davidd’s A DOLL A DAY 2022

[davidd]

I love photographing cats.  Some are better models than others....

Okay, here's a kitty for ya:

Gabby aka Leahi aka Diamond Head Cat

When I first came to Florida last year it wasn't long before I "met" the Neighborhood Cat. The cat would hang out at the vacant house next door, sunning itself in the driveway, or lurking under a plastic crate near the garage. Once in a while the cat would meander over when I was doing things outside, and just kind of watch me from a discrete distance. Eventually, of course, I began putting out a bit of food for it each day. Sometimes the cat would eat the food. Sometimes another cat would eat the food. Sometimes a roaming opossum would eat the food.

Eventually the woman who owned the vacant house showed up to clean out and freshen up the house. She told me that the cat had lived in the area for over ten years, and that as far as she knew it had never been an indoor cat. Her tenant at the now-vacant house had been a "cat lady" who owned more than ten cats of her own, some indoor and some outdoor, and she had been feeding the Neighborhood Stray, but when she left after living there for fifteen years, she had been unable to catch the outside cat to take with her.

Eventually I met a couple who live across the street, a pair of teachers who had moved in to the neighborhood a year previously. The woman told me she had been feeding the Neighborhood Cat ever since the Cat Lady had moved, and trying to tame it and adopt it. She called the cat Gabby, because it talked so much. I told her I had been calling the cat "Leahi," which was the Hawaiian word for Diamond Head, because the cat has a diamond-shaped mark on its head.

During my time last winter in Florida, Gabby/Leahi made near-daily visits, particularly during the day when the teachers were at work. Once I knew the cat was being fed, I put out less food overnight, but would take out "treats" during the day when the cat showed up.

This season, it took about two days for Gabby (I'm going with Gabby now, because that's what her adoptive owner calls her) to resume coming around. She shows up at the back door at mid-day, announcing her presence quite vocally, and staring through the glass sliding door at the cabinet where she knows the treats are kept.

Ironically, it was easier to get a picture of this semi-wild semi-stray neighborhood wanderer than it is to get a clear shot of the "tame" housecats. But I'll show those to you if I can ever get a pic.

There ya go, then -- a cat pic.

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16 November - A Doll A Day 2022:

16 November - "Should We Open It?"

While packing for the trip, Janie and Triv found the "blind box" Bratz toys that I purchased a couple or three months ago and which I was planing to return to the store, but which I had misplaced. Apparently the girls managed to smuggle the packages to Florida, so I guess they won't get returned after all.