Just what the Internet needs, more cat photos! lol. Anyway, the other day I was discussing camera equipment with Marilyn Armstrong. We have similar set ups, so it is nice to nerd out on photography on a occasion. She had talked about her Olympus 45mm f1.8 “portrait” lens. I have one, but almost never use it. It is tiny and looks like a toy (mine is blue!), particularly when compared to my enormous new 100-400.
So I pulled the lens out and took a few photos with it over the last few days.
Last week was a nice Spring week. Flowers were blooming and there are buds on the trees. It was pretty warm – I wore a short sleeve shirt and no jacket a few days. I ran with shorts and t-shirt (no sweats). I took a few very long walks in the woods, including some long dog walks (mostly just Fiyero when there is any length). I did a little outside work, like raking (our back patio collects leaves all winter, as does a few other places in the yard).
It wasn’t just all Spring, though. I’ve been alone in the house with just the cats the past few days and the cats are always worthy of a smile or two.
Yes, they like the dogs (well, Grace might not) and the dogs love them. Idina sometimes acts like Tiberius is her puppy, and he doesn’t mind being babied a bit, particularly when he isn’t feeling well. But still, they are a little freer without the dogs.
After we lost Josie last December we started thinking “kitten”. As it became more and more obvious that Albert most likely would not last the year (of course we had thought that other years), our search got more serious and we started to apply to shelters. Yes, you need to be approved to adopt. We had a reservation to see a couple of cats last Saturday.
So we went to the shelter, Darbster in Manchester, NH, on Saturday. We were supposed to look at a bonded pair of females. the were scared to death of us! After 10 minutes of sitting quietly near them, they were stills cared to death.
Hmm, I do not want to force these cats into a house with two largish dogs and another cat if they are already so traumatized by us just sitting near them.
So we started looking at other cats and kittens.
Two really wanted attention. I opened the door of the first. She allowed me to pat her, then ran off to explore. The other said “Not good with other cats” on his door, but I decided to look anyway.
This cat seemed starved for attention. When the other forced its way into his “kitty condo”, he just sniffed it. he did better with Patches than any of the other cats did!
So he, renamed Alexander, came home with us.
Alexander is about 8 months old. he is a sandy gold, very light colored. He is long and very thin. He has very soft, short hair. He is a bit slinky, but also athletic.
Alexander explored every corner of our largish house within a few hours. he has been getting to know the other animals, though there is still a little hissing and growling.
We lost Albert last night. It wasn’t a surprise at all. I was almost surprised he made it through the day. He was sick a few years ago and never fully recovered. Since then, it has been off and on for him and thought he was on his last legs, only for him to bounce back.
I didn’t mean the little pun in the last paragraph, but Albert had only three legs, so “last legs” might not have been a great choice of words. He was also FIV positive, that is like HIV, but “F” for “Feline” instead of “H” for “Human”. I won’t say he had kitty AIDS, but he did have an immunity issue and we were told we would most likely have him for less than five years. It was over ten. I am not sure how old he was when we got him – they said “Two”, but my guess is older. So he would have been at least 12.
Josephine, or Josie for short (no Josie and the Pussy Cats Jokes! she was named after Joséphine Bonaparte, since all cats are royalty (real or created)) was a tiny bit of a thing. They told us that she had had her first litter of kittens while she was still a kitten herself and that it stunted her growth, since all of the nutrients and energy that should have gone into her went towards her kittens. They said she had at least one other litter before being rescued. She was in a house with dozens of other cats and was more feral than domestic.
For weeks after coming to live with us Josie would not come out into the open, but constantly hid. She was easy to find, though, since poor Albert (yes, royalty) followed her around, crying. Although they were both “fixed”, he was madly in love. He only had three legs, so she could easily escape, but he still serenaded her constantly.
It didn’t take her too long to warm up to me. She was always a bit wild and was either in my lap or hiding, so I didn’t get too many pictures of her.
I hope you aren’t getting sick of my autumn photos… Anyway, I am going to repeat a few posted before, but add new ones. (Note – yes, in that photo at the top, that is how steep my back yard is – in places even steeper…)
All of these were taken in and around Wilton, New Hampshire in the last two weeks.
Click on a photo to enlarge it. You can scroll through the enlarged photos as well.
Albert, Grace and Josephine, come here and let me tell you a story! Well, I won’t spend too much time with this story, but I do want to make sure that you get a bit of time in the spot light. Yes, I know, the two canines who shall not be named in this post monopolize the four-leg time on my blog… OK, Albert, I know, you are a three-leg, but you have had a few posts about just you! (There were more than just those two…)
Trent's World (the Blog) 