View allAll Photos Tagged tortiseshell
So many people have asked me just how I manage to get my cats to cooperate for my holiday photos.
The secret is to wait until it looks like your subject is relaxed and in an agreeable mood. Then you gingerly approach with the hat and gently place on top of head.
It takes a LOT of patience, and many attempts, but, if your lucky one or two shots will turn out before they knock the hat off their heads
.Putting your camera on rapid fire also helps!
Just wait Stella! I haven't put the army of Christmas frogs into the drysink yet!
Don't worry. I'll make sure to leave a spot for you!
I love the cats reaction to me hauling out the Christmas decorations every year.
The older ones are always like, "Really? Is it this time again?"
lol....I can't believe that Dora actually sat still after I plopped the Santa hat on her head long enough for me to pick up the camera, focus and click.
She didn't even act too annoyed.
I quickly removed it as soon as I took the picture and gave her lots of pets to make her purr.
Dora laying in the windowbox outside the sunny diningroom window, with Stella in the window frame behind her.
anyone who has ever had a calico or tortiseshell cat knows what I'm talking about when I use the term "tortitude"!
First it's just one little sticky bow, but we'll be graduating to silly holiday hats soon...very soon! 8-)
I'm in the throes of major holiday decorating! I'll catch up with you all real soon....promise!
Have a great day peeps!
On this particular afternoon l was visited in the garden by an Orange Tip, Common Blue and Tortiseshell...and obviously this one who landed on one of my Hosta's.....Long may it continue.
I had about 10 loads of wash to catch up on when I got home.
I had put this basket of beach towels on the chair, intending to wash them next, but discovered Dora and Simon all snuggled together on top.
I went and gathered up a load of whites instead. I just didn't have the heart to disturb them, they looked so comfy!
Stella is in the drysink keeping a wary eye on Floydd (her main nemesis), as he passes by on the floor.
I came in the room to pick up the pet water fountain. While unplugging it I disturbed M who I didn’t know was in the cat tree next to Pearl’s. M was afraid to go in my direction so she wound up getting in the cat tree hammock with Pearl!
a rare shot of Dora where she doesn't look totally pissed off!
In the winter the late day sun falls through the south diningroom window creating wonderful patches of light and shadow on the diningroom table. It makes the perfect spotlight for a kitty portrait!
it gets crowded on the couch after everyone has their supper.
Best to get there quickly after you eat or you miss getting the best spots.
Simon is thinking that Vinny and Floydd got the two choicest spots.
Dora is wishing that she was an only cat!
Vinny and Floydd don't care.
when I was in the local thrift store I saw that they were having a "sale" on baskets....just a buck.
I decided they might look better than the several corrugated boxes I have lying around on the dining room and livingroom floor, so I picked up a few likely looking candidates.
The baskets were an acceptable substitute, and this blue one seems to be particularly to Dora's liking.
this is pretty much how we all looked about an hour after stuffing ourselves last night at Thanksgiving dinner!
FORGET shopping....LOL!
I was sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee and commenting on contact photos, with Leo and Dora cuddled up next to me.
When my son and the rest of the family came up the driveway, that was the end of our quiet time!
a rare glimpse of Stella out in the open playing!
Crinkly tissue paper and a bead garland was enough of a temptation to make her temporarily forget about the other cats and rustle around under the paper to chase the garland.
If any one of the other cats had walked into the room, she'd have stopped immediately and retreated to the safety of her windowsill or the dry sink.
Dora definitely got an extra dose of "Tortitude".
She has grievances, and she's not afraid to let you know!
My dear little Stella is still hanging in here.
About a week ago she was really not looking good, and I had consigned myself it was time to take that final ride to the vets. But amazingly she seemed to rally.
This is tough.
I would never want to see her suffer, but she has exhibited such a will to keep on going, I know in my heart it isn't quite time to say goodbye yet.
She's eating, using her box and still wants to take a stroll out the back door to graze in the grass next to the back porch. (an activity she's done forever!)
She is a fighter and deserves every day she gets.
Meanwhile we do our best to keep her comfortable and are keeping vigilant.
Dora says that she comes from royalty!
She certainly acts like she's Queen of Everything, so I'm pretty sure she's right about her bloodline!
I realized that I haven't posted a picture in Stella in awhile.
So I decided to get down on the floor and try and get a decent shot of her.
She was very suspicious of my intentions!
Dora is sitting in the window box outside looking into the diningroom window.
I let her out the front door (which also has it's own cat door in it),not 5 minutes ago.
She goes around to the side of the house and climbs up into the window box and looks thru the window, and yells at the top of her lungs as soon as she seems anyone walking by to open up.
This goes on ALL day!
You open it up, she steps thru and 1/2 the time she heads right for the front door and goes right back out.
During the summer months we just leave the window cracked open....during these colder months that solution doesn't fly, but Dora doesn't understand......or she just doesn't care, which is probably much closer to the truth.
As soon as I walked in the house with Pearl, Dora made a beeline for the cat door. She went out and hid up in the trumpet vine..
I guess it was a bit of a shock when Pearl came waltzing back through the door after 12 weeks.
LOL...I'm sure the cats thought they'd seen the last of Pearl when I disappeared with her at the beginning of the summer.
Surprise guys! We're back!!
This is Fredrik the Tomten.
I found him cowering behind a sparkly reindeer with a broken leg and a pile of blue tinsel garland on the Clearance Shelf at a local craft store.
He look so lost and forlorn I just had to rescue him!
I asked him how he'd come to be in such a predicament......being on the Clearance shelf and all, and he told me that he had been on a different shelf with all of his friends. They were all pretty excited about the prospect of possibly going home to live with some family over the holiday. One by one his friends got picked up and carried off to their new homes.
When it was only down to Fredrik and a few others it finally happened! Somebody picked him up. His heart was so happy it jumped right out of his chest and landed on his shirt!
But then, instead of going home with some nice person who would love him, he was just tossed up on that shelf behind that reindeer, where nobody was likely to even notice him.
He said that he heard someone say, right before he landed up there, that he was considered "damaged goods" because his moustashe was a little messed up.
Can you imagine?
I am so glad I came along to rescue him and give him the Christmas I know he deserves.
So welcome home Fredrik!
I hope this is the first of many Merry Christmas's you'll spend with me and my family.
this morning I decided to follow Dora around with the camera to see if I could get a few pictures of her.
I took a few of her in the kitchen and she seemed okay with that, but when she moved on to the dining room, and I followed her, evidently I had crossed the line.
She hid under the table, and when I got down on the floor to continue our little photo shoot, she jumped up on the high chair and shot me this look....the last photo of our "session"!
I found Dora sitting in her favorite spot in the window box on the sunny, south side of the house.the other day and warned her that it was probably the last time for at least a couple of days that she'd want to be sitting out there.
I was right. Since the temperature has taken a nosedive she has been curled up in a ball on the dining room radiator!