Chrissy The Cat Ain't A Happy Camper

My dad and step-mother's cat, Chrissy, likes to sleep underneath their bed's covers. She'll spend some time outside watching her fenced in territory, the back yard, making sure squirrels and birds don't dare try to take over her domain, even if in just passing. Sometimes she sits back deep in the bushes, hiding so much so you can't even see where she is since it's pitch black in those deep-seated bushes and she's as black as coal.

But, my step-mother once told me, "Sometimes you can see her yellow eyes peering through the darkness."

Chrissy has gorgeous yellow and black eyes. She is THE perfect looking Halloween cat.

So, the other day, I go by their house for a visit and I have my camera along with me, the Nikon D700 digital SLR, with the 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor auto focus lens attached to it. After looking for Chrissy, with my camera at the ready, my step-mother told me that Chrissy was in the bedroom sleeping.

Now I don't think Chrissy doesn't exactly hate me for taking photos of her but I do know she's not that fond of it either. Most of the time she will put up with it and at times has seemed to not care one bit, but, on this particular day, she obviously wasn't too happy with me.

Why? Well, it was quite simple. She was sound asleep, having kitty cat dreams, under the top cover of my dad and step-mother's bed and I walked in there and put my hands on the bulge in the bed cover, with a little squeeze of love added, of course, and then I lifted the cover away a bit and found her chilled out (see first photo), possibly groggy from her sudden shift from deep sleep to conscious reality and knowing the person who just woke her up probably intended on aiming that weird looking contraption at her and saying things like, "Shit, focus already, you slow ass m-fer!" or "DAMMIT, WHY WON'T THIS SHUTTER BUTTON FIRE?" or "Oh, crap, I had white balance set for flash when I didn't use the flash, you big dummy!" or, stupidly, "Chrissy, don't move!"

So, in this first photograph, the one at the beginning of this piece, she seems okay.

(Click to enlarge any of the photos in this post.)

But get a load of the photo I took of her face once she decided to wake up, get out from under the covers, lay on top of the covers and start thinking about, oh, I don't know, how I just took her from a dream in which she's running to and fro protecting her back yard domain from attacks by a swarm of finches who want a drink at the bird bath to staring into a camera lens manned by her crazy uncle?

Look at that mug, will ya? Oh, man, what a face. This photograph is a picture worth a thousand words, with a few, in fact, probably a lot of them, not allowed by the FCC censors.

But, right after Chrissy told me with her look of total disgust what she really felt about my paparazzi interference into her cat life, she suddenly was overcome by a huge urge to yawn and she yawned like you've never seen a cat yawn in your life. Just look at those downsized saber tooth choppers. This cute little girl is a voracious carnivore and you better not forget it either, buddy:

Chrissy makes a great subject and I will continue to piss her off by taking her photograph because, despite her annoyance at me, she is really a good cat due to her cranky little personality that I find to be so cute.

SKITTLES THE YAWNING CAT

As we made a pit stop at a co-worker's house, while out perusing an estate sale and a couple of thrift stores, I took my camera inside with me and searched for Skittles the cat. She was on top of my co-worker's comfy bed fast asleep. After I woke her up I caught her in the middle of a yawn. Normally, my flash intimidates her and so I didn't have it attached to my award-winning Nikon D700, knowing how well it performs in low light.

I got this photograph while she was rising from her cap nap and stretching off the cobwebs with that big ol' yawn.

The ISO was 4500 for this shot and the in camera Noise Reduction was set at normal. I did some post production in Nikon's excellent Capture NX 2 software and you can witness the result for yourself.

I always describe cats caught in the middle of flexing their choppers 'Pavarotti Yawns' as it seems as if they're belting out a long note.

Skittles, or Skids, like most animals, has a funny side to her. She loves to "go spinning" and you can see a video of her doing just that by clicking here.