Category: Cats

animal day journal #4

whbeebe

These past few weeks have been something of a downer for me. Since at least 8 January, I’ve been battling a upper respiratory virus that has pretty much knocked me for a loop; tired, week, nose running like an open faucet, coughs, chills, etc. I went to an after hours clinic ten minutes away from where I live, and they were able to determine I had neither COVID (again) nor strep. So they gave me a prescription for something to take care of the sinuses and the cough for about ten days, then when that was gone I started using Dayquil/Nyquil to handle things. Yesterday what was left in my sinuses finally broke up and came out, and I’ve been doing physical work without having to take a break every fifteen minutes.

To make things even worse it’s been very cold here in central Florida. How cold? Mid-50s Fahrenheit during the day down to mid-30s at night. This was all part of the cold wave that came rumbling out of Canada and into the mid-West. We got the edge of it all the way down here, and it was cold enough that snow fell with accumulations of 6 or more inches in the Florida Panhandle.

Needless to say all creatures great and small tried to keep warm while all this was happening. That’s what these two photos are about. Zoë was Velcroed to me for a number of days, while Beau kept stealing my seat every time I got up to go do something, like head to the bathroom. While last night went back down to 38°, today was a balmy 63°. While it was still in the mid-50°s yesterday, it was still warm enough, and I was in decent enough shape, to get some tasks of significance done.

Both of these photos were taken with my iPhone 16 Pro Max using the portrait setting. I did some post-processing with the Apple tools, primarily darkening the corners with the vignetting tool. The engineers spend untold sums of money to make sure corner-to-corner exposure is the same, and I go in and basically ignore that with my tweaks.

And yes, we still have our artificial Christmas tree up. Maybe I’ll have it down and stowed by Valentine’s Day.

animal day journal #3

whbeebe2 Comments
Nicholas

Too often I read that cats are somehow nocturnal creatures, choosing to be most active at night, especially if hunting is involved. I’ve noticed, however, that all my cats are crepuscular in their behavior, being most active in the twilight periods of evening and morning. These two photos were taken during the late afternoon/early evening before we all went off to sleep. They love to sit in my gaming chair and contemplate their world in my house, especially in the early evening. If something of interest becomes interesting enough, then there follows the quick leap onto the floor and a rapid chase of the target, meaning one of their clowdermates.

Zoë

The chair is also a favorite sleeping spot, which can result in one of the clowder challenging the current occupant all through the early evening, leading to a lot of rotation between the cats. By the time of lights out, the challenges have come to an end and there’s just one cat curled up and sleeping, usually Zoë. Seeing Nicholas in the chair is a bit of a surprise, but something I would expect as he’ll be four come later this year. All of my cats are full adults or senior cats. How time always flies. The youngest four cats (Joan, Danï, Zoë, and Nicholas) are all COVID lockdown adoptions. Just as that period from 2020 to 2022 has faded in our memories, so have the memories of three of the four as little kittens. Joan came in as a young adult, the mom of Danï and Zoë.

I mentioned that cats being crepuscular and only speaking to their evening activities. For the early morning I’m serenaded by Luke who stands in the main hallway (the part of the house with the best acoustics for what he does) and bellows out like a little foghorn. He’ll also stand on his hind legs and bang on the closed bedroom door. I know he stands because when I get sick I sleep out in the TV room on a lounger. When I got up very early one morning to hit the bathroom I just happened to catch Luke in the door banging act. If I’m physically available, the other cats will walk across me and pick a spot to settle down on top of me, to nap a little more. Then they’ll get up and move to another spot on me. They’ll keep this up until I decide I’ve had enough, and then get up and feed them. That’s how the day gets started around here. It’s been decades since I slept past 6 am.

I’ve been gravitating to using the Pen F for the majority of my photos, usually with a small prime mounted on the front. This post is no different. The top photo was taken with the Olympus 45mm, the bottom with the original PanLeica 25mm. Everybody keeps encouraging me to get an equivalent Fuji camera (the X100 or the XE-4). The problem there is either it’s unavailable or outrageously priced. And it’s not just the body, for the XE-4 it also requires the purchase of at least one lens for the body. And then I hear the very occasional recommendation to get a Leica. Financially that’s even more drastic. I’m quite happy with all I have, and I’m so thankful I purchased them when I did, when I could afford them.