A Love Story - Stanley and Gabriel

This is absolutely priceless - if you have any experience at all with cats, Stanley is a typical little bugger (English for little devil) ...
At one point we had two German Shepherds and two cats and guess who was the boss!

Full Moon

Last night was a full moon and I wanted to try something 'different' instead of the big black sky with the big white globe ... I took the 'big white globe' through some leafless trees and tinkered with the gamma settings and ended up with this. What do you think???





Last night was the very first time Daphne jumped up onto the top shelf of her condo .. she's not a youngster so I think she was waiting until her confidence caught up with her ambition. She sat for a while looking at the nightscape of the bay - the lights, reflections, etc. then she settled down and went fast asleep, as you can see here. The subsequent photos I took showed open eyes, so this is the only one showing her sleeping.

More photos of DAPHNE

I managed to take a nice photo of her right before she moved ... She's sitting in the space between the two levels of my apartment .. just the right size for her. I'm getting to see more of her personality now she's settling in and she's obviously come from a good home. I don't understand how they could have surrendered her to the Pound after 11 years but I'm glad I was there to find her and bring her home .. she's definitely a 'home body' ...



She's enjoying her condo and finally mustered enough courage to jump onto the first level by herself. I have been putting her on there in the top basket and she stays for quite a while but I haven't seen her get up there herself until today.
She also jumps on my bed when I go to bed and she graciously allows me to pet her for a few minutes before she settles down. The story continues ...

MEET DAPHNE

On October 16th I went to the Peninsula Humane Society with the intention of adopting one cat but when I arrived, I saw DAPHNE ... and decided to bring her home with me. She's a petite kitty with unique markings and a great personality. She's 11-years old and declawed on the front paws and I wondered who else would adopt her ... most people want kittens or younger cats. She won me over and she has a home now for the rest of her life. My longest-lived cat was 23 when she died and our last cat was 18, so 11 isn't so old!

I bought all the supplies at PetCo, including this condo which I put in front of the sliding glass doors so she has a view over the Bay. In this photo, you can see her markings. One tiny glitch - she doesn't stay still long enough for me to take a nice photo of her. I've taken about 30 so far and these two are the best .. and far from perfection! I'm sure once she settles in (she's pretty much there now) I'll be able to take a great shot.

Africa

My sister just returned from an African photo safari. This one is her favorite. This male lion is about 5 years old and in his prime. She was fortunate enough to take this as he laid down on a raised area with the setting sun in the background.


In stark contrast to the beauty above, this is MY favorite photo. I have not seen such a funny face on any animal .... I wonder what happened??!! If you have an appropriate caption, I'd be pleased to hear it.




This is the photograph her husband gave her as a birthday gift .. it's titled "Polar Kiss" ... I love the look on the polar bear's face.

You can laugh at me now!

I have been watching the International Space Station fly over for the last few days .. I'm really interested in 'space' things. My little Nikon Coolpix L5 is a great little camera but, try as I might, I can't get a shot of the ISS going by. This is the best I can do ... there's a tiny whitish streak in the middle of the photo ... go ahead and laugh. I'm putting a new camera on my Christmas list!

Sky Shots

I have a fascination with the sky, clouds, planets, ISS, etc. so I can't resist when I see a beautiful, weird, or interesting photo-op. This one was taken from my deck and doesn't really reflect the scene which was bright orange/pink hills in the east bay, over a darker foreground.

As soon as I saw this orange moon, I ran for my camera! What a shame it wasn't a full moon too .. but it still made an awesome sight in the dark sky. Perhaps it was orange from some of the smoke from the Auburn fires to the northwest.




I was on my deck to watch the ISS go by and even took a photo of it as it flew by, but my little camera isn't good enough to take that shot. This full moon was the best I could do - taken September 5th.