Midnight the Cat Again

Our ongoing venture to tempt our 3 ½ year old rescue cats to pose for photographs, or at least not run as soon as they see a camera, continues. Karl worked a little with Midnight, the spookier of the two and not just because of her jet black coloring. She panics at anything, hid for a longer time than her sister Sassy, and runs anytime we tried to touch her. Over the last few months she will tolerate some stroking of her incredibly soft fur, but any attempt to pick her up results in an immediate run out of the room and hiding under the bed. She likes to be near us more, just not in close physical proximity. Part of the problem we noticed involves her sister. Sassy is alpha cat, considers us her people, and doesn’t share well. Ah, sisters!

I grew up in a household in the standard American suburb, with my parents, siblings and any number of pets. At any time we had one or two dogs, a couple of cats, an aquarium of fish (my father’s hobby) and later a bird that my one brother wanted. Karl grew up with dogs, and considered himself a dog person. That changed when our first rescue cat came into our lives. After her another rescue, a small kitten dumped near Karl's office, who lived with us over 13 years before passing away. When the that cat died, Karl said he thought we should have two from the same litter if we ever had cats again. "Ever" ended up a little more than a year later. The two sisters were tailor-made.

Karl found Midnight comfortable and partially sleeping, and took a couple of shots. As you can see, her black fur makes lighting any photo of her a challenge. She opened her eyes just a slit to let us know that she was allowing this, but maybe just this one time. She immediately got up, did the turn around a couple of times, and plopped down with her back to the camera. The shoot came to an end, but at least he got this one shot.