From the Archives: Namir in a Box and My Office After Hours, October 4, 2007

October 21, 2023October 21, 2023 Bernadette

gray and white cat in box — Namir: Why did you wake me up?

Namir lifts his head and gives me an inscrutable expression after my photography woke him up. But there was a cat in a box, what else could I do?

Working late on an October evening, what else could be a better distraction than a few photos of a sleeping Namir, happy in a box? I’m not sure what was up at this point, though this was the time of year for extra work for customers getting ready for the holidays, and I was also still heavily into tracking my mother’s and brother’s health, so I get the feeling it was a pretty busy day. I noticed the windows and door were open to the night air—must have been a rare October night warm enough to have everything open that late. As we move through the photos you’ll see who else was there with us.

He looks a little purrturbed, as if he might not be able to get back to sleep. Don’t worry, that didn’t last too long (the reddish area below his ear is the lighting in the photo).

This is the credenza I had for years to make a U-shape work area; that’s how I avoided the total desk overload when I had reams of paperwork, boxes of customer orders I’d picked up and needed to deliver, things to be filed, and the occasional street sign on hand so that I could set up the text for the new street signs to match. I had more than I could put away anywhere, and some of it came in and went back out, like the customer orders, and I sorted my filing so I could toss anything that didn’t need to stay with the job. At that time I often printed out email conversations with customers to keep on file for seven years, taking up unnecessary space. With all those boxes it was cat heaven. I never knew where I’d find one of them napping, but they were always all over my desk, especially at night.

Ah, Cookie was there too! Guess she was charged with keeping an eye on me since she would have been facing my back as I sat in the chair to work (when I wasn’t up and around taking photos).

gray and white cat and tortoiseshell cat — Comfy amid the mess.

Here’s the whole sorry scene. Peaches is sleeping over by my computer, under one of my desk lamps, otherwise known as kitty keep-warm lamps. In 2007 she was 18 years old and about five pounds and was a fixture in that area of my desk just about every night about that time and loved those lights. I always had one on either side of my monitor, and I’m not sure when I started using these—halogen lights are an old, old thing nowadays—but I used them until just recently. One of them just stopped working months ago though I’d changed the bulb and checked the wiring. I still have the other at my desk, but just last week got two new lamps so I’d have even light. The halogen lights were better at keeping kitties warm.

gray and white cat and tortoiseshell cat and calico cat — The whole mess.

I know Kelly is in the room somewhere since she was always near us, and that was all the “old guard” at that time. Upstairs in the bathroom, however, were Mimi and four nine-week old kittens who had been out and about with us earlier in the day. These four were teaching them to be good kittens, and they were already so social that though they had the upstairs and downstairs to roam in, they stayed in my office with us most of the time they were out (see below for an example) so I’m sure these four teenagers were exhausted.

From the Archives in Previous Years

Big Brothers and Sisters, October 9, 2007

three black cats one gray and white — Big brother Namir shows them how to settle on my desk.

They adored their big brother Namir, who here demonstrates to the boys the best way to hang out on my desk. They aren’t getting it quite right, but they are young yet.

October 4 was apparently the first day I let the Little Four come downstairs! If it had been earlier there would have been photos for sure, but they were just about nine weeks old, had all their shots and had been running around the upstairs, occasionally running into one of the four seniors. They were big enough to make it all the way down the steps and so they did! No photos of that–I didn’t have a camera capable of capturing that much cuteness, especially four black cats in a rather dim stairway. Cookie was 15 and Namir was 14, but they handled those kittens well.

Big sister Cookie doesn’t mind sharing her chair with Sunshine, who neatly tucks himself in for a nap. She had actually just given him a little bath.

How did he get here?

black kitten and tortie cat — Big sister keeps an eye on little Sunshine.

And not for the first time, all four of them on my lap while I’m working! It’s too bad they are too big for this now.

four black kittens — Four black kittens on my lap!

Then they all gathered at the front door, with the screen all the way down to the bottom. They weren’t sure what to do about it, so exciting with all those smells!

Three Little Four settle in the very center of the rug in my office for a nap after playing while Giuseppe finishes his bath. That’s little Bean over on the left, Sunshine in front and Mewsette curled around the back.

four black kittens on floor — Four on the Floor

My mother had made this braided rug years before and I loved having it in my office and having it as the backdrop to many cats and kittens. The center rows of it are solid black though, and of course that is where they decided to pile up for their nap–every time they came down stairs, which was pretty much every day!

Remember, they were technically still fosters at this time, though I knew I’d be keeping them for their first year for observation because of the possibility of FIP. Potential adopters came to meet them, and I never thought they’d all end up staying. So much for that.

You don’t see Mimi because she’d gone back into heat and I wanted to have her spayed right away, but because she had some suspicious lumps and bumps my veterinarian wanted to see if I could wean them fully and if letting her have no contact with them would hasten that. Her milk did recede, but we were still concerned about those mammaries, so decided to wait until it was all gone and hopefully we could catch her out of heat so diagnostics would be easier. In the end she was spayed with the rest of them, after all but a few small lumps disappeared; others were biopsied and showed nothing, but I keep an eye on them.

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Photos From the Archives

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.

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

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Animal Sympathy Cards from Portraits of Animals!

I’ll always remember the way you looked at me. Namir inspired the sympathy cards, but he was one of the last to get his own. 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.