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The Only Cat
Templeton in April of 2001 sitting on a table in my wife's office. Little did he know how his world would change a month later when we brought Scout home ...
I used the flash as fill-flash here, so the incandescent lighting of the room added an orange glow to the scene, plus you can see some movement blur in his ears as he swiveled them about when the shutter tripped. |
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Happiness is a Catnip Bag
2001 required Templeton to make a pretty big adjustment as he got used to having a young admirer in the house. No matter what stresses the young kitten added to his life, he could always find happiness in one of his catnip bags. This one is looking rather deflated, he had worked the bag over pretty hard and chewed holes into one of the corners, allowing the catnip to make its bold escape. Fortunately for Templeton, Scout had not yet discovered the joys of catnip so he had the bags all to himself.
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Introducing Miss Scout
Life changed quite a bit in May when we brought Scout home to live with us. We kept her in this bathroom for the first few days, partly to let her get used to her new environment a little bit at a time, partly to let Templeton get used to having another cat in the house.
We had to close the door if we wanted to keep her in here, as she would climb any barriers we put in the doorway. We tried a baby gate but she was past that in no time. We tried stacking boxes but she'd keep climbing them no matter how high we stacked them. Once it was clear that Templeton was OK with her, we gave up trying to keep her isolated, she just refused to be away from us. Starting the day we brought her home, I would lie down on the floor and she'd curl up under my chin and go to sleep. It would get painful laying that long on the hard floor, but I figured it was a good time to bond, and to this day she spends her nights sleeping on my chest (she moved to my chest when she got too big to fit under my chin). |
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Couldn’t Have Come At A Better Time
The timing of Scout’s arrival was impeccable. While Templeton was vigilant in keeping the little gray mice in check, he adopted a live-and-let-live policy towards the large pink mice. Their population exploded as a result, but with Scout on the prowl, it wasn’t long before even the pink mice were brought under control.
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Sleeping Beauty
Scout has always been very affectionate towards me. She's not a lap cat as she absolutely hates to be picked up and held, so she expresses her affection in other ways.
As a kitten, she'd often want to be near me when she napped. If I was working at the computer, she'd literally sit on my right hand, which made it impossible to use the mouse. I came up with a compromise and put a pillow beside my keyboard, a compromise she was eventually willing to accept. When we moved to Portland, Templeton would go through phases where he'd use the pillow as well. |
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The Huntress
We put Scout to work right away, training her to be a world class mouser. She didn't need much encouragement.
I could have used a remote for taking pictures of her playing on the scratching post. I really wanted to catch her in mid-air, claws spread, right before she landed on the post. But she wouldn't cut me any slack, the moment I put the little furry mouse on the top of the post she'd come lunging for it. By the time I raced back to my camera, she'd usually already have captured her prey. She had already landed in this shot but is still a split second away from grabbing the mouse in her jaws. |