10 Catty Things

In the last post Ruby made a point to mention that she was grateful for more pictures of cats lately since I tend to favor the dog. By way of explanation I thought I'd use my 10 Things Tuesday to explain why the cats feature more rarely in photos.

1. They're skittish. If one so much as leans toward a camera (or a drink or a remote or a phone or a pillow) or moves a foot they bolt away.

2. I have spent nearly 12 years trying to get photos of Anna where she's not scowling at me. Success is so rare I've all but given up.

3. Max is the best subject and I don't live with him so opportunities are more rare. Fortunately when I do see him I'm usually inspired to send a photo or two to his mistress so I make a point to get some shots.

4. The dog tends to get jealous and get in the way.

5. In the dog's defense he will actually sit still for a photo, for many photos, whereas even if the cats aren't scared off by the mere presence of a camera-like object they don't sit still. If I posted for you all the blurry photos of cat asses I've taken you'd beg me to edit more carefully.

6. The lighting in my apartment is good but not great and can be abysmal. This is what you get for purchasing all your lighting fixtures at discount warehouses. All the standing lamps in the house lumped together didn't cost me as much as $30.

7. My house is chronically messy. Right now it looks like a tulle factory in Atlantis blew up after its employees went on a 3 week meth bender. I don't have the photoshop skills to gloss over the things that show up in the background.

8. My cats are opinionated. They think that when I'm in the house I should be doing one of two things; feeding them or petting them. Attempts to accomplish other tasks are met with resistance. Sometimes passive like crawling into my lap and sitting on my hands while spreading over my entire torso until I'm pinned and swallowing a boatload of fur. Sometimes aggressive. Stay tuned in coming weeks for video of Elvis breaking into the bathroom while I'm singing in the shower and yelling at me to shut the fuck up. No, seriously, that's what he says.

9. This one is really entirely my fault. I've photographed everything in my house a million times so I have ceased to really see it the way I do the outside world. It's a small place. I tend to forget photo opportunities once I've come home and closed the door.

10. I'm already the crazy dog lady in my neighborhood. I think I'm trying to avoid being the crazy cat lady, too. If only my neighbors knew that my cat lady tendencies are far more deeply ingrained and refined than my dog lady ones.

I have collected all my cat photos from recent years in one place. If you'd like to peruse them please feel free, they're here.