Kitteh Arghs

I had intended my next post (this one) to have a pattern in it, which as you can see it doesn't, but I wasn't intending to post anything today so lets call this one a bonus post.  I was puttering about today when I remembered that I needed to get some newer pics of the kittehs to add to what I have at my desk at work.  I don't have a lot of personal stuff at my desk but I do have 3 photos; one of my dad and Snowball (my first cat), a baby picture of my girls being all cute and cuddly at nap-time, and one of me and my mom.  When I moved everything it occurred to me that my girls look very different now than they do in their baby pics, as would be expected seeing as how those pics were taken 6 years ago.  I've been hunting about but I can't seem to find the digital copies of the true baby pics, probably because they were on my first laptop which died a horrific death quite some time ago.  The oldest files I can find are from when they were 2 years old and, except for Cass getting darker and Calliope being smaller, the girls look pretty much the same as they do now.

The furballs at age 2

The trouble is that, besides making it hard to type since somebody keeps head-butting my laptop, my cats know exactly what the camera is and that it requires them to hold still.  Being the wonderful and cooperative creatures that they are, it is next to impossible to get decent photos of them unless they're asleep.  I have many pics of sleeping kittehs.  The only time they want to be in frame is if I'm trying to take a pic of something else.  I've also noticed that I have a disproportionate number of pics of Cass.  Today I figured out why that is.

Cassandra doesn't like being photographed but she is also very lazy so she doesn't always make an effort to thwart me.  It took me three shots, only one of which was blurry, to get this pic.

And you have to admit, for all her bland expression (she's usually either very haughty or very surly looking in pics so this is an improvement), it is a pretty decent photo.  Also, there's the blanket she's sitting on which is something of a secret weapon.  Cats love crocheted things and they adore Binky, the baby blanket my grandma made me.  Putting Binky on a piece of furniture virtually guarantees that a cat will sit there at some point and, as long as I don't have to move much to get at the camera, getting a good pic is only a matter of time.  

Calliope, on the other hand, is a problem.  I love my little chubby kitteh very much but she is the squirmiest cat I have ever known.  She does not like to sit still unless she's stalking something or asleep which makes getting pictures of her really challenging.  Today I have dubbed her "Calliope the Eternally Blurry."  Why?  Because of this.

And this.

And this.

And, well, you get the idea.  I played with my camera settings to make the exposure time as short as possible and even that didn't help. It took me 22 shots to get this, the only non-blurry pic in the bunch.

As is the nature of such things, it's probably the least flattering of all of them.  She is a chunky kitty, but she's no where near as large as she looks in this one.  

The quest will continue.  At some point Calliope is bound to slip up and let me get a cute shot of her so I can update my photos.  Maybe.  Eventually.  I hope.  But, for now, I shall leave you with one of the pics I had forgotten about.  Not one of the super cute pics that I have, because there are only so many sleeping cat pictures that people can take, but one that I've always liked.  It gave Cass the nickname of "demon eyes" for a while.  I should probably note that both of her eyes are blue, I have no idea why her retinas reflected differently.