Tag: Cats of University Heights

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The Cats of University Heights: Blue Too

My wife Anne and I took a “cat walk” early evening Oct. 29, 2016—with Fujifilm X-T1 and Fujinon XF18-55mmF2.8-4 R LM OIS lens in tow. My hope: For her to see Chipper outside the apartment building where Copper once lived. We walked down Campus from the canyon side towards Madison. Sure enough, he was there and scurried out to the sidewalk for attention. I also could see Blue, curled up in a pet bed.

A few minutes after the petting and head-rubbing shoes started, another Blue cat approached from the apartment building across the way. I backed up into the street to shoot the Featured Image, at sunset, 5:58 p.m. PDT. Vitals: f/8, ISO 5000, 1/60 sec, 55mm. The aperture setting was accidental, left from the last time I used the camera. The photo is a JPEG converted from RAW using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

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The Cats of University Heights: Blue

I hadn’t seen any cats on Campus beyond Madison in the months after learning about Copper’s demise; she was a neighborhood favorite. So I was surprised to find her long-time companion, whom I call Blue (real name unknown), on Oct. 9, 2016, in the outdoor space they shared and where they were fed. I featured her in a photo comparison testing the HTC One M8, in Spring two years ago.

What a smile that Blue evoked. The cat, and another, live outdoors. Copper was a stray, as Blue may too be. I shot the Featured Image at 6:17 p.m.—five minutes before official sunset, but already quite dusk—using iPhone 7 Plus’ second lens to zoom. Vitals: f/2.8, ISO 320, 1/60 sec, 6.6mm. Below the fold is the comparison photos shot with the M8 in May 2014. I hadn’t known how much the kitten Blue was two years ago. Look how she has grown! 

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The Cats of University Heights: Mates

Sunday night, Oct. 23, 2016, I crossed Monroe at Maryland, where the street makes a horseshoe that comes back to Maryland at Meade. A few houses down, two cats—almost certainly littermates—accosted me for attention. Were these two ever eager, meowing and rubbing on anything close; including me.

The cross-eyed one leaped to the sidewalk, rolling about and demanding pets fervently. The other did likewise, but never leaving the ledge and rubbing the bush repeatedly with her head. I shot more than 20 photos, using the Fujifilm X-T1 with Fujinon XF18-55mmF2.8-4 R LM OIS lens, but selected just two from among the last of them. 

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The Cats of University Heights: The Colonel

Easily the handsomest street roamer in my neighborhood is The Colonel—and, yes, that’s his name. I spotted the furball six weeks or so ago, meeting his husband-and-wife owners at the same time. East Coasters, like me. Even better: New Yorkers. That NYC attitude and frankness is so refreshing! Love it! They’re also renters, but a house with their first lawn ever.

Back East, The Colonel was an indoor pet, who spends more time outdoors now that he is a Californian. (Year is long enough to establish residency, right?) The cat doesn’t roam too far from home but moves about enough to have lost weight.