On Easter Sunday, which this year also was April Fools, I walked the neighborhood, practice manual focusing with the Leica M (Typ 262) and Summarit-M 1:2.4/50 lens. Morla the tortoise was out and about, too. […]
Category: Critters
The Cats of University Heights: Snow
The second of three consecutive Window cats—and nineteenth out of 152 putty-tat profiles to date—is another white. My wife and I spotted this handsome looker on March 19, 2018 along Louisiana Street between Meade and […]
The Cats of University Heights: Holiday
This place is going to feel like a real meowy beastie blog, while the backlog of photographed but not featured felines clears away. Apologies, I got behind posting to the series while furnishing my daughter’s new apartment. Four of them look out from glass, like today’s wonderful white, who is the eighteenth behind a window—and unbelievably the sixteenth sighted on Alabama Street. Monkey, who recently passed away, lived on the same block. Laramie, Lupe, and Smokey remain residents.
I waited weeks to profile the kitty that earns nickname Holiday, seeing that it’s April and a Christmas wreath still hangs on his owner’s door. Somebody often cracks a window for Holiday, who is a fixture when days are sunny and warm. I held back the profile hoping to meet his caretaker(s) and get a name. I first photographed the cat on February 17, 2018. That’s long enough ago to abandon the quest and move onward.
The Cats of University Heights: Sebastian, Too
Meet the second Sebastian to appear in the series. The first lives near the Vermont Street Bridge, which is more than a mile (1.6 km) from his namesake, who romps with two other kittens around a home on Mississippi between El Cajon and Meade. One of them, Persepolis, posts simultaneously but separately.
Sebastian and his mates were adopted together, which wasn’t the owners’ original plan. But the three were obviously a bonded set, having been fostered together, and they couldn’t conscientiously be separated.
The Cats of University Heights: Persepolis
The series is way behind, based on the number of furballs photographed but waiting to be profiled. My apologies for the break. During the past two weeks, I was occupied setting up my daughter’s new apartment. But that project is finished. Whew. Let’s resume with the first of three kittens, living on Mississippi between Meade and El Cajon Blvd.
Persepolis is this handsome ginger’s real name. Companion Sebastian posts simultaneously but separately. Hopefully soon, their mate Lilly will join the series, whenever I capture a better portrait (She was too quick, and I too slow with the camera).
The Only North Face They’ll Ever Climb
Our kitties Neko and Cali love to sleep on my North Face sleeping bag, which we keep for them on the spare bed in the office. Typically they take turns sleeping there. The two together […]
The Cats of University Heights: Apple
What other nickname could I possibly give this fine feline than Apple? Luckily somebody isn’t putting paws to keyboard. Eh? Among the 148 kitty profiles since the series started in October 2016, Apple is the seventeenth behind a window. But the first sighting was beyond a door, few weeks back—and I almost tried to get a portrait then. But distance and rudness shooting deep inside the apartment kept my finger from the shutter. Hehe, but not yesterday.
I captured the Featured Image and its companion at 3:48 p.m PDT, along Mississippi Street between Adams and Madison, using Leica M (Typ 262) with Summarit-M 1:2.4/50 lens. Vitals for both, aperture manually set: f/5.6, ISO 200, 1/2000 sec, 50mm. I shot the second photo first and the other immediately after, when Apple turned. The closeup is a crop; the longer-distance portrait is framed by the window edges. I let Adobe Lightroom Classic CC auto-adjust both.
The Cats of University Heights: Bob
The morning is unusually cloudy and damp here in San Diego as this otherwise fine Caturday unfolds. Meet Bob (real name), whom I encountered on March 7, 2018 along Cliff Street, where he lives. Initially, I thought he was the putty-tat I call Finny, from nearby Adams Ave., but closer photo inspection reveals they are not the same animal.
A woman taking her daughter to school gave me Bob’s name, and she said that he belongs to one of her neighbors. He surely is a friendly puss. Bengal Abby also lives somewhere on the street. She will appear in the series when I finally capture a portrait worthy of her beauty. Currently, I am zero for four attempts.
The Cats of University Heights: Charlie (the Third)
Add another furball to the number of Alabama Street sighted, and profiled; I have seen four or five others, which will appear when there are portraits captured. Charlie (name on tag) is the fifteenth featured in this series between neighborhood boundaries Adams and Lincoln. On no other street are there so many beasties, and for reasons I cannot explain. Those profiled (so far): Bella, Burglar, Cal, Goldie, Itchy Valentino, Laramie, Lupe, Mr. Kitty, Monkey, Anthony, Penny, Smokey, Tipsy, and Willow. Monkey passed away on Feb. 24, 2018. 🙁
Charlie presents a quandary for titling this post, being the third cat with that name. Three alike in the list of past putty-tats could cause confusion among them. Hence, “the third” added in parenthesis, and “Too” to the previous one.
Goodbye, Monkey
The day after we rented our apartment on the East side of Park Blvd., I encountered a friendly feline sitting in what would eventually be our parking space. There was something warmly foreshadowing about his presence, soon after emerging from under the gate leading inside the complex’s courtyard. I wrongly assumed he lived here. But Monkey’s home was the second house away.
He appeared in my “Cats of University Heights” series on Oct. 10, 2017. The Featured Image and its companions, shot with Leica Q on the Ninth, didn’t make the post. Vitals for the first: f/1.7, ISO 1250, 1/250 sec, 28mm; 6:38 p.m. PST. The other two are same except for ISO 3200.
The Cats of University Heights: Penny
Another day, another Alabama kitty. They’re backing up, as I seek better portraits of other recently sighted furballs. Penny (her real name) is the fourteenth feline featured in the series from the street. The others (so far): Bella, Burglar, Cal, Goldie, Itchy Valentino, Laramie, Lupe, Mr. Kitty, Monkey, Nine, Smokey, Tipsy, and Willow.
Penny is kind of a courtyard cat. She doesn’t venture into the apartment building’s public area, but she does occasionally look out from the window onto a large tree that attracts birds. Smokey, who lives two houses away, is a common (and beloved) trespasser.
The Cats of University Heights: Mew
Tuxedos sure are popular in the neighborhood. Meet the twenty-secondnth to appear in the series, which follows a reclassification allowing kitties with more mixed black-and-white coats. Yesterday, while walking along Florida from Meade to Mission, I heard meowing—the tenor like a feline asking to be let in. I unintentionally passed by the sound, then backtracked, finding the shorthair, who earns nickname Mew, peering down cement steps.
Looking up at the kitty, I felt a pang. While one is safe, another is not. On Feb. 16, 2018, according to a post on NextDoor, a Tuxedo was hit and killed by a vehicle at Cleveland Ave. and Washington Street. Unless some beastie wandered many blocks, the Tuxedo is unlikely to be one previously profiled: Black and White, Boss, Bright, Buddies, Cal, Captain Blackbeard, Charm, Curious, Fraidy, Fresh, Jellicle, Lola, Mittens, Nine, Patience, Pepe, Poser, Sammy, Spot, Seer, and Tux.