Will
Feather has talent. She’s done it since she was a wee kitten. – open doors. She can jump and pull the handle down. Next door the lawn service came. The cats do not like the sound of the mower. Feather and Nutley headed straight for the door and opened it tout suite! Yeah, talent. Willpower!
Nice ‘n easy
Tolerant. They (cats) just pose nonplussed as I click away. No, they do not pose on demand. Even loud strange noises do not get them to look in my direction. In spite of it all, I plod onward. Elle hides at the bottom of the bed where the covers provide her a tunnel of safety. …like an infant who hides their eyes and presumes you cannot see them. Feather does not often – but, occasionally, will stalk a mouse. Nutley looks forlorn. Nope, he’s just planning his next misbehavior. Elle is not in mid-stalk. She’s backing up to sit down. Spice inhabits an Amazon box. Every cat has been in and out of that poor box for months. They don’t tire of it though it has nearly fallen apart. All of these shots occurred while I walked around the house with the camera in one single day. Yeah! Easy!
Drying
We’ve had considerable rain this past spring. I almost missed this shot. I’m thankful that the Sony RX100 has electronic zoom capable of matching my Nikon 80-400 zoom. A vulture sat sunning and drying out. I’ve seen cormorants do this behavior. My good luck, I got the shot.
Played
Willow and Patch have lost weight, nearly one third of their body weight. To compensate I feed them extra wet food. The other cats gather to get some (food) too. So, I put the special ones up on the counter. So far the boys have not gained weight. And, the rest are mad and feel deprived. It ain’t so! I feed everyone. It’s just that, some (cats) gotta eat more. Played? The cats have trained me. Willow will sit patiently, a hint (ever so slight) of rebuke in his eye, until I succumb to pressure/guilt and feed him (and Patch). They get me every time. Can you say, “Soft touch.”
I dare you…
Spice stalks Elle. She waits, she pounces. It’s turnabout. Elle did not welcome Spice when we first adopted Spice. So, they have a game. Mostly, it’s on Elle. Spice has taught Ray and Nutley to play. The two did a pincer movement and funneled Elle to the ambush site for Spice. For their troubles, everyone got a “timeout.” Do cats understand? Yes, they do. Do they care? This series is after “timeout.” No pounce. Wait, till I’m not looking.
Nutley
I don’t exactly at this moment remember why we named him Nutley. Time and time again he demonstrates why he is a sandwich shy of a picnic. Behavior is not something I can teach – at least not to cats. They come wired up and ready to go with their own unique personalities. Nutley came to us as Nibbles and his name quickly changed. Lately he has taken to burrowing under the rug. It’s a heavy area rug and he lifts the edge and crawls under. The other cats pounce on the moving lump. Nutley doesn’t mind. He’s quite content to stay hidden away. I cannot presume to know what’s going on in his feline brain. We are delighted that he’s made himself right at home with us. Ya gotta love him!
You Gotta Drink From the Source
Really? This is one crazy cat. He waits by the sink. Turn on the water. He can’t speak but he has trained me. He can leap from the floor to counter height in a single leap. Hey, if you can do that, the least I can do is turn on the water. Of course, the price is that I take a picture of the cat looking silly. Kids. If mine saw me taking embarrassing pics of them… poof, I’m out of the family. White cat, white sink, cool.
Open Wide, Say Ah
Here’s a behavior I don’t see very much. Isn’t that the point? Common things are not as interesting as the unusual. Stonefish were a lot of fun and good images when I first saw them. They don’t move too much and you can shoot away. But I have hundreds of images.
So what’s different? I found one and was shooting away. But then my buddy wrested the camera from my grasp and moved in and magically got this shot. I swear he did not speak to the fish underwater to get him to do this behavior.
Of late my buddy likes my camera and shoots with it. I admit the open mouth is not my shot but it was in my camera. It’s not the same. Close, but no cigar.
photobackstory 