Last night, while looking for one thing I found another: Four snapshots of Cali taken when she approached me on the street, June 4, 2014. This one is best of them. Strange, I hunted for pics of her a year ago on the chance there might be something; glad to get them now. Three cheers for Google auto-backup to the cloud. I cropped the photo to remove the truck’s license plate. Vitals: f/2.4, ISO 100, 1/320 sec, 4mm.
The pics also confirm the date, which I wondered might be June 2nd instead. Cali came up to me looking for pats on that pleasant evening. I had delivered a final load of stuff to the group house where my daughter Molly moved into. The cat was friendly and not the least skittish. This was her neighborhood. Furballs like her are common enough but not a Tortoiseshell, which is probably why I shot her using Google-branded Nexus 5.
I now vaguely remember capturing Cali but being disappointed by the pics. But they mark a moment—hours before an abandoned cat on the street nestled into bed with my daughter and adopted her. Cali lives with us now, but she will always belong to Molly. Correction: Molly will always belong to Cali.