I was going to blog about the President's speech, but look! Kitty pictures.

Larger ImageHotch

Taking all these pictures of Hotch is proving to be more difficult than I expected. For one thing, the color balance is all over the place. The room is actually lit with incandescent light, which gives everything a warm glow, but of course the flash on the camera is daylight white. So while the colors in the camera images are probably accurate, it's not matching what I saw when I was there, so I've been making some adjustments, and the results havn't been very consistent.

The problem is that the camera is guessing one color balance and then I'm making rough adjustments to that guess, so the variance is accumulating. I should probably get out the grey card and switch to raw mode.

Larger ImageHotch chewing on the iPhone...

As you can see, Hotch thinks my iPhone case makes a great chew toy. Too bad the iPhone's still in it.

Larger Image...and trying to look like he's sorry.

The other problem with taking pictures of Hotch is that my focus technique doesn't work very well. With the kinds of photograpy I usually do, I've found it works better when I disable the automatic auto-focus on the shutter button, so when I want to take a picture, I pick the object I want in focus, press the manual focus button, and then recompose the picture and press the shutter button. Now I can take as many pictures as I want at that distance, without the auto-focus deciding to do something different.

The problem is that Hotch moves so fast sometimes that between the time I press the focus button and the time I press the shutter, he's moved away from the focus distance. I've taken thousands of photos this way -- weddings, children, flowers, buildings, even marathon runners -- and it works just fine, so I wasn't expecting a problem, and it took me a while to recognize what was happening, because the camera's LCD screen is too small to show the problem unless I know to look for it.

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Still, I got a few nice ones.

More to come in a few days.

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About 10 years ago, my wife had just adopted Ripley, and we were thinking of getting a kitten next, and we thought it might be fun to get a purebread kitten. We weren't sure what breed we wanted, so we did some research on the web and at cat shows. Eventually we settled on the Ragdoll breed, and began to contact a few local breeders to learn to learn how the adoption process works and to get an idea of the difference between breeders.

What we learned -- and this will shock you -- is that some cat breeders are a bit nuts. They all had lots of special rules we were supposed to follow once we got the cat, not all of which seemed, uh, entirely grounded in reality. I remember one even wanted the right to take back the cat if they thought it was being abused. (Taking back an abused cat makes sense, but they wanted to make the determination themselves, rather than, say, a neutral veterinarian.)

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That turned us off the idea a bit, and somewhere along the way we got a kitten from a shelter, Buffy. (I didn't have the camera back when she was a kitten, sorry) Then, a year or so later, we were visiting the Orphans of the Storm shelter (where we had adopted Ripley and Buffy), and we stumbled a cat with more hair than I'd ever seen before. We picked him up and played with him and brushed his hair -- which really needed it, there was an awful lot of loose hair stuck to him -- and put him back in his cage. But he just sat there, looking at us with those big blue eyes... So we took him home, and he became my favorite cat, Dozer.

Sadly, Dozer passed away a few months ago. He looked like a purebread blue bicolor Ragdoll, and he probably was. You can't really tell if a cat is purebread without the breeding history, but Ragdoll breeders are a fairly protective bunch, so there aren't too many fakes out there. (Unlike, say, Persians.) Based on our experiences with Dozer, my wife and I decided that we must always have a Ragdoll cat.

After a period of grieving, we began looking at web sites for Ragdoll kitten breeders, trying to decide what kind of Ragdoll we wanted. My wife fell in love with the blue lynx pattern, and we found a couple of blue lynx kittens at Dr. J's Perfect Dolls. Last Friday, we met with Jennifer Woll, DVM, and took home a kitten. Check out the expression on his face in this shot:

Larger ImageDr. Jennifer Woll With Our New Kitten

As usual, we had some trouble coming up with the name. Because he's so cute, it's tempting to name him "Nermal," but he'll eventually grow up, and "Nermal" is a silly name for a grown-up cat. We could also name him "Joel," after the kitten in The Closer, but that too seems like a silly name for a full-size cat.

My wife likes "Roark," after Eve Dallas's love interest in the In Death series by J.D. Robb, which would also tie in nicely with my libertarian leanings because of the link to Howard Roark in The Fountainhead. On the other hand, "Roark" sounds a bit pretentious to me, and I'm not really a Rand fan. Alternatively, we could name him "Dallas" after Eve Dallas and also after the captain of the Nostromo in Alien.

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For now, he's Hotch, named after Aaron Hotchner, the character Thomas Gibson plays on Criminal Minds. Among other things, it has the advantage of being a single syllable, which means it might be possible to train him to respond to it.

It could happen.

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Anyway, we have the kitten locked in the master bathroom for a few days as part of the process of introducing him to the rest of the household. He's a bundle of energy, so I thought it would be amusing to setup the video camera to record his activity until it ran out of space, then I could edit it into a fun highlights video. As it turns out, however, all that energy is just for show. With no one watching, he just slept for an hour and a half.

I managed to salvage something, however, by compressing the video timeline. Here's Hotch asleep for an hour and a half, shown at 50 times normal speed:

If you haven't had enough, here's the whole set of photos of Hotch.

A little while ago, my wife and I noticed that our ragdoll cat, Dozer, had taken to sleeping on the floor right in front of our china cabinet. We wanted to make him more comfortable, so we put down a cat pillow for him, right in the spot where he liked to sleep.

Anyone who owns a cat could've predicted how that would turn out:

Larger ImageDozer Meets the Cat Pillow

Yeah, it's been a while, but I thought it was time to hop back on the catblogging train.

This week, a brief introduction to the cast:

Larger ImageBuffy In Among My Books

Larger ImageRipley Takes a Break

Larger ImageDozer Contemplating...Sleeping Probably

More photos of the kitties coming next week.

Update: The Friday Ark is up.

Update: Kip blogs about his dog Diamond.

I gather this is an old Superbowl commercial:

Sounds about right.

(Hat tip: Illinois Review)

I've been having trouble sleeping lately. I get tired, but when I lie down I don't fall asleep.

Tonight I was finally feeling ready to doze off by about 4 am. I was lying there, relaxing, my thought process become disordered as I slipped into sleep... When I heard someone knock on the front door. Four rapid taps. Knock knock knock knock.

As I started to get up, I realized there was a more likely explanation for the noise, but by then the adrenaline surge had shocked me fully awake and alert. I grabbed a heavy police flashlight and went to investigate. No one was at the door.

It's the damned cats. Did you ever see a cat sit down and scratch its head and neck with its back paws? Well, every once in a while they to this right up against a door, and one of the hard leg joints taps against the door as they scratch. Knock knock knock knock.

I'm used to most of the things cats do in the middle of the night: Meowing, hissing, chasing, even jumping into the bed and walking on top of me. Knocking on the door...that one still gets me.

Now to see if I can get back to sleep...

This is my cat, Buffy. Click through to vote for her.

Fans of this blog, or at least of this blog's catblogging, may have noticed that most of the pictures are of sleeping cats. What can I say? I am surrounded by lazy kitties.

However, I recently paid a visit to my friend Cindy to take pictures of her new kitten.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you...Minky!

Larger ImageMinky!!!

Larger ImageMinky!

Larger ImageMinky!

Larger ImageMinky!!

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Larger ImageWhew

Larger ImageMinky!!!

Update: The Friday Ark is up.

Here's a picture of Dozer doing what he does best:

Larger ImageDozer

And here's a special guest cat, spotted on a neighbor's balcony:

Larger ImageNeighbor Cat

Larger ImageCat or Tribble?

Larger ImageCan't See Me!

Larger ImageMeditation

Update: The Friday Ark is up.

No real blogging today, so here are a few cat pictures to contemplate.

Larger ImageRipley

Larger ImageDozer

Larger ImageBuffy

A few weeks ago, my friend Cindy's cat Bootsy passed away. Her other cat, Pupkiss, has had severe kidney problems which Cindy has nursed her through for two years. Last week Pupkiss's health took a turn for the worse, and Cindy had to make the decision to let her go.

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Carnival of the Cats #151 is up at When Cats Attack!

The Friday Ark is up.

This is my friend Cindy's cat, Bootsy, who unexpectedly passed away earlier today. Bootsy was 6 years old.

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More pictures of the cats with the 35mm prime:

Larger ImageRipley

Larger ImageDozer Yawning

Larger ImageDozer Sleeping

Larger ImageUpside-Down Kitty Head

Here are a few more of the first few pictures I took with my D200, back when I only had the 35mm prime lens.

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Technically, these aren't cats. But they're a couple of lovable critters that belong to my friends Gary and Mary, so I've decided they can be honorary cats.

Larger ImageLady

Larger ImageBettina

Bettina (or however they spell it) is a Cockatoo, and despite the name, Bettina is a dude.

It's been a while since I've done any catblogging and I'm way behind.

Larger ImageResting

Larger ImageRested Upon

To give you an idea how far behind I am, I have only just now reached the last cat picture taken with my old camera. Like most of my cat pictures, it's Dozer sleeping:

Larger ImageDozer Sleeping

Now I can finally start showing the cat pictures I took with the new camera. All I had was a 35mm prime lens, so there's no zooming in.

Without further ado, here' s picture number 0001 from the new camera:

Larger ImageChecking Out The New Toy

That's Ripley and Buffy who've noticed I'm excited about my new toy.

A rare photo of Dozer doing something other than sleeping:

Larger ImageRare Photo of Dozer Not Sleeping

He's not doing much, but at least he's not sleeping.

To reassure more sensitive viewers, here is a more typical photo of Dozer, with a special added bonus cat:

Larger ImageDozer Sleeping (Plus Added Bonus Cat)

The rain always wins.

Ripley is a curious and active cat, except when it rains. Then he retreats to the only room in the house that doesn't have windows, the main bathroom, and hides behind the door. Because, you know, there's water falling from the sky!

Here he is during yesterday's downpour. We put down a pad for him behind the door because we figure the tile is cold.

Larger ImageRipley Hiding From the Rain

It's been a while since I did any catblogging. However, I just ordered an expensive piece of camera equipment, so I figure I need to stay on my wife's good side.

Here are four rather nice views of our Buffy cat:

Larger ImageBuffy In Charge

Larger ImageBuffy the Lioness

Larger ImageBuffy Sleeping Hard

Larger ImageBuffy Up Close

The 102nd Carnival of the Cats is up at Catcall!

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I'm still going through old photos, and I ran across a batch of about 50 photos of the big guy lying on the floor. I think I was experimenting with different ways of composing and lighting the shot to really bring out the absurd amount of fluff on this cat.

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Is it working? Let me know what you think. Lots more photos after the jump.

It's a little late for Friday catblogging, but it's my site so I'll play by my rules.

Larger ImageDozer Resting

Larger ImageDozer Resting Some More

You can see why we call him Dozer, can't you?

Larger ImageEven More Dozer Resting

I've been working through many of last year's photos. Cats sleep a lot, so you'd expect a random collection of cat photos to include a lot of pictures of sleeping cats, but this is getting ridiculous. I have an awful lot of pictures of sleeping cats. Or at least resting cats.

Larger ImageBuffy

Larger ImageRipley

Larger ImageDozer Yet Again

Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Larger ImageBuffy's Paws

Buffy has a special (and slightly disturbing) relationship with my shoes, especially right after I take them off...

Larger ImageShoe Fetish

Larger ImageSerious Shoe Fetish

My first catblogging since joining the Catlover's Blogroll, and this is the cooperation I get?

Larger ImageSorry, No Pictures

I have more pictures of the cats in my Catblogging Archive.

I've finally given in and admitted that catblogging is a big part of this site.

In fact, I've decided to embrace it. I've joined the Catlover Blogroll Community. You'll see the list of links in the sidebar. Lots of cats there.

All my own catblogging is in the archive for the Catblogging category.

Kitties!

Larger ImageBuffy

Larger ImageRipley

Larger ImageDozer

A while back I was doing a product photo for something I was selling on eBay when Ripley wandered in to see what was happening.

Larger ImageRipley on Stage

I missed catblogging last week, so here's a whole time-series of Buffy in her favorite hiding place on the shelves behind my computer desk. Some of you out there may enjoy them, but really, they're mostly for my wife.

Larger ImageBuffy's Favorite Place 1

Larger ImageBuffy's Favorite Place 2

Larger ImageBuffy's Favorite Place 3

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Larger ImageBuffy's Favorite Place 5

Time for some more Friday catblogging.

Larger ImageBuffy Relaxed

Larger ImageBuffy Really Relaxed

I must apologize for the apalling lack of Friday Catblogging. My wife is not at all pleased. I'll try to do better.

Here's a shot of buffy asleep on the pillow on my wife's worktable:

Larger ImageBuffy Sleeping

And here's a photo of Dozer hanging out near the window in our bedroom:

Larger ImageDozer By the Window

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I just took this today, and I liked it too much to wait until next week.

Buffy and Ripley

Not the best picture I've ever taken, but I'll bet my wife is going "Oooooh!"

A return to catblogging. (Testing.)

Larger ImageBuffy Naps Next to the Computer

Larger ImageDozer

Dozer is our most recent cat. We got him from Orphans of the Storm about three years ago.

He was about seven years old when we discovered him in a cage outside the adult cat room. The sign said "If you pet me I will purr very loud." We got him out of his cage and started petting him and sure enough, loud purring. Sort of a jackhammer cadence, loud and slow on the inhale, nothing on the exhale.

We played with him a while and then put him back in his cage, because we hadn't really planned on getting a cat that day. He just sat there, looking up at us with those big blue eyes of his.

Larger ImageDozer Close-Up

We caved in and brought him home.

Larger ImageRipley

This is Ripley. He's the first cat my wife and I got together after her previous cat Rover passed away.

We got Ripley—and all the cats to follow—from the Orphans of the Storm animal shelter about 10 miles north of Chicago. Orphans has some of the cats and all the kittens displayed in a bunch of little cages, like at a pet store. In addition, they have a couple of rooms in which adult cats are allowed to just wander around by themselves. It's kind of like the difference between segregation and population in a prison. We got Ripley out of population when he was a 1-year old.

We decided to get an adult cat for a couple of reasons. In part, of course, it's just kind of sad to see all those cats languishing in there because most people prefer to get kittens. Our main reason for getting an adult cat, however, is that what you see is what you get. The cat has all his shots and has survived whatever diseases cats can get. His coat has grown in in full color.

Most importantly, the cat's personality is fully developed. You might start out with a playful kitten, but she could grow up into a skittish and unpleasant cat. Some of this is under your control, of course. You can pick a cat from a breed that is genetically predisposed to have a good personality, and you can shape a kitten's personality quite a bit as it matures. Many kittens grow up to be very nice cats. But if you adopt an adult cat, you can make sure it's already a very nice cat.

We did that with Ripley. We sat down in the adult cat room and paid attention to which cats came over to play with us. We also watched how the visiting cats got along with other cats: We knew we'd eventually get at least one more cat, and we wanted this one to socialize well.

Cat D51 (back then Orphans didn't name them) came over to both of us several times and climbed right up into our laps. He responded to attention and purred and didn't pick fights with the other cats. He had an eye infection and having been through one sick cat already we weren't sure we wanted to risk another. We decided to take a chance and bring him home with us. After a bit of deliberation, we named him Ripley, after Sigourney Weaver's character in Aliens. (Yes, he's named after a woman. He's also been neutered, so we figure his name is the least of his gender identity problems.)

Have another picture:

Larger ImageRipley Cleaning Himself

This last weekend, my wife and I stopped by the Chicagoland Family Pet Expo. I took pictures. Most of them were pretty bad because I was trying to take them in ambient light with a handheld camera and they came out blurry because of camera motion. I also took a few pictures with the flash. I usually hate my flash pictures, but some of these didn't look too bad.

First up, a red Persian, doing what persions do best:

Lounging Persian

This next animal is not technically a cat:

Alaskan Malamute

That's an Alaskan Malamute, one of several breeds suitable as a sled dog. The owners told us that normal Alaskan Malamutes have a smooth coat. This one has a common mutation for the breed that gives it a soft and fluffy coat. I figure that makes it an honary cat.

Some of the owners entertained their cats for my wife. Well, we call it entertaining. The cats might think of it as annoying.

Annoying the Cats

Finally, here's a cat that was obviously tired of the show:

Ornery Cat

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This is Buffy. I put up a picture of her first because she always hides when people come over. Many of our friends probably think she's a figment of our imagination.