Sound and furry signifying nothing — and everything
Catlife Journal
The Crow and the Kitten
I'm a little late in coming to this video — it's been viewed more than three million times — although I remember seeing a briefer version some time ago. In any event, it's a fascinating story about a crow who adopts a kitten.
Funny song, wonderful voice, cute cats ...
But the technical quality of the photographs, oy! Well, I can't carry a tune too well myself.
What Cats Are Really Saying
Someone posted a video of two cats talking to each other to YouTube. Then someone else posted an English translation. I was in tears laughing.
Cat's Paw
Watching one of my cats gingerly feeling his way along a counter strewn with newspapers, any one of which could conceivably be covering a trap door, I recently realized how apt a term "pussyfoot" is. Today's issue of Anu Garg's A.Word.A.Day email newsletter brings us information on the three meanings—and origins—of another feline-inspired phrase, cat's paw.
A few smiles for the new year
A friend sent me this collection of "cute" cats. Hopefully, some of them will put a smile on your face as you trudge back to work tomorrow.
Speaking Himalayan
There comes a time in every cat's life when it's time to learn about dogs.
Actually, Thom was fooling around with his new digital camera and I was making my annual contribution to Guiding Eyes for the Blind — a portion of all my Catlife Photography sales goes to various relevant charities — when Edgar Baboo decided to add his ample body to the proceedings last night.
With this post, I'm also establishing a Technorati Profile, hopefully opening the door to thousands and thousands of readers and contributors (on every level of the word).
Henry, Henry's Blend, Yin & Yang
Thom scanned the negative for a shot of Henry and Herman, two red tabbys who lived with my parent's, earlier today. I call the photograph Yin Yang.
We ran out of coffee, which I usually get fresh ground at a Starbucks near work in Manhattan, so Thom stopped at the A&P on the way back from playing racquetball to pick some other brand for the morning cup. As he scanned the many choices, a few bags of Seattle's Best, a brand he'd heard about but never tried, caught his eye. How could he avoid buying Henry's Blend, which comes with a picture of a red tabby — a "big friendly cat that once lived at the original Seattle's Best Coffee roasting plant on Vashon Island," according to the promotional copy on the bag.
I think Carl Jung had something to say about synchronicity that would be appropriate here, but it's late and I'm too tired to look it up. Maybe I will after I have some of that coffee tomorrow.
Lost and Found: A NYC Holiday Story
Eilis Cahill, who grew up next door to us, is a young actress now living in Brooklyn. A couple of weeks ago, she took her dog, Tenaby, on a walk in Manhattan's Central Park. He managed to free himself from his collar and bolted. She created a flyer that family and friends plastered all over the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where Tenaby had last been spotted. I've spent a fair amount of time looking for lost pets over the years, and know how devastating it can be. Here's Eilis' beautifully written tale of her reunion with Tenaby (if you're at all like me, I knew you'd want to know that that there's a happy ending before reading further).
THE DAY I FOUND MY DOG
Tuesday, December 11th
I was at the post-office when I received a voice message from Bea, a woman who said she had information on a 'possible Tenaby sighting' at the waterfront park near Trump Towers. What made my heart jump at the message was that the sighting had been that morning. Many people had called to say they'd seen him the previous week or the day he ran away.
I ran out of the building, jumped into a cab, and headed west. That ride seemed to take hours. I ended up cutting it short and jumping out because I was sure I could run there faster.
When I reached the area I called Bea, who told me to go to 68th St, and to walk down the stairway going to the promenade on the river. She said there was an area with large dirt piles and weeds near the steps, and this was where she'd seen him. I followed her directions. I reached the park, walked past the playground, down the steps, along the path, toward the water.
I still can't believe what happened next.
It is as simple as this. I called his name, and he came to me. It looked like he materialized from the tall grass. He ran to me, crying. I dropped to the ground, beside myself, and tried to hug him as he kept jumping on me and licking my face. We were both whimpering. I was stunned, and terrified that it was another dream and I would soon wake up and find that he was still lost.
The only thing that assured me it was real was how thin and dirty he was. My heart broke again when I put the leash on and saw how small his neck had become. Since I lost him it had snowed twice and rained even more. It was very painful to imagine where he had been during the harsh weather. We made it up the steps before we had to stop and pet and hug each other all over again.
It took ages to get home. We stopped by a pet store for two tons of food and a bath. Tenaby drank two bowls of water, one after the other, and then most of a third. I was thrilled to find that he still loves other dogs, without exception. I'd been afraid he would suffer traumatizing experiences and be different when we found him. He may have suffered, but he is still himself! His all-loving, happy self.
If I read this in a storybook or saw it in a movie, I would find it all too sugary sweet to believe, but here I am, at home with my beautiful, sweet, resilient, grateful and happy dog, I believe in miracles, I'm charged to the brim with respect and love for New York, where perfect strangers saved my dog's life. And by proxy, mine!
Thank you, New York City.
And a special thanks to Bea, whose incredible intuition, generosity and compassion for dogs orchestrated this miracle. Bea is a dog-walker, and I'm bringing Tenaby to meet her on Saturday. She said she saw him, knew she had seen a flyer and could maybe find his owner, and looked up at the sky saying "Please, give me this." She is thrilled, ecstatic and relieved, saying this great luck made her week. She seems to think she's the lucky one!
Happy Holidays!
Animal Rescue Donations
Well, we're finally up and running for real with an excellent e-commerce solution. We'll be adding many more prints to the inventory over the next few days, but I wanted to post this e-mail I just received. Evidently, a bunch of sponsors on a commercial Website (Petfinder.com) make donations to the Animal Rescue Site if people click on a button daily. The Animal Rescue Site claims that 100% of the donations go to "fund programs to provide food and care for rescued animals." It doesn't cost you anything except a fleeting glance at the sponsor's ads. Here's the email I received:
Free Food for Animal Shelter
Hi, all you animal lovers. This is pretty simple.. Please tell ten (or more)
friends to tell ten today! The Animal Rescue Site is having trouble getting
enough people to click on it daily to meet their quota of getting free food
donated every day to abused and neglected animals.
It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "feed an animal
in need" for free. It's in a purple box in the middle of the page. This
doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate sponsors/advertisers use the
number of daily visits to donate food to abandoned/neglected animals in
exchange for advertising.
Here's the web site! Pass it along to people you know.
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=3
We Are Ga-Ga Over Our Pets
Thom cited an AP story in his daily roundup of marketing stories this morning that says that Americans spent $48.7 billion on their pets in 2007, nearly twice the amount of a decade ago and growing at more than 7 percent a year.
Doug Poindexter, president of the World Wide Pet Industry Association, is quoted as saying that the gift-giving trend reflects the growing humanization of pets in this country.
Wouldn't know anything about that <g>.
Bloom Where You're Planted
Talk about "Bloom Where You're Planted," this chap's cats, Harper and Siouxsie, sleep in a small blue pot together.
We're on our way
We've registered catlifephotography.com and established a hosting account at Godaddy, created an account at PayPal to accept credit card payments, signed up with Holoscan to allow comments and trackbacks on the blog page , talked to John Maggiotto about digitizing our negatives, researched the top black and white printers and digital watermark software, and decided to just forge ahead and sell the images at an affordable price that we trust will generate enough volume to make it all worthwhile. We should be up and running for real within a week.