Flickr.com changed my life...

Just a couple months ago toward the end of June I discovered Flickr.com and my life hasn't been the same since. The reason I say that flickr changed my life is because prior to getting into photography as an art I had no real passion, not one that was truly mine. I do love movies and music and sometimes really love creating custom burned CDs for my friends -- you know, with songs that I thought they would like, but that's it. My life was all about observing.

My dad has always been VERY artistic, with drawing and painting and photography. I got into drawing and was ok at it but had no patience to commit to really getting better. Now photography is something I've always tried to get into, except that the "art" light just hadn't quite ever found me; my snapshots always felt like they were lacking that something special.

It all really started with my Sweet. HE had a blog and so he regularly encouraged me to start with a blog of my own because he enjoyed his so much. So I did start this very blog and the wheels of fate were set in motion.

One day I was browsing around searching for some kind of helpful site or something to answer a question on the functions of the blog itself and ran into a page that really grabbed me:

http://tlltworld.blogspot.com/

It was full of the most incredible images that grouped together in warm, visual sequences and paired with just the right words made warm, touching stories. The posts were a captivating browse. What I didn't expect was a strange feeling of absence the next day, a need to go back and experience that wonder again. I looked around and found that there was no easy way to locate the page and the search became a quest. Every moment that I could for the next couple days I worked the search engines with every possible variety of the title "TLLT" or "Things look like things". The quest became a dare and the dare became an obsession to beat the damn search engines into submission and squeeze that site address out of the internet. Yes, it became a little personal: me vs. the machine.

And after all that -- how did I find it, you ask. Ah, it was a matter of sheer luck. It was that Blogger page, the Blogger home page or whatever, that I happened upon while logging in to this page. Something at the bottom right corner of the page caught my eye. It was the "blog of note" list and then I realized that this is where I had run into the page in the first place! OMG -- there it was! WHAT a relief. I FOUND it. After THREE days of desperation, and useless battling with the internet I had found it. AGAIN. And it was right there on my front door...

It was great to immerse myself in the page again, soaking in the beauty of the joined images sprinkled with stories. This new concept was so inspiring to me that I just had to start my very own picture blog. That's when I got into looking at pics on Flickr. All of the pictures for the "TLLT" (Things Look Like Things, btw) blog had come from there. So I opened an account and started hunting for images to post.

At first I just wrote simple, poetic descriptions or interpretations of pictures that sparked a story in my mind. Then came the "micro-stories". These are written like little excerpts from the page of a book, just a little glimpse, a moment in time of that character's fictional life. It developed from there and became a place where my joys of emotive words and visual beauty could come together.

Immediately I began collecting the amazing photos that came my way, art displayed in just a little color and light in the screen. After that I started considering my own collection of images, those snapshots of so many years piled into a bag in the closet. Some of them were actually interesting, with a little cropping and a lot of computer adjustments there were actually some photos to post. These were of course cat pics, my feet, whatever. Surprisingly a couple groups found me and invited me to their galleries. Yeah, they were cat galleries, which I later would learn are the bane of "real" photographers existence, but it was an invitation and it was fun. THEN I got inspired by all those great people with the abstract stuff, the textures and colors. I started experimenting to get some abstract photos of my own and got hooked. THAT's when I discovered my real passion. It was a feeling of rare satisfaction, of accomplishment in creativity that I had never ever felt before. EVER. It was GREAT!!

That's what I mean by saying that Flickr changed my life. Posting my picks and getting comments from the people online who care enough to give feedback and support is a very amazing and unique experience. Then, at the same time and by pure chance as well I found a local photo club JUST starting out. It was announced on CraigsList in a section I never would have looked at, never mind that I had never really used that website before. It was easy to contact them, get the information on the club and then attend the first meeting. They're an interesting bunch, might learn a lot and it's fun.

So it really all started with my Sweet. If he hadn't gotten me into Blogger and there hadn't been a certain "Blog of Note" and I hadn't found it again on accident and hadn't started my own page who knows if I would have ever discovered my passion for photography beyond just observation. What a treasure it has been for me to discover what it means to create. I can create stories and images and it is a source of joy. A SOURCE OF JOY!!! You just can't put a price on that, can you? = ]

The WHOLE zoo...

Hello. It's been a while since I've blogged and this time I'd like to share the pics of my "kidletts". We call it a zoo because of the variety and number of animals that we call family. What you'll see here is our five kitties, two bunnies and four fish. We love each and every one of them for their unique personality and the part they play in our life every day. Yeah, even the fish have personality. Also if you'd like to see more pictures there's also a few posted to flickr.com. = ]

MATAKI:
adopted 5/99 @ just six weeks old

She is the oldest. She's been with me since 1999. She came into my life while some very devastating things happened around me. When I went to the pound I found they had a room with some kittens -- all from the same litter. I went in and watched them for a couple minutes and then tried to interact. None of the other kittens were very interested in playing with a human but she came right to me. When I picked her up she kissed me right on the cheek. That was all it took for that cute little kitten with a black and white face to come home with me. Recently I had seen a documentary for a wolf pack that was being raised to repopulate a park in the US. One of the pups was called Mataki and she was the lowest ranked among her den mates but she always instigated play time. She was the one that started the fun. This more or less was the meaning of her name and that's why also I named my kitty Mataki: she was the fun-bringer.

She's now seven years old. She's very dainty and seemingly a little easy to unsettle but she's very, very sweet. Sometimes when she's feeling relaxed and comfortable on her favorite perch (your chest normally) she likes to stretch out her arm almost around your shoulders and give you that look that melts your heart. It's really something. I think that the reason she's sometimes a little touchy about how her space is approached, broached or encroached is because of her kitty hood accident. On the very first day I brought her home a friend of mine came to see her and when he left she followed him right to the door. She did this so very quickly neither of us saw her and before we knew it she had gotten caught in the door and fractured her ankle. She's been very sensitive about her ankle since then and you have to pick her up just so.

She also has some other cute quirks: she loves to dunk her kibbles. She'll use her paw to move one or two dry kibbles from the bowl to the water dish. Then she lets them float for a couple of seconds before fishing them out with her curled paw and taking it up to her mouth. She's done that ever since she was a kitty and had a double bowl that held her water and food together. Now we always make sure that she gets her food in a bowl next to the water dish. We think it's adorable. She's a very special kitty to me.

YETI:
adopted 5/01 @ six weeks old

This is Yeti. We called him that because back in 2001 even at just a few weeks old he looked like he was going to be abominable. He has silver hair on his feet with longer white hairs that stick out and whether this just made his feet look bigger or they actually were already it's hard to say -- but the name definitely fits him now.

He's anywhere from 18 to 20 pounds. When we adopted him the lady that was caring for the feral litter she said that he would end up eating us out of house and home because he was the one that would always try to get back in line to get seconds and thirds at feeding time. Though he didn't quite eat us out of house and home but his voracious appetite still produces very insistant reminders for us at meal times. We've put him on a diet with the same food but only a moderate amount and only for a half hour each morning and night. He seems to have lost some weight as the doc ordered and so has Mataki. She shows it more so than he does. He's just taller and longer than the girls. When they sit together on the window sill his shoulders are about an inch taller than theirs.

He's a real love and very sweet, quite a sensitive boy despite his staunch appearance. He responds to the softest calls and has always been afraid of strangers. He's the only one that goes to hide when the door bell rings. He would love to be in our lap all the time if possible and would let you pet him forever.

YOSHI:
adopted 5/01 @ seven weeks old

This is Yoshi. According to the lady that had her and Yeti as kittens they are half siblings. They were born a week apart and Yoshi is about half the size of Yeti. They most look alike in their facial markings. Like most Tabbys they have the Abyssinian-like stripes and eye "makeup" and Yoshi really acts like an Aby. She's very smart and people oriented. She's vocal and has to know what you're doing all that time. She also is very demanding of your attention and doesn't like to share us with the other kids. She's pretty much the alpha. We really saw this side of her come out when we got the other two kittens within the last year. It's taken us many months but we're finally making some progress with her in that area. Khyda really bears the brunt of her disapproval and we'd really like them to get along so we're still introducing them by crate, treats, and any other means we can.

Yoshi is a really strange kitty in that she loves squishing and upside-down therapy. She tends to be a very uptight kitty with lots of anxiety. How can we tell? She tends to be extremely bossy, irritable and territorial. This comes with being the alpha -- the work of maintaining your dominance is never done but it's also very exhausting. The most remarkable thing is she sighs. I don't know how many have had the privilege of seeing a cat sigh but it's a real treat. Ever argue with a cat? When Yoshi loses an argument and gives in she sighs. It's hilarious. But such a kitty would need some relaxation therapy, no? Well, after trying to hold this normally squirmy girl in our laps so many times we ended up giving her a big hug before letting her go. We discovered she liked this so every time she would tap us on the arm or leg to come and sit in our lap we would give her a big squeeze for a few moments and off she would go. We were happy to have discovered this because of the fact that she would obviously want something from us and when the usual petting and hair-brushing wouldn't abate that little "may I?" tap that we got on the arm the squeeze would do it. Abys and Aby mixes are so polite. They always let you know when they want something. It's just hard to know what sometimes. Luckily the upside-down thing helps her too. We pick her up by the back knees close to the hips and flip her up to our shoulder. Then we just rub her belly and she hangs arms down very contentedly for as long as we will hold her. She always seems more relaxed after these little therapies. Who knew? We love our upside-down kitty.

TIKA:
adopted 11/05 @ four months old

This is Tika, short for Kanthaka. We found her when we saw her at our favorite pet food store where the SPCA had brought a bunch of kitties for adoption. Yeah, we're suckers. We hardly had to think about it. She is such a special cat. She just belonged with us. I don't even remember what exactly it was about her that made me feel that. I remember she climbed to my shoulders and down my back like a monkey. And the strangest thing is that she is a polydactyl and we honestly didn't even notice she had six toes until we got her home.

She had a wonderful few first months and spent her time going up and down the staircase chasing after a mouse. Yep, she is our first fetching kitty. There's a lot about her that resembles a dog. She's just not very much like a regular cat. She's extremely mellow, approachable, looks you in the eyes, talks to you and stays in your lap forever if you let her. She's not jumpy and finicky about how or when you pet her. She's just the coolest cat ever.

One of her favorite pastimes is climbing up the column of scratch pads we nailed up the wall for her. She goes all the way to the top and hollers for us to pet her or give her treats. She seems to like either equally and just likes to be praised and loved in any way. She also will sit for a treat and I imagine that if we dedicated more time to teaching her, or asking her -- since she really knows what's what within one try. She really is that smart. She also likes to try to ride on my shoulder all around the house. Mostly she likes to holler at me all day long. She argues, chats, pleads and chirps in general more than any other cat I've known. Tika is lovely.

KHYDA:
adopted 3/06 @ four months old

This is Khyda. We named her after my very first cat. She reminds me very much of him: her slight build, petite head, long tail and her obsessively insistent manner of asking for attention. Yep, she's an Abby mix too. Very interesting coloring with the mixture of silver and red tabby with spots like a Bengal kitty.

This one is interesting. She's got to be the most interesting cat we've ever had. Her story starts out at the Humane Society. I saw her first hiding inside her little tiny doll house of a shelter which was inside her ultra small cubby. Very shy. Just barely sticking her face out to see what was passing by. She had a very pained, bewildered, fierce look on her face. She clearly had no desire to know anything about anything except the shelter of her little doll house. I'm probably just a sucker, have been before, but I really identified with her -- connected with those fierce eyes. I got to visit with her and all she wanted was to hide behind me on the bench and stay in the small dark corner. Still I had never seen anything like her. She was such a patchwork of colorings, patterns that looked like a piece of art or a hieroglyph. She had red, blue, bright silver, stripes, spots and all the adorable Aby features. She had obviously had a hard life up to that point, tragedy maybe. Still it was those eyes that told me she had a great personality in there just waiting. All she needed was a couple of trustworthy suckers to give her a stable home and let her be herself again.

She moved heaven and earth: gave the front office notice of my interest then called my boyfriend and let him know what an awesome cat I had just found. We came back that evening straight after work and got a visit with the kitten. It turns out she was four months old and had been "surrendered" by the previous owners. The meeting was very memorable. In a bad way. The second she came into the room she tried to go right back out and actually jumped straight up to try to go out the glass in the upper half of the door. She HOWLED. Not kidding. I had never heard a cat make a noise like that. It was a very feral sound. My Sweet was terrified and thought I must be out of my mind for wanting to take this cat home. I'm still not sure why he let me have my way. 'Guess I must have been very intense in my conviction that she had to be part of our family. It was crazy but she got to come home with us just two days later.

At first we thought she had something wrong with her vocal cords. For days she meowed like she was whispering. She got to be the only kitty allowed in our bedroom and she even slept in bed with us at night. No cat had ever done this before on a regular basis. She just really looked like she needed it. During the time she spent alone getting used to the house, the smells, the noises from the other cats she also got to meet the bunny. Our bunny Xochi and her got to spend a lot of supervised time together while they both waited for their respective companions. She would eventually get to be out with the other kitties and the bunny would soon have her friend as well. So they got to know each other and bonded giving me the idea for my first business name: Bunnycat. Yep, Kydha is my "bunnycat". She loves the bunny and plays with her still when everyone is out together. It's pretty cool.

The thing is she developed an abscess from the spay operation that was performed the day we picked her up. If I had even thought about it or had been given the option I would have had MY vet do the operation in the first place. But they told me no animal could leave the facility w/o being spayed or neutered and that was that. It turned out to NOT be true -- some people have had their own vets do it and bring the certificate back to the Humane society later. Well, she had to have the whole thing opened up again to take out the infection which, according to the doctor, "Erupted like a volcano." Yuck. So after a couple weeks she was fine.

Eventually we let interact with the other cats and she did have a lot of trouble with Yoshi -- it seemed they both want to be the alpha -- but after a year they have finally got the vicious arguments down to a low frequency of events. At first it was just harry. We even kept the two kittens (thank god Tika and her got along great) in a separate room at all times. We switched the cats that were in the other bedroom constantly so they all took turns and could be out with us. This went on for months, months.

So while all this was going on we had gotten to know our new kitty. The Sweet still not convinced this cat was ever going to become friendly had resigned himself to just saying hello from a distance. She made good company for Tika who had never really found a playmate among our other cats and that was one of the main reasons we had adopted her in the first place. It was comforting enough for now.

Then a few months later Khyda came and laid down in our laps. We knew something was wrong right away, of course. She had never even been a lay-down-next-to-you kind of kitty so it had to be something else. Then we started realizing she had been a little sluggish and extra sleepy in the last couple of days. We watched her some more and saw that nothing was going in or out. So the very next morning took her to a Sunday vet. They weren't able to tell us much without extensive testing and told us to watch her some more. By the time evening came along we decided to take her to the emergency vet and there they did blood tests, x-rays, and a saline drip. They kept her overnight and then I came to move her to our regular vet's office. Well, this went on for days -- she wouldn't eat or drink and nothing was coming out the other end. They had to put a feeding tube in her neck and keep the saline drip going. The doc did a sonogram and showed us that there was absolutely nothing conclusive. The blood tests had shown no toxins either and no obstructions were obvious. We didn't know if she would live since she had gotten into such a dyer state that we didn't know what else to do. The doc suggested one last resort: exploratory surgery. Yep -- this kitten who was only eight months old at the time had already had her tummy opened twice and would be going for a third time. While they were in there they found nothing in the way of obstructions and so they took a little piece from one of her kidneys to do a biopsy. Nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing. So they kept feeding her by tube, saline in her arm and waited to see what happened. At some point she started peeing on her own and on the sixth day the vet finally thought she looked good enough to go home. She must have needed that 'cause the miracle came the next day: We have POOP! Yeah. That did it. She was fine after that. Never had any clue as to why she was sick, just a vet bill and a super happy kitty.

I mean super happy because she really changed after that. It was as if she KNEW that she could trust us now. She had been so sick and we took care of her. She was more friendly, she was more vocal and she even took to sleeping on the couch next to us. It was as if she became a different kitty. We'll never really know why but we know she was never the same kitty again. She is now the kitty I knew she was all along.

XOCHI & KOKI: adopted 4/06 @ two months old

These two are Xochi and Koki (Xochitl & Kikido). They are two female Mini Rex rabbits we got about a just over a year ago. They are very happy together and love their chew treats and throw toys. Well, rabbits love any kind of toys -- as long as they are safe to chew. As horrifying as it sounds sometimes the toys disappear altogether with no bits or pieces to give some clue as to their fate. One of Xochi's favorites is the set of teething keys for babies. Yes, two whole sets of these have disappeared with no trace. They are perfectly non-toxic and since we give them lots and lots of hay and water there is no danger of stoppage. We haven't bought another set yet, it's kind of freaky to have something like that disappear so quickly but seeing as it's her favorite we might. They get along great with the cats when we let them out on supervised play dates together. Otherwise, they are the best buddies -- bunny & bunny together.

This is Jerry and even though he's gone he was a very cool fish and I still love looking at his pictures. They call that color cellophane because you can see through them completely. He was one of the first when I started with bettas a few years ago. Fred was my first, a bright blue. Charlie -- the big beautiful red. Also George -- the gorgeous pink w/brown leopard spots. I took great pleasure in giving all my fish very "normal" human names thinking that it was absolutely hilarious. It all started with Fred really. I just had to have a fish named Fred. It was just fun to say. Fred. Fred the fish. They're gone and they're still missed. Here's a few pics of the lovely bettas we have now:

This is Frank: all white with a little silver shading. Like all my boys, he's very sweet and LOVES to eat. He's even gone to work with me to keep me company on my desk.

Our "purple one": Prince (yep, not named by me -- but don't get me wrong, I AM a fan). He loves to spar with Frank from across the counter.

And Mack is our shark, you know -- Mack the Knife, "When the shark bites..." He's got the bullet-gray body, orange and blue spots and the stiff dorsal fin. He's very "frenzied" at feeding time too. Ok, what betta isn't, right? = ]

This is Tony. We got him recently after very belatedly getting hooked on the Sopranos. Yeah, I don't know what we were thinking with the "we won't like this show" craziness. Also we're miserably awaiting the release of the last two and a half seasons so we can see the end before someone accidentally tells us what happened... Anyway, back to the fish. He's the youngest of the bunch and he keeps the others hopin'. I love this view of him, well of all my guys really, but him especially because of the pattern on his head. To me it looks a lot like snake skin. He's just beautiful with his electric blue and dark fushia colors.

All of the "kidletts" are so fun. I always knew I wanted to have a zoo in my house. People think I'm crazy -- my Sweet and I think it's just heaven.