Since starting in October 2016, this series has featured more than 85 different felines—the majority of them domestic pets. Solid colors like black or grey and tiger-stripe combinations are unsurprisingly widely represented. But I would […]
Tag: San Diego
The Cats of University Heights: Tux
Among the distribution of neighborhood kitties, two color combinations surprise me: White with orange/tan blotches and tuxedo. Hence the nickname for today’s furball. Drop by for the other, tomorrow.
I spotted this fine specimen while walking up the Maryland Ave. alley from Van Buren to Meade. At first, I thought that Pepe, who lives nearby where VB meets Cleveland, had gone on an adventure. But after close inspection, on MacBook Pro at home, this fine feline is a different animal. And the other tuxedos: Fraidy, Patience, Poser, Sammy, and Spot.
Along Park Blvd
Yesterday afternoon, I walked 1.6 km (1 mile) from the Greyhound depot to the McDonald’s nearby San Diego High School, where my daughter graduated five years ago; my legs needed movement after being too long motionless during the three-hour ride from Long Beach. I had made an overnight-trip to see my niece Lynnae, who was on the West Coast for business.
Soon after the bus exited Interstate 5, I saw the extent of the city’s homeless crisis for the first time. Tents lined several blocks (at least) along what may have been National Avenue. According to the San Diego Regional Task Force on the Homeless, the number of homeless people living unsheltered has increased 41 percent since 2014. There are 937 (recorded) tents, up 58 percent year over year. Data is current as of July.
The Cats of University Heights: Charlie
My second-favorite neighborhood feline, The Colonel, is gone. Numero Uno, Fess, is missing—16 days, and as each passes his return grows more unlikely. In June, The Colonel’s owner told me that the majestic longhair had succumbed to “the cancer”. A few months earlier, while on a walk, my wife and I chatted with the woman (and her husband). The kitty had lost weight and, honestly, looked terribly scrawny to me.
The family has a new pet, Charlie, whom I first met on June 19, 2017. My struggle since: Getting good-enough portraits, despite several opportunities. Morning of Aug. 15, 2017, while walking down Monroe Ave., I saw a woman petting the cat on North—diagonally across the street from his home. The beastie, who is still a kitten, but closing on a year-old, is a roamer. As the lady turned away, he skirted from the sidewalk into a yard, where chomping grass consumed him for a good 10 minutes.
Have a Seat!
San Diego residents leave all kinds of things in alleys behind their residences. What’s that saying about one person’s garbage being another’s treasure? This sofa sits by a dumpster, but it waits for a new […]
The Cats of University Heights: Momma
The drama of the three feral kittens opened a new—and perhaps final—neighborhood chapter last evening. I don’t yet know how the story ends. Around 7:20 p.m. PDT, with the protection of the waning light, I went out for a walk. Hours earlier, I had been at the ophthalmologist’s office, where one eye was dilated, leaving my vision temporarily impaired and sensitive to the San Diego sun.
My walk ended abruptly. A small group of teens, from two families, were gathered around the house where I had seen the feral trio the previous evening. Armed with cans of tuna, tenacity, and patience, they determined to trap the beasties—and one other: their momma. I started this series in October 2016, to date featuring more than 80 felines, and until last night I had not seen her. That’s surprising, since she raised her brood about a block from our apartment.
The Cats of University Heights: Ferals
What a coincidence! On the same block where yesterday I saw house stagers, three kittens, presumably feral, are loose; I encountered them about 10 hours later. They’re skittish, but scooted back rather than ran away. I might have made life-long friends had kibble been handy to give them.
This series typically features neighborhood cats that, well, I expect to be long-term fixtures. The majority are obviously pets that are let outdoors. While the feral trio spent most of our visit hanging around a front porch, they clung more to the space as birthplace—perhaps below or in the bushes—rather than permanent home where they are owned. I expect that they will soon be captured and taken to the shelter; wouldn’t local adoption be so much better?
The Stagers
While walking past Campus and Meade this morning, I saw stagers moving furniture into a house “coming soon” for sale. After initially crossing the street, I turned back. The vantage point appealed to me, and Leica Q was in tow. The bold, yellow crosswalk symbols in the foreground are what made the moment worth capturing.
The Featured Image is the original, slightly straightened. Neither this pic, the other, or two crops of both have been retouched. I imported the DNG originals into Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and exported as JPEG. Vitals, aperture pre-set for street shooting: f/5.6, ISO 100, 1/800 sec, 28mm; 9:49 a.m. PDT.
The Cats of University Heights: Wink
For about five years, delight of the neighborhood—down Maryland Ave. about halfway between border streets Madison and Lincoln—is a mini-wildlife refuge that I affectionately call the Butterfly House. The name derives from the Monarchs and other flying things that frequent flowers and foliage there. This series has featured felines—nicknamed Flower and Skull—on either side of the property, but not until today did I see, for the first time (finally), and photograph a kitty there. Of course, my wife and I would be walking to The Hub for groceries without a camera other than iPhone 7 Plus.
The Featured Image pulls back from the furball to provide some sense of the lush greenery and their variety. Vitals: f/1.8, ISO 20, 1/523 sec, 3.99mm; 9:36 a.m. PDT. San Diego’s typical early day marine cloud layer made for perfect shooting conditions.
The Cats of University Heights: Sophie
Friendly, feisty feline Fess is missing! His owners started postering his disappearance on Aug. 5, 2017. I last saw him about 7:25 p.m. PDT on the second, sitting way out into the sidewalk gutter of his apartment complex driveway; no one has reported seeing him since. Given that he is my neighborhood favorite, and needing to relax-the-mind walk following my mother’s death two days ago, I have looked all around for him—yesterday twice meeting his owners doing the same. Fess has a new collar, which I used as excuse for a July 22nd Caturday mini-pictorial.
My heart stopped, or so it seemed, last night while searching the alley between Campus and Monroe—well within Fess’ territorial range. I came across a long hair that lying flat reminded me of him. The animal let me approach and lift up collar tag to reveal Sophie. Her face shares similar features, but mitten paws and spectacular white ruff easily distinguish her from the neighborhood’s pride. I am amazed how many people know, or know of, the missing kitty.
Hello, Rabbit
Last night, seeking relief from an uncharacteristically overcast and muggy August day, I grabbed the Leica Q and walked, looking for felines to add to my “Cats of University Heights” series. Instead, I saw a bunny, sitting smack in the middle of New York Street, about halfway down from Madison—or, coming the other way, dead end into the canyon. I approached cautiously, getting closer and closer captures; necessity without a telephoto. The digital camera has a fixed 28mm f/1.7 Summilux lens. Noise from a nearby house startled the rabbit, which sprinted into a yard.
So I persisted, until my approach drove the cottontail to scramble further—and eventually out of sight. The 24-megapixel full-frame shooter uses (inside the lens) a leaf shutter, which is virtually silent. I didn’t worry, then, that camera clicks would spook the critter.
What Chainsaws Obliterate
I am often perplexed why someone would chop down a living tree. A decade ago, my family relocated from the Washington, D.C. suburb of Kensington to sunny San Diego. A year earlier, I told my […]