittens.

Mewsette looks cool and confident, but Bean looks as he often does, a little confused. Good thing he has siblings to take care of him.

Mewsette: “It’s okay, he’s harmless.”

Jelly Bean: “She tried to kill me!”

Below is what they looked like just before this photo. Note that Mewsette is pretty much sitting on Bean’s head. Perhaps he has the dazed and confused expression because he was oxygen deprived thanks to his sister. Some things never change.

From January 11, 2008, 5 months old.

two black kittens in sorting bin — Attempted fratricide? You decide.

~~~

A Snowy Saturday, January 25, 2007

black cat at window — Lucy watches the falling snow and the mourning dove, ready for action.

Yes, this is one of Mimi’s children, but not one of the Fantastic Four! They weren’t even a biological possibility yet, but their half-sister Lucy was intent on capturing either a few falling snowflakes or that mourning dove that’s sitting on the feeder. She’s sitting up on her haunches, ready to leap at something—anything!

She was about nine months old here, slender and graceful and the youngest cat in the house by far—Kelly was the next youngest in age, and she was 13. And this was the time I had the greatest age range in my household, with Lucy at 9 months and Stanley having turned nominally 25 years old on January 1, since I didn’t know what day he was born, and we had just lost him ten days before. Now that my long, long journey with Stanley was done, as well as the journeys of three other of my oldest cats within that previous year, I could turn to the new life that had been brought to me. The little kitten leftover from last summer’s litter, who I had had no intention whatsoever to adopt, had stolen the hearts of all the cats in my home, and mine as well, just by being who she was.

Sitting at my desk here watching the snow fall today, I remembered, not this particular moment, but just watching Lucy in action, enjoying the life of a kitten after many years with only adult cats.

~~~

A Cookie Centerpiece, 2006

Doesn’t every kitchen have a Cookie centerpiece? Or at least a tortie centerpiece? Really, Cookie owns that table, especially the blue and white plaid napkin in the center as she is sitting in the center of the center.

It’s a bright and cold January afternoon in 2006 and Cookie are apparently spending some time in the kitchen, where she must find the most advantageous spot and be certain I photographed her.

That digital camera was a 2MP FinePix, great in sunlight but a real failure in the house a good bit of the time. I kept getting blurry photos so I held it steady against the edge of the stove and got one clear photo that was still a little discolored. I cropped the photo above out of the center of it. Below is they full photo with pleasant memories for me of the round white table that is in “Peaches and Peonies” and was the backdrop for many photos in that kitchen. That and all my plants, because no one ate them at the time, and the lack of clutter is a wonderful thing to see. Don’t mind the closeup of the edge of the bowl at the lower left. That’s just from leaning the camera on the edge of the stove.

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.

Photos From the Archives and Vintage Photos

Gifts featuring cats you know! Visit Portraits of Animals

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"A Rosy Glow", pastel, 15" x 11", 1997 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski — “A Rosy Glow”, pastel, 15″ x 11″, 1997 © Bernadette E. Kazmarski

Sweet, soft silver tabby Moses was my one truly feral rescue and taught me about feral cats before I really knew they were any different from other cats. My niece caught her and I took Moses home in 1987 before I’d ever heard a word about feral cats and kittens. I’d caught and rescued quite a few cats and kittens by that time and thought Moses was just another bedraggled, starved kitten. Click here to 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.