Indoor Cat

    "George", Canon G12, f4, 1/8 sec, iso 250, handheld

"Indoor Cat"

I tried some portraiture yesterday with some friends cats, including George above.   I really like the way this one came out with George sitting in front of a great painting while looking out a window into the desert beyond.

Gila Monster

While visiting some friends after work today, their indoor cats became fixated on the patio.   Looking out I spotted the object of their attention, a 14-16 inch long Gila Monster!  Way cool.  I grabbed the camera and went outside to snap a few pictures from a respectful distance.  

Gila Monsters are one of two native venomous lizard species found in North America and the only one found in the United States.  They live about 95% of their lives underground, so its a real privilege to see one.   I think this is only the third or fourth one I've seen in the wild.

Their diet consists of birds, mammals, frogs, lizards, and insects.  They also climb cacti and trees in search of nests containing eggs.

Its hard to get in trouble with one of these lizards unless you mess with one or try to pick one up.   They move pretty slowly, so occasionally someone will try to grab one by the tail only to find out how fast they can snap around and munch down on one's fingers, with jaws and teeth that really don't let go and a very painful venom.  Best left well alone.  A protected species in Arizona.

This fellow patrolled the patio perimeter and then wandered back out to the surrounding desert area.

Arizona Animal Fair 2012

 Here a few pictures I doggedly pursued this morning at the Arizona Animal Fair at Reid Park.  There were performances, demonstrations, loads of dog (and animal) advocacy organizations, and a lot of shelter/adoption/rescue organizations talking about what they do and showing animals they have up for adoption.  The stylish greyhound above was from the Southern Arizona Greyhound Rescue.

 A champion Frisbee team put on an impressive demonstration, including an incredible back flip catch.  Yes, the dog landed just fine.

 An agility / trials demonstration

 Dance performances...

 Working dog demonstrations from several law enforcement and border patrol agencies.

 Lots of socializing...  I think the dogs in attendance were having an even better time than the people -- they seemed more eager to introduce themselves to each other.

 so many things to look at and smell...

 These three clearly thought the interesting action was not in the direction that their chauffeurs were facing...

 a good day for a little shade, I should have worn something myself

 a whole different world going on down here

a well-balanced diet

Here is Simba, my neighbor's cat, demonstrating the importance of water as part of a well-balanced cat diet (or is that a well-balanced cat is part of getting a cool drink of water?)

It must be reassuring for a desert dwelling cat to have his own 9 ft deep water dish!

Hmmm, also shows that its time for one of my least favorite activities, cleaning tile. Sigh.

Simba

My backyard has always been popular with my neighbor's cats, but none more than Simba. Simba has pretty much established dominion over my yard, graciously allowing me to swim from time to time in what he considers his naturally occuring lake.

Simba likes to curl up for a nap on the top of my neighbor's shed where he can look out over a large part of my yard, watch birds, squirrels, rabbits and catch a few z's. When I see Simba up on a roof, I'm reminded of a wild cat taking a position of peace, security, solitude, and looking out over its little piece of the world -- seeing others more than being seen itself.

I think it is interesting to try to picture the world the way our cats, dogs, and other animals might see it. A yard becomes a world. Things we take for granted, walk right past and perhaps have never seen come into focus. Sometimes its nice to curl up with a view of our small piece of the world, slow down, and reflect on our place in the cycle of life.

One of my favorite quotes comes from Henry Beston's book The Outermost House:

"We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth." -- Henry Beston from The Outermost House