Why I Love Having My Car Washed

May 4, 2012 / still a dreamer / 4 Comments

Because I love having it covered with paw prints within minutes of my leaving it in the driveway. And … not even my cat!

However … I took this shot through the window, screen and all, because I didn’t want to interrupt Pumpkin’s beauty nap. When you’ve been adopted, you just learn to make certain allowances.

Catching the Light – Part II (the Cats)

March 16, 2012March 16, 2012 / still a dreamer / 3 Comments

Although spaced much further from the earlier Catching the Light post than I’d intended, here we have, not what … but who … was catching the light.

What is so wonderful about making art is that chance or happy accident that occurs during the creative process. Now we’re not talking about that flash of inspiration which takes us in a new direction in what we’re writing or painting, but the unintended change in direction from what we’d planned. I suppose that could be the same thing in some cases, but right now I’m referring specifically to capturing an unexpected moment in time, and the excitement of it happening in photography. (Hmmmm …. I am suddenly remembering an e-mail filled with moments such as those, but that’s not where I’m going today.)

Back to that warm morning sunlight streaming through the front window. Claude, pictured above, often takes this position in the morning after breakfast and basks somewhere along the back of the sofa, though this particular spot is preferred. I took a bunch of shots of him, always marveling at how elegant and sophisticated he appears in his photographs when in fact, he is one of the goofiest animals I have ever known. I had a nice selection of Claude, the sun worshipper, to choose from.

The unexpected shot came when Gypsy Rose wanted to see what was going on. Happily, I was able to quickly switch gears and capture that moment of cat curiosity. Not much time to adjust camera settings, to account for the darkness of her coat, etc. but then this was about the moment.

Even if we have no intention of taking photographs, our eye can easily be trained to find and appreciate those amazing moments where, in just one second, the view changes. Camera not needed; call it a memory.

Loving Is Easy, Loving Is Hard

February 29, 2012March 2, 2012 / still a dreamer / 6 Comments

Falling in love is always the easy part. Then it gets complicated. Why? Because “the other” has their own ways, their own ideas, their own habits, their own fears.

It doesn’t matter if “the other” is human or animal; no matter how hard we try, we cannot help but bring our own hopes, expectations, ideas, habits and fears to the table. Case in point – an animal one – elsewhere on this blog, I have mentioned that I feed a small feral cat with tuxedo markings whom I’ve named Little Fee. He’s been coming around since he was 9 months old or so, and that was the summer of 2009. He comes like clockwork for breakfast and dinner, and snacks in between from the bowl on my back porch when not chased away by one of the cats next door.

If not waiting for me on the back porch, he comes to his name when called. Yet he is extremely fearful and will not be touched or approached. He has never been missing for more than 2 days, and that was only after severe snowstorms. But now he is missing 2-1/2 days. What has happened to him?

The scenarios for a feral cat are … 1) Hit by a car 2) attacked by another animal 3) injured and laying low somewhere while healing 4) accidentally trapped in a shed, garage, etc. 5) poisoned 6) trapped by a human and removed with any number of intentions – to be neutered and returned, taken to the local shelter and/or to be killed. None but one of them are good. And there is nothing I can really do about any of them.

One of the things about loving another – be it human or animal – is that it is always fraught with risk. Perhaps the greatest risk is giving up control, for it is the one thing we cannot have when another being is involved, or at least not without potential harm to ourselves or them. And one of the things about loving and caring for a feral cat, I see, is that I have no control at all.

And still we, in all our yearning humanity, risk loving again and again, knowing that we cannot control much … only our own thoughts, really. We can offer the best of ourselves to another being, offer our love, and then it’s out of our hands.

As for me, I keep intermittent vigil at my back door … watching and hoping … hoping my voice, my love, can bring this small being back and help heal him, if needed; hoping he’s not gone forever.

UPDATE, MARCH 1 –

The Fee has returned! In one of my porch checks late last night there he was, looking none the worse for wear, a bit hungry, and happy to be fed. Breathing easier at last.

Always A Bright Spot

January 10, 2012January 10, 2012 / still a dreamer / 1 Comment

They say every cloud has a silver lining, that even in our darkest moments there is always a bright spot. Having recently lost an animal so very dear to my heart, I wasn’t seeing too many bright spots just yet. Some unanticipated glimmers here and there, but that was about it.

Who would have thought that my bright spot would truly BE a bright spot? I happened to glance out my side door earlier this morning, and there he was … a veritable bright spot of red among the drab winter bushes. I grabbed my camera and, figuring the male Cardinal would fly away if I opened the door, took him through my window, but with a screen, I knew I was kidding myself. Ever so slowly, I opened the inner door and then the storm door, and eased out on the porch. There he stayed while I photographed him. Again and again.

I felt as if he knew I needed a bright spot in my day and had decided to indulge me until I got the shot I wanted. I believe animals communicate with us and are far more in tune than we give them credit for, and today, he had a small, joyful message to bring. Above you see him, not nearly as vibrant as he looked in reality, but brilliant nonetheless. A small blessing, a reminder, of how many bright spots we have in our lives. Even if we don’t always see them.