Kitty, kitty, kitty

There is a feline feel to this post...

because my blog heroine Ree is running another assignment at her place

and I have entered three pussy pics this week.
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After the over-excitement of getting two photos up in last week's canine contest, I have very low expectations (there are 1000's of entries after all!) but thought I would share the pics here so at least SOMEONE gets to see 'em.

My cousin's tiger/cat sporting a hot pink collar...

some fill flash used

Exposure: 0.006 sec (1/160)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 150 mm


Middy the panther, and her lamp eyes ...
Exposure: 0.02 sec (1/50)
Aperture: f/6.3
Focal Length: 170 mm

Middy the Victor.

After bashing up Axel.

(Again.)

Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/800)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 200 mm
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If you missed the first take on this love-hate relationship that is enacted EVERY SINGLE DAY here at Granite Glen, then check this post. And this one. The day he realises he is actually bigger than her, she's toast. Luckily she is a LOT cleverer than her canine counterpart. I cannot see the status quo changing anytime soon...

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So... which is your favourite shot?

If you entered a shot at Ree's, please post the entry link in comments.

Or if you've a story/post about your feline friend, share it there too...

Fishbowl, a Feline and a Flamin' Ridiculous Dawg

I got a new lens hood a couple of weeks ago...

unlike my old hard plastic hood, this one is a fold-back rubber kinda hood.

(For those not photo-obsessed, a hood attaches to the end of a lens and assists when the sun is shining hard towards the lens, blocking the glare and allowing the photographer to shoot almost into the light... trust me, it's groovy!).

It allows me to shoot nice backlit images like this one...

Oh dear, this one makes me well up.

(This is why.)

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Anyway, it's a great tool. No more pesky glare spots. The only trouble is, it doesn't completely 'fit' with my beloved 18-200mm zoom lens - and let's face it, that is the ONLY lens I actually use. This means basically, that when the lens is pulled back to it's most panoramic limit, THIS happens.

No, not freaky black horse and human figures.

Those black 'corners' on the image, caused by my hood hovering a little too far out from the lens... something most 'real' photographers would shy away from.
After all it wasn't a deliberate effect.

But you know me...

I decided I kinda liked it...

It's kind of like looking through binoculars (or monocle?)

or maybe even a fishbowl...

Hello General... how you going dude?

Hello Jill... sorry, I haven't any hay darlin'.

She's very forgiving and poses anyway...
And then, the other day while doing these photos, with this guy...

Hello Axel Rose, you crazy Great Dane adolescent...

My usual zoomed-out lens field (like that used in the above shot) worked initially,

but when the action came closer to me I went to 18mm and

got that had a similar groovy look...

(Warning: I have messed with the colour too... don't adjust your monitors!)

Guess what?

Axel wants to play! With Middy.

Will he NEVER learn?

A tail position is worth a thousand words!
Aw Mid... c'mon, c'mon, c'mon!!!
Yarrrrrr....
Muuuummmmmyyyyyy!

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Even in a desaturated 70's fishbowl,

Axel is still a blinking great

Wuss for that black Puss.

The Scooby Doo Factor

You know how we have a Great Dane puppy?

And you know how puppies

- when they are little -

can be a little nervous of things BIGGER than themselves?

And you know how BIG Great Danes can get?

Like bigger than a cat or normal dogs or even some calves?

We are talking GIANT here people... our beloved Coz weighed 75kg!

Well, wouldn't you think that a dog already weighing over 30kg

who could (in theory) be considered a 'hunting dog'

might somehow take advantage of his own

impending enormousness?
And not simply RUN AWAY when confronted with

any animal

OF ANY SIZE

that might look sideways at it?

No?

Yep. The headline should read:

"5kg cat Lords it over 35kg canine."

The ridiculous dog fails to take any notice of me,

but if Middy so much as raises her almight black hackles,

Axel freezes, whimpers and cowers until she stalks off.

I like to call it The Scooby Doo factor.

I wonder if it will wear off when he hits 60kg?

Meet Midnight...

Some of you have been suffering under the illusion that you have met ALL the Granite Glen menagerie...

Sure, you may have met dogs and horses, cattle and emus, goannas and birds...
But there is one particular member of our household I have been tardy in introducing...
Her name is Midnight.

Middy for short.
(And in Australia, everything gets shortened.)
She is not one of your cuddly, suck-up kinda felines.
She was a wild kitten, who adopted my mother about 8 years ago. Well, that's Mum's story - Mum had a bit to do with it too. She would leave out tidbits for this scrap of black fluff, and earned her trust bit by bit. My mother is most definitely a cat person. Actually she's an animal person who harboured dreams of being a vet. But that's another story.
Today we are talking about Middy.

She is quite beautiful - a witch's cat with soft black fur and lamp-like eyes. But she is not a particularly outgoing creature. In fact Middy disappears whenever visitors come to our home. It took her a good week to show her huge yellow eyes near the house after we moved in. And she is particularly not a fan of kids. She has been known to vanish at the mere mention of them.
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But it seems Middy is mellowing in her middle age, and is content these days to curl up in a corner as long as our children (no visitors!) aren't being too rowdy or obnoxious.
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Late at night, often when I am posting on my blog, she'll even deign to climb onto my lap and sit there for a few minutes, contentedly clawing my thigh. We endure this charade of cat-love for about ten minutes (max) and then I get up and find some fresh meat for her to eat. She smiles her little black cat grin and settled down to her hard-earned tucker.
It's our little arrangement.

I do love Middy, but perhaps in a different way to the up-close-and-personal way I adored her earliest predecessor (in this house)... he was a Siamese named Gabriel, who lived to 18 and was positively half-human. Now he loved humans. Couldn't get enough of us. I have a photo somewhere of him lying in one of our doll cots, where we had tucked him in.

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Middy doesn't mind us. So long as we feed her and give her somewhere warm to curl up.
It's really not so much for a wild cat to ask, eh Middy?.