non tigers but still kitties thread

[gary]

so it seems we have a few cat persons on the forum, so rather than have them spread out all over the place, let's kick it off with our newest and youngest to the family, dori, born around april 4, adopted into our home june 10, taken this afternoon while sitting here catching up on reading the posts, she is in our south facing greenhouse window, right next to me, she's now sound asleep, it is time for the afternoon nap, so at least 5 of our 7 are sleeping somewhere, the stable cat is probably sleeping somewhere in the pasture, and the battle tom is to ornery to find and disturb
and yes, dori after the character from finding nemo
[attachment=1]

[This attachment has been purged. Older attachments are purged from time to time to conserve disk space. Please feel free to repost your image.]

 

[Scott]

Cat people of the world, unite!! Here's my Emma...

[This attachment has been purged. Older attachments are purged from time to time to conserve disk space. Please feel free to repost your image.]

 

[Tim]

scott, that would make a great avatar! oh, wait...

 

[Scottwdw]

My family recently had to part with our Main Coon cat. She is missed.

 

[mainstreet1997]

My Bailey

 

[molander]

As I've commented before, I can't believe my Smitty looks so much like Scott's beloved kitty. In this picture, I was recuperating from the flu (yes, I DID have the shot) and Bentley (dog) was snuggling beside me. Smitty hopped up and plopped himself between me and and the dog... well, he sort of plopped ON the dog but you get what I mean.

 

[mPower]

We have two cats, Mac and Tosh. Uh huh...yeah.

Anyway, this is Tosh. She is either letting us know exactly how she feels about us, OR, she is anti paparazzi.

[This attachment has been purged. Older attachments are purged from time to time to conserve disk space. Please feel free to repost your image.]

 

[zackiedawg]

Overkill, I'm sure...but here's mine

OK...I'm gonna start with a disclaimer that I am not a cat person. I say this rather defensively, since I've always been a dog person and something genetic in dog people is supposed to be opposed to being a cat person. So I feel I need to state that fact, even as I feed and care for a cat, and sit in the yard taking portrait style photos of a cat. How on earth did this happen?!

Well, a tiny kitten was abandoned in my yard by its mother over the summer...it kept me awake at nights with constant mewing trying to find its mom. I borrowed a can of cat food from my neighbor to see if it would eat, but it kept running away when I popped outside to find it. On the third day, I was in my pool when I noticed the kitten under a tree in my yard, so I snuck inside, grabbed the food, got back in the pool, and swam the food over to it submarine style, with just the bowl sticking above the water...I figured that would be less threatening. When I came up for air, I was face-to-face with the hungry little kitten who had run right up to the bowl as it arrived. After a few days of feeding, but still not letting me reach out and touch, it started coming closer, eventually warming to a little scratch behind the ears if I laid down on the ground and inserted my hand out of the sliding glass window.

Now, months later, she's become a resident...jumping up on my lap, clamoring for all-day-long petting sessions, coming in the house and sitting on the kitchen counter while her dinner is being prepared, and sleeping on my outdoor couch in my patio room (it's a covered outdoor room, so protected from elements and with comfy chairs and couches). She's very talkative too, meowing for food, when wanting a petting, when wanting me to go for a walk with her, etc.

So, I'm officially a cat-owning dog person, but because of my camera addiction, I can't help but photograph the little one. She's named Mickey Meow...I can't imagine why ( )...

Here's how scrawny she looked when I first fed her - this was snapped after I had fed her for the first time back in June:

And here she is this past week:

 

[Grumpwurst]

Justin,

Don't feel bad. Even though we don't currently own a cat, my wife and I are both cat AND dog people

 

[zackiedawg]

I pretty much am too - I jest about it because even my screenname is 'dawg'. I'm pretty much a universal animal lover...this is my second cat - I had one when I was 6 that I took in off the street much to my grandmother's chagrin, as it was her house! It was covered in tics, and we cleaned him by hand and fed him...so he stuck around our house until he won a spot in the laundry room/garage to live. He lived with us for 6 years before he passed - he was already a full grown cat who had been in some battles with who knows what.

BTW - the website I have my photo galleries at, PBase, is apparently fully crashed at the moment, so my pics will be gone for a little while until they get everything working again.

 

[zackiedawg]

Looks like Pbase is back up, so my gallery is restored. Sorry about the disappearing photos!

 

[molander]

Justin, she's precious! Almost all the animals I've ever had just show up. My DH says the word's out on the street that "if you need a home, go to <insert our address>". I lost 2 cats and a dog last year and the house seemed so empty when everyone left for school/work.

We lost Wally (here in 2002):

And Buddy who lived to the ripe old age of 19:

And Haley (named after a vet that housed her after she was found running up I55 in the rain with no hair):

No homeless furries showed up so I had to go about finding some. Bentley was dropped off at our vet to be neutered and then taken to a shelter. They posted a sign and I happened to be in there that day:

Still needed a cat. Things didn't seem right without a cat. Looked on Petfinder.com and found this picture of Smitty. Can't tell you what made me want that one but I drove an hour to get him from the most horrendous shelter you've ever seen. He was due to be put down within the week. He was so filthy he had given up bathing himself. He's such a great cat.

 

[Dan]

Well Gary, not only did you start just the thread I had in mind, but you did it almost ten days before I thought about doing it.

I was getting kind of sentimental about my last cat. She nearly made it to 20, but eventually just seemed to give up on life. I've never seen such a thing but apparently it's known to happen, and she was following the feline end of life playbook. She more or less gave up eating, except for a little bit she ate to please me, and she started going off to find dark places to hide.

I never got any great pictures of her, I've posted my attempts at photographing her before. I don't know what it was, I used to think it was that she was black and that that provided difficulties, but I've since had better luck with my sister's cats. I didn't think their fur was that different, but either the lighting has just been different or else their fur deals with light differently.

But I wanted to post something of what I've gotten and to see what other people have. You've all posted neat pictures, although I have to say that closeup of Bentley is amazing, I can't help but smile every time I peek at it.

So now it's my turn.

[attachment=1]

That's Melody, my last cat. Not a great pic, but I kind of like it. It highlights the element of her siamese heritage that was most obvious, the way the hair near the ear thinned out and revealed skin. And also the way black fur turns brown in direct sunlight.

[attachment=2]

And those are my sister's "boys". Zot and Drake, I can't tell them apart. They're odd ones. Very shy and easily spooked. This makes them hard to photograph because they're only too aware of the attention I'm giving them. Sometimes the only way I can get near them is to avoid looking at them. But the last time I saw them I swear I was starting to get through, we were finally starting to understand each other. I was playing a game of MarioKart and one of the cats, Drake I think (the bolder of the two), would walk up to the side of my chair to get petted. I'd turn away for a moment to select something on screen, look back, and he was completely gone. I mean he was still somewhere in the room, but I couldn't find him. He kept appearing and disappearing, showing up to receive attention whenever he felt it was necessary.

They're funny. Apparently they wait until everyone is in bed and theoretically asleep at night and then they tear around the house, chasing each other and running around like mad.

I think that's the first time I've encountered feline red eye. I'm not sure it's genuine red eye, but it seems different than the typical eye shine which is a different phenomenon altogether.

[This attachment has been purged. Older attachments are purged from time to time to conserve disk space. Please feel free to repost your image.]

 

[molander]

although I have to say that closeup of Bentley is amazing, I can't help but smile every time I peek at it.

Yeah, we do, too. Wish I could take credit for it but it was taken by a friend of my oldest son. It's framed in the family room!

My nephew took this one of Smitty today. My hands were covered in pumpkin guts.

 

[gary]

so here's a couple more of the house herd, louisa on the left, dori on the right, one recent afternoon, doing a little birdwatching from the bedroom window