As I said, there were far more deserving cats in the Awesome Kitteh Contest than there were prizes, and over the next few months I want to feature some of the great cats and stories that readers sent in. This one comes from Rick:
Ashes is our favorite cat. He has incredibly soft fur, and will frequently demand that we sit down on a couch so that he can come snuggle on our laps. He especially likes laps with laptops, presumably for the extra warmth. He has a favorite plush ball that he’ll carry to the top of the stairs, meowing as he goes, only to drop it at the top in order to chase it down. His cutest habit involves our daughter (in the attached picture)—frequently after she leaves the house for school, Ashes will wander into her room and drag an article of clothing (usually something soft, like a sweater or sweatshirt) or a stuffed animal into the upstairs hall, all the while meowing for her.
Ashes loves to visit the family during dinner time. He’ll make his rounds to each family member several times. I’m not sure how this habit started since we never feed him at the table, but without fail he’ll show up in the dining room to rub against legs and politely request some petting.
As all great characters must have a flaw, Ashes has his. He is deathly afraid of the doorbell and has drawn blood on several of us if the doorbell rings while he is being held. He’ll flee to the upstairs master bedroom and hide under my bed for at least an hour. As a result, not many of our guests ever get to meet our favorite cat.
Here’s a lovely picture of Ashes and Rick’s daughter:
Rick: What is your photo equipment? (Nice bokeh!)
Nikon D5000, f/1.8, 1/125 sec. ISO-1100(!!), 35mm, no flash, aperture priority, auto white balance.
(It’s all in the EXIF data!)
Of course, the bokeh quality is a lens feature: no info there, but the f/1.8 sort of points in the direction of a regular, not too expensive, standard 50mm lens.
meant “standard 35 mm lens”, duh!
All excellent sleuthing and dead on. The high ISO might have been an artifact of a previous shoot where I’d been using a long lens and setting the auto-ISO to keep my shutter above 1/125. For this shot I could have easily used 1/30s and ISO 320.
And if it’s the “Nikon 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX”, then it’s not even THAT cheap either: still around $400. 😉
Great price for that kind of glass (IMO: Great IQ/$ ratio.) I’m a PENTAX guy and my 70mm f/2.4 cost $550: A great lens (also with lovely bokeh – gotta love 9-blades!) but darned spendy compared with the NIKON and CANON entrants! (With the APS-C sensor, it’s equiv. to 105mm at 35mm format.)
What a beautiful kitteh! Definitely deserves a prize.
All kittehs desurvz a priz!
“Ashes will wander into her room and drag an article of clothing (usually something soft, like a sweater or sweatshirt)”
Note nice soft sweatpant leg under chin of Ashes.
Perfect name for a soft, gray kitteh.
Doorbell and phone are freak-out sounds here. Amazing how fast they can move when it’s imperative to GET UNDER THE BED NOW!
Our queen’s noise trigger is the vacuum cleaner! A day of anger ensues after a good houseclean (and we have 2 floors of carpeting so the vacuum goes for a while!)
Ashes is a very beautiful cat!
First: Ashes does, indeed, give every appearance of being a most awesome cat. I love how he’s picked a knee as his pillow instead of some less-bony body part.
Baihu’s noise trigger is any car that’s delivered visitors to the house more than once.
No, really.
In a few hours, the trombonist will be here to pick me up to give me a lift to tonight’s quintet rehearsal. Even if all the doors and windows are closed and even if Baihu is asleep, as soon as Bob pulls up, Baihu will make a mad dash for under the bed covers. With luck, he won’t be on my shoulders when Bob arrives….
Keep in mind that Bob drives a new-ish generic quiet midsized family sedan and that the street is at least 30″ from the door. And that cars frequently pull up and park in front of my house to visit one of the neighbors.
It has nothing to do with schedules, either. He does the same thing when my parents infrequently pull up in their ’89 Lincoln Town Car. UPS and FedEx trucks make him visibly nervous, though he doesn’t automatically hide until the delivery guy actually stops in front. But other vehicles don’t faze him at all.
He may be paranoid, but he sure is smart!
Cheers,
b&
Aaarrrggghhh! My kingdom for a preview!
It is true that the street is at least 30″ from the door. It is also true — and less misleading — that it is at least 30′ from the door.
<sigh />
b&
I was picturing a little tiny house…
I was picturing a little motel!
Sorry, Ben, couldn’t help it.
Incredible. I can’t even tell the difference between late-model quietish cars.
@JBlilie: That was shot with a Nikon D5000 with a 35mm f/1.8 @ 1.8 (chosen specifically for the bokeh, thanks for noticing!).
@Ophelia: yup. Those very sweatpants are among the items of his affection.
@Josh & nlgirl: thanks! We do love our beautiful boy.
And Jerry, thanks for featuring the Awesome Kittehs.
Ashes sounds like a great cat. 🙂
Ever thought of changing your doorbell to something less dangerous?
Fascinating thought, but I’m not sure it would matter… On the other hand it just might.
Awww. He even looks incredibly soft. And what a sweet set of behaviors, with the possible exception of the drawing-blood bit.
Ever think of taping over the doorbell & forcing visitors to knock?
BTW, I hope you’re successful at keeping his favorite cat status from your other cats. 🙂
It was a wonderfully guilty pleasure acknowledging he was the family favorite. We can’t possibly do that with kids, but with animals–yeah, no doubt. Ashes FTW!
Guilty pleasure. I’m stealing that…works for the dogs, goats, chickens…You’re sure about the kid exception…?
🙂
(Potential haters–it was a joke!)
A Pavlovian response – could be gently conditioned out of it – exposure and food – gently.
Get a door knocker!
🙂
Ooohh–grey kittehs are my favorite! And those beautiful glowing eyes… (*sigh* my kitteh can’t live with us. Company housing–no pets, so Clio looks after my mom now for me since I’m far away…).