The series‘ four-hundred-seventieth profile takes us back inside. This sweet sleeper is the eighty-seventh feline found behind door or window. I used iPhone 13 Pro to capture the Featured Image on Jan. 17, 2022. Vitals: f/2.8, ISO 32, 1/2016 sec, 77mm; 12:53 p.m. PST.
For fur color and texture, this slumber-puss earns nickname Creamy.
To clear out the backlog of unpublished kitties, we’re bunching them up (third this week). I have held back several with collars and tags hoping to get their real names. But a time comes, when there has been no close encounter, to choose a moniker and add the beastie to the series.
This handsome tabby is one of several seen mulling about the same cottage complex along Louisiana. Those profiled so far, and there are more: Cuddles, Honcho, Saunter, and Squeaky.
For the first day of Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, I had planned to go with a nature theme. But plans changed after shopping at Grocery Outlet and seeing the wicked instant brew that my wife discovered during another visit. The company and its coffee are about a decade old but they’re new to me (obviously). The instant variety debuted in 2018.
The connotations of Death Wish, “world’s strongest coffee”, and skull-and-crossbones logo are loaded in all the right ways. It’s killer branding. K-pods are called “death cups”.
Yesterday, while walking to the used bookstore where receiving a U.S. Constitution booklet and unprompted lecture, I came upon the oddest objects—on the outer fringes of University Heights’ boundary, along Georgia between Howard and Polk. Are these signs in the Featured Image more signs of San Diego bureaucratic bungling? This stretch is part of the Georgia-Meade bikeway, for which someone in the city authorized traffic circles with the wrong community name that later required sandblasting to correct.
Tell me, when have you ever seen a posting stating “Speed Humps Ahead”. Gasp, is that, ah, innuendo for approaching sexual activity (e.g. humping) in hedonistic Hillcrest? Yes, I am being facetious, but it’s not an unreasonable question to ask about the neighborhood.
On two mornings in January 2022, the sound of a little girl giggling and flashes of her chasing something turned my attention along Alabama. The youngster was with other kids and adults, preparing to walk to Alice Birney Elementary. Object of her interest: A tiger tabby kitten.
On the Eleventh, I happened upon the frisky feline frolicking about. She scampered long enough for several portraits, including the Featured Image—all taken using iPhone Pro 13. Vitals: f/2.8, ISO 32, 1/369 sec, 77mm; 8:47 a.m. PST.
Heavy rains stormed through San Diego on the evening of Feb. 15, 2022, when a friendly but apparently stray tabby invited himself into the house where he had visited over several weeks. The family chose to keep him inside that evening, because of the ferocious weather. Next morning, the husband pulled over his car when seeing me to ask about the cat, which meowed from inside a carrier. The gent knew that I photographed local animals and wondered if I knew anything about this kitty. Damn, no.
Because the cat limped, my neighbor chose to take the feline for a microchip scan and maybe medical treatment. He was reluctant to leave a possible pet at the animal shelter. As we chatted, he decided to first go to a local veterinarian, see whether the tabby was chipped, and if so get it to the owner. What transpired next surprised and inspires, but there’s a postscript drama not directly related but possibly impacting shelter policy.
About 50 minutes before the fire brigade incident on March 4, 2022, a rain shower brought forth a double rainbow—and you will need to look closely at the Featured Image to find the faintly-visible second one. Vitals: f/1.5, ISO 50, 1/5852 sec, 26mm; 9:06 a.m. PST.
I happened to be out without a camera, so this capture comes from iPhone 13 Pro. The later false fire alarm occurred a few buildings down on the same street. Across the way, Jasmine, who I coincidentally watched, walked casually about. She is profiled in my “Cats of University Heights” series.
I came upon the strangest circumstance today: Firemen rushing into a home with water hoses to put out nothing. The residents hadn’t called for emergency services, and they were surprised to be cleared out onto the street. The Featured Image, taken quickly using iPhone 13 Pro, shows some of the gallant first responders after everyone realized that a bystander had badly blundered.
This, ah, older gentleman observed what he thought was smoke coming out of a vent, which is why he rang 911. What he really saw: Steam from someone showering. Whoops. My first inclination would be to bang on the door yelling “Fire!” Wouldn’t you? Maybe he did but there was no response because the person was in the shower and she couldn’t hear him.
When this series started on Oct. 17, 2016, I expected to end it within 30 days. Because: How many cats could there be in a neighborhood where leashed-walked dogs are everywhere? The 24th entry, which I call Cozy, posted less than a month later.
Fast-forward to Dec. 29, 2021, when I spotted what could be the same animal but inside the home rather than casually reclining outdoors. But I am not 100 percent sure they are the same animal. The owners are known to have two kitties, but I don’t know if both are tiger-stripped. So after months of uncertainty, I make a decision and take the chance there are two somewhat alike (such as from same litter) and that this one isn’t the other. Fur length and head shape could be different enough.
The place isn’t roomy, but the architectural style is quite appealing. I hear there’s a waiting list, though. But if you like, I walk past often enough and can look for that “no” to be covered up. Here’s the thing; A little birdie told me that several crows are in the queue—and they are quite aggressive about obtaining lodging, particularly when the place is furnished and the landlord provides some meals.
Advice: Adopt a community cat from the shelter and turn him loose nearby. If the beastie doesn’t catch and eat some of the animals waiting for the place, he might scare off most of them. The residence is on Maryland Street in University Heights. Address isn’t disclosed, just in case I want to submit a rental application myself.
Let me be the first to (sarcastically) thank the oligarchs—whether they be the Russian ruling class or one-percent of people holding the most wealth—for rushing to grub as much money as possible from we whom they regard as chattel. The invasion of Ukraine, and the West’s (ah-hum) finger-wagging recriminating sanctions, couldn’t possibly have disrupted the flow of oil yet. But why wait, when profits are to be had and war is a convenient excuse for puffing them.
Yesterday, regular, unleaded gasoline sold for $4.46 a gallon at all three of my San Diego neighborhood’s three economy filling stations. That’s cash price; credit costs more. As you can see from the Featured Image, price is now $4.70. That shocker greeted my wife and I this morning when we stopped to top off the tank.
I stopped long enough to shoot photos of this fine feline to draw out the homeowner. Uh-oh. Fortunately, he was friendly; someone else might have been irked. Turns out that the beastie isn’t his and he doesn’t know to whom the animal belongs. But the cat comes frequently by the Georgia street property, nevertheless, and that suits his kids I guess. Why wouldn’t it?
While the captures from Leica Q2 are better, the Featured Image comes from iPhone 13 Pro because the kitty turned away from the camera but posed for the smartphone. Vitals: f/2.8, ISO 32, 1/234 sec, 77mm; 12:55 p.m. PST, Feb. 3, 2022.