I have two cats, a thirteen year old half siamese tabby named Cookie and a seven month old part maine coon kitten named Dawn. Part of the siamese half that Cookie acquired is their penchant for being vocal. For several weeks, Cookie has been relatively quiet for her and more demanding of attention than is her norm.

Yesterday, the vocal side of Cookie (seen on the right) returned with avengence. Normally Cookie would take possession of my bed once I vacate it in the morning, burying herself into the covers and sleeping most of the day.

She was having no part of that yesterday, she spent the day ‘talking’ all over the house and baiting Dawn (seen on the left) to engage in scuffling with her. Of course that just broke Dawn’s heart. She loves a good scuffle and since she’s bigger than Cookie is, she can definitely hold her own.

So, a good part of my day as I worked at the computer was spent listening and seeing the two cats tearing through the house bouncing off anything that got in their way as they raced up and down the stairs. It was later in the day that Dawn decided it was time to rest. As she often does, she retreated to a blanket stand I have in the corner near my chair. She likes to sleep near me.

She had maybe 20 minutes before Cookie who rarely ever goes near this stand decided she wanted to also sleep there. For all of another 10 minutes the two of them looked like they were going to share and sleep together. They must have forgotten themselves momentarily. Then the tussling began each in turn managing to push the other out of the bed.

I watched this carry on for a while and then remembered, I have some more wire sides and could create another level on the stand, divide the blankets I’m storing and they could both use it.

Flipping ingenius Patti!

So, I gather up my materials and setup the second level only to learn that the second level simply created another vantage point to carry out stealth attacks on the one sleeping on the original level. Dawn rarely misses a trick!

With a roll of my eyes I went back to what I was working on and left the two of them to work out their own issues. After all, they are cats and I’m only the lowly human.

As day settled into evening I noticed that a silence (other than the TV) had descended over the house and looked up wondering where those two characters were. Glancing around, I discovered that a truce on the blanket stand had been reached.

Cookie had claimed the original level and Dawn had accepted the top level, both of them were curled up in kittyland. Peace finally reigned… well except for that tail of Dawn’s which managed to find Cookie’s face as it occasionally flicked around.

Why do I suspect Dawn of being part possum?

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Stacked Felines

I was into Whitby yesterday for lunch with a good friend. On the way back I decided to roll off the 401 and along the lakeshore from Newtonville east. It was a bright sunny day but rather chilly. I took my time along the road which is not heavily traveled as I was looking for photo subjects to aim my camera at. Sort of figured it was about time for me to stop using Dawn and Cookie as my main photo subjects and start finding a few others.

Near Port Hope I spotted the walkway over the railroad tracks. As I approached it just looked like a walkway jutting out into the space in front of me so it grabbed my attention. I pulled off the road so I could take a walk down towards it and soon discovered some other subjects to photograph.

On my left was an opening built into the railway over pass to allow a stream to flow through it. There wasn’t any foliage coming out near the stream but the absence of ice and snow spoke of spring and a preparation of the rebirth that spring brings out.

Turning around and walking across the laneway I found another story though. There, set against the browns of the dead foliage from last fall was these flowers coming out in flower. The absolute sure sign of spring, life amongst last year’s death.

The day was such it made for a pleasant drive. Sometimes it is good to just slow down and have a look around instead of hurrying from point A to B all the time.

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Spring has Indeed Sprung

I have a new digital camera and some software on my computer with which I can do some playing around with digital effects on photos I’ve shot. I’m pretty new at doing this so some of my efforts will likely be pretty lame.

Here’s a couple I’ve played with using, guess who, Dawn as the subject. As always, clicking on the thumb print will load an enlarged print.

I caught Dawn in the shadow under a piece of furniture on this shot. If you look close at the enlargement, you can see the furniture in the background. After applying the drawing effects onto the photo I reclaimed the photo details of Dawn’s face leaving the shadow with less defined detail.

Here Dawn is doing what kitties love so much, playing with a plastic bag. I went for a coloured sketch effect bringing some of the detail up around the eyes, nose and mouth to draw attention her face.

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First Efforts at Digital Effects