Standoff

It has been while since I checked trail cams. Mostly the SD cards were full of cats, raccoons, and opossums, but there was a series of photos where an opossum was investigating the cat food when a cat came along.

Photo description: night vision view of a back step off the coop with a young opossum, back to the camera, and a black short haired cat, facing the camera

The result was a no-contest. The cat went straight to the bowl of the food on the cat box, away from the opossum, and when the cat settled in to eat and not attack, the opossum left. I’m pretty sure the cat is the one we call Greebo, who has scars from fighting and his fur is thinned with some kind of mange. He actually looks healthier since he joined the neighborhood colony. The last couple years he and Fang show up in the Fall and then head out again in Spring or Summer.

Achievement

Photo description: calico cat sitting on crochet made with wool

Izzy the calico cat has been trying to lay on the wool vest I am crocheting for weeks. She finally found me distracted and cuddled in. I did continue to work on the piece and just rotated her as I went. She still stayed put. Purring.

Size comparison

The trail cam pictures gave a good way to compare the size of the new raccoon vs a cat.

Photo description: night vision view of a long haired white cat with his front feet on a wood bench
Photo description: night vision view of a raccoon with his front feet on a wood bench

These two photos were also taken just under two hours apart, so the depth of the ice is the same.

The ice accumulation from the last storm did finally all go away. I can’t recall that I’ve ever seen it stay as long as it did in Texas. I still refuse to call it snow.

Mid-jump

Scrolling through the trail cam pictures, I usually skip downloading most of the neighborhood cat pictures, but I noticed a trend as I scrolled. The camera was catching the cats mid-jump. Some of the photos are quite amusing, like the cat is awkwardly suspended.

Yes, I put out food for them, as do at least three of my neighbors. Yes, I get them fixed. They are excellent for snake and rodent control. None of them use the inside of the insulated cat house. I don’t think I designed it right.

Feline blend

I photographed two neighborhood cats in camouflage environments in the last few weeks.

Photo description: long haired white cat in a field of Texas snow (hard pack ice)
Photo description: Tortoise shell cat in a field of fallen leaves

I would have loved to do a full photo shoot with these cats and matching backgrounds, but the white cat wants to be brushed and is not interested in posing, and the tortie is skittish, so phone pics will have to do.