Inky likes to hide under my loquat tree, and listen for birds.
I didn't realize until I looked at the picture later, but Billy is camouflaged
in the background behind Inky. This would make a good jigsaw puzzle picture.
Jet likes to nap on a cushion on a chair on the front porch. He was a very fast kitten, so his name has a double meaning: 'fast' and 'jet-black'.
An 'arty' photo of Jet and a yard ornament. I like the colors, shapes and composition of it.
Jet had lost a lot of fur one summer-probably due to bug-bites, and when his fur regrew he had sprinkles of white on the top of his head, and two whiskers came in white, so they now look like antennae.
Lion was originally named Lionheart. He was brave and had a shy sibling named Chickenheart who was marked almost the same, but a mirror version. Lion became very shy and his name shortened to Lion. His face markings remind me of Adolph Hitler for some reason.
Magic showed up one day courtesy of a neighbor who assumed any stray kit must be one of ours.
I considered calling him 'Elvis' because he had such black hair and blue eyes, but I knew the kitten blue wouldn't last. So he's Black Magic, but the sun has reddened his fur. He's very sweet and loving, but shy of Bootless and Zipper, who tend to bully him.
Ringo has a white ring near the end of her tail. More than 20 years ago, a cat we called Momma Whitetip visited us briefly. I wonder if Ringo is related?
Ringo likes to sit in my loquat tree. She's invisible from outside, because I've pruned it to a sphere on the outside. I had to lift branches and creep inside the tree canopy to get the tree pics, and didn't know until I got there whether there was a cat inside.
I love Ringo's ears. They have an elegant little tuft of 'feather' at the tips.
She's a 'butterfly' tabby, with the markings in bold swirls. Really a lovely cat, but a little shy.
Here you can see her 'ring' that provided her name.
We turned the canvas & metal seat from an old swing into--well, it's not a 'pup' tent. Ringo and Lion like it.
Rub-a-dub-dent, three cats in a tent. Ringo, Lion and Billy. I held the camera down and shot at random, because I couldn't see inside the darkness.
Billy is still behind Ringo and Lion, but you can only see an ear-edge.
Roy is the third of Ken's cats (Eric and Bert are the others). He's an
eating machine.
Roy likes to share this old (more than 40 years, I think) dog basket with Eric. Roy is from the next litter after Bert by the some mother, and their white markings are nearly identical.
Roy is very photogenic. It doesn't seem to matter what the background is.
Here Roy is on the sideboard, practising his sophisticated pose
Roy was born during a triple rainbow, so his name is from the color spectrum, RedOrangeYellow.
Tara was born in our yard. I saw her at less than a day old. She looked like a gray and white cat, but I saw a single orange hair in the middle of her neck and knew she was a calico. The next day her mother, Lady Jane, moved the litter and I didn't see Tara again for nearly a month.
The cat I think was her father was a pewter gray, with white markings in almost the same places, including the lighter mark below the eyes, which is only visible on Tara's left side. I called him Rhett Butler, because he reminded me of Clark Gable in 'Gone with the Wind'.
Tara is named for the mansion in 'Gone with the Wind' because her white legs remind me of the pillars on the front of the manion and the gray and red remind me of the smoke and fire when the mansion burned. Tara always wants to be near me ever since I found her in thorny bushes next door at about a month old, screaming and running around. She took one look at me when I pulled her out of the bushes and shut up, happy. I'm sure her mom told her to find herself a
Tara's backbone is a bit crooked (well, so is mine) so she often sits with her front legs to one side of her hind legs which gives the impression she has eight legs. Here she's washing.
Once when mom was looking for something to wear to Las Vegas she looked at Tara and wished she had an elegant vest like hers.
This link is to a mini-'movie' of Tara washing. It was made from 7 stills, so it's not a 'real' movie.
Tom is mom's cat, and more faithful than most dogs.
Tommy's name is very punny. He's sort of Tara's uncle, although he's the same age as her.He's a 'tom' cat, and he's the biggest smoozler and 'uncle tom' you've ever seen.
Here's Zipper. His mom was Nip. She showed up to have kittens and then disappeared. Her kittens were named Tuck, Buttons, Bows, and Zipper.
I love his face-markings. He can be a bit of a bully to some of the other cats.
But with a face like that, you have to forgive Zipper.
Zipper is very friendly with Foxy, and the two of them often share a box or a chair, particularly if the weather cools a bit. Here they are making a two-headed cat.