Ping: My Boy Finn

It has been a long time since I've done any catblogging (and some of you *cough* Kathy *cough* are probably peachy-keen with that oversight).  But when I had my camera out last week to take pictures of Mr. Donkey, I snapped a few shots of Finn and thought I'd share one.

He still hates having his picture taken, almost as much as me, so it wasn't easy to get him to look at me. I have to play on his inability to ignore my little clicky noises for long. He's gotten really big (that vet who told me he'd be "a big boy" sure knew what she was talking about!) but there's still that same kissable nose and chewable ears. He puts up with me accosting him on a daily basis because I can't resist snatching him up for a snuggle or two. But then, I am The Mighty Holder of the Food.

Just Because

Skating By

I have to admit, I've got nothing in the tank today. I'm not even able to dredge up five things for a GIST list. Nothing's wrong, nothing's bad, I just keep drawing a blank. And when I don't draw a blank, it just kind of peters off into babble.

So, in the tried and true tradition of fine blogging, when you've got nothing, post a picture! And when you've really got nothing, go with catblogging!!



Here's my beautiful Finn in what I call his "demi-loaf" position. I love it when cats sit with their paws folded under them like this and they look like a loaf of bread. When he isn't leaning over like that, it's perfect. He wasn't interested in humoring me by straightening up, so I got a demi-loaf.

I told you I have nothing.

Not Entirely Gratuitous Catblogging

To celebrate actually posting five days in a row, I decided to provide an illustrative photo for one of my recent posts and break all sorts of precedent by posting twice in one day. Yesterday, Issa commented about one of my GIST items, "Tiny little kitty lips." Being allergic, she doesn't get all that close to cats and therefore that one wasn't too meaningful for her!

I got out my camera this afternoon, in part because I wanted to practice a bit with a new lens I got for Christmas and hadn't had occasion to use yet. As the cats were all post-nap relaxed, they were (relatively) patient with the flash and I was able to get what I wanted.

Behold, the inspiration for the tiny little kitty lips, Peri.



When she comes up to me, stands there for a moment, then lets out this one plaintive "Mewwwwwww," because she wants something, I just can't take my eyes off those little lips. She has never been a very vocal cat so it's always so surprising when she does this. In that respect, Finn has been both a good and bad influence on her. He's vocal and, after a couple of years, she realized that he got results by voicing his opinion.

And because I can't post a picture of Peri and not one of Finn, here's the best one I got of him.



He really wasn't in the mood for having his picture taken, so I couldn't even get close to having a shot of his lips. Besides, he's a boy cat and his lips aren't as adorable as Peri's. (He's got a cuter nose, though, to be fair.)

Breath of Fresh Air

It was delightful to be part of Five Star Friday this past week and have so many new visitors stopping by! I hope to see some of you back again; I know I found a few new blogs to keep up with by visiting my fellow "stars." I want to thank the ever-charming Schmutzie for putting such a great idea together and coordinating it each week.

Since then, however, I've been coming up a little empty in the blogging tank. I bought a new camera late last week -- a digital SLR from Canon, the kind I've been wanting to get for ages and finally could -- so I've been spending time with that and playing with the pictures quite a bit.

It's been a while since I posted one of my Finn, actually, so here's one of the very first ones I took after I got it out of the box.



Of course, I'd like to say that the image is straight out of the camera, but I did do a tiny bit of work on it before posting. Not to Finn, he's a gorgeous boy no matter what. No, I did some touching up of the poor ottoman he's resting on. It has been unintentionally abused by cat claws and the marks show up horribly with a flash.

Adobe Photoshop Express is fantastic for this, even more so because it's free. It doesn't, by any means, do all that Photoshop can do, but it's a great tool for those of us just wanting to play around and do minor work. I highly recommend it -- you can do a lot more than you can with MS Office Picture Manager, which is what I've used in the past.

Case. In. Point.

Is this wreckage left behind by giant carpenter ants? The unfortunate result of a diaper-less toddler run amok? A Tibetan sand mandala...in my living room?

None of the above. This is the work of my beloved cat and should be titled "Finn vs. the Flaxseed."

Yesterday, he discovered a bag of flaxseed I'd left in the hallway and he dragged it more than 20 feet to the middle of the living area. He then apparently took it to task, ripping a nice hole in it before shaking it vigorously to make sure he'd conquered it. But I guess it didn't make a tasty treat because it didn't look like he consumed any and never disturbed his "work" for the rest of the day.

It's almost like Finn wanted to prove that he's as much of a troublemaker as I alluded to in my last post. I'm such a lucky girl...with, thankfully, a good vacuum!

The Return of Phineus Fog

It occurred to me recently that I haven't posted a single picture of Finn since I came back from hiatus. Time to rectify that.



There's my boy! He's not quite as, um, wraithlike as he was as a kitten when he earned his full name but he's definitely still Huck Finn-esque in personality. Not a day goes by where he doesn't get in trouble somehow.