I began the weekend with 3 goals:
1. Get a family photo of the Adams kittens
2. Get decent photos of the Jeffersons (and name them)
3. Get new photos of Old Man Norman to share
I'm going to declare this weekend mostly successful...
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The Adams Family Portrait
It's official. Anyone who can get a litter of kittens to sit still and look at a camera lens at the same time is either using kitten drugs or illegal magic. Here is a small glimpse into my stint as photographer to a family of five independent minded brats... um, make that darlings:
Cruz and Shelby see something very interesting outside the window. Mally looks sleepily in the distance. Bentley is the lone cooperative kitten, while Hudson appears to have sent a stuffed puppy as a stand-in.
Cruz and Shelby see something very interesting on the floor below the cat tree. Mally thinks about looking at the camera, but hasn't quite yet obliged. Bentley gets tired of waiting for Hudson to take his position instead of the stuffed puppy dog.
"SQUIRREL!!"
Shelby standing in front beside Bentley.
Tabby Cruz in the back to the left of Malibu.
"SQUIRREL!?!?!? WHERE????"
Hey, look! Hudson joined the party and he's getting off to a great start by looking at the camera!
"Bentley doesn't see a squirrel. Bentley thinks the squirrel is a figment of Shelby's imagination."
"Where were we? Oh yes, Bentley is ready for his close-up."
That's Shelby kind-of sort-of paying attention behind him.
"SO CLOSE! Shelby, Bentley, and Hudson have the right idea. We just need to get Cruz and Malibu from a different angle. Perhaps they would like to take the stuffed puppy's place?"
Cooperating Kittens in the Front, from Left to Right: Shelby, Bentley, Hudson
Ears in the Back, from Left to Right: Cruz, Malibu
"Princess Malibu doesn't see why she should move. How about all of the other kittens just bow their heads in Mally's presence so she can look gorgeous all on her own?"
Bowed Heads, Back to Front: Shelby, Hudson, Bentley
Staring Longingly Out the Window: Cruz
Princess in the Middle: Malibu
"Oh that's it... we're out of here!"
"You boys don't have to go away mad... just go away. Mally and Shelby will do this photo shoot all by ourselves."
Left to Right: Malibu, Shelby
"HEY!!!! You are supposed to be taking pictures of Princess Mally! That's Shelby!"
"Great... the boyfriend's back and he's gonna cause some trouble"
Left to Right: Cruz, Malibu, Shelby
"Mally doesn't know if she can take much more of this."
Left to Right: Cruz, Malibu, Shelby
((SIGH))... Proof positive that the only way to get a photo of five kittens is to catch them when they're sleeping... through a glass door.
Left to Right: Cruz (on windowsill), Shelby, Hudson, Malibu, Bentley (in the back)
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Moving On Up
To a Deluxe Bathroom on the Second Floor
"We really could use some more space up here, you know. Also... more cat food. The stinkier, the better!"
Mother Jefferson is a lovely tortoiseshell kitty. She is the friendliest, sweetest, most gracious guest. I am amazed daily at the trust she puts in me to handle her kittens. I can pretty much do whatever I want to them. They whine and cry and Mama knows that they are just fine (and takes a break to get a snack).
Our naming theme is mostly television-based for our Jefferson family. I can't help myself. The theme song from The Jeffersons has been playing in my head since the gang moved in on Thursday. Not everyone gets their name from the classic sit-com, but enough to call it a theme.
I thought about naming Mother Jefferson after George's acid-tongued mother, but our Mother Jefferson is just too sweet. Her name comes from another mother on the show. I can't use Louise or "Wheezy"... there's another one of those in my heart. But the name of the actress who played Wheezy was Isabel Sanford. Isabel is a perfect fit for our beautiful mama.
Louise Jefferson had a son named Lionel. So our Isabel (Mother Jefferson) also has a son named Lionel.
He's a sweet little dumpling of a kitten. He also has a big whiny mouth whenever someone other than his mama is touching him. Surprisingly, it is closed here.
Another resident of the deluxe apartment in the sky... Meet Florence.
Florence is an opinionated little kitten who always has something to add to the conversation.
Except for when I was taking the pictures, apparently.
A member of the Jefferson's extended family was Helen Willis, played by Roxie Roker. Our distinctive white kitten girl required a bit of a fancier name, so we're calling her Roxie.
Naming Roxie brought my family into a strange "Six Degrees of the Jeffersons" game. While trying to get the teenager (pictured in the background) interested in the sit-com from the 80s, I mentioned that Helen Willis was played by Roxie Roker (blank stare)... who is a cousin of Al Roker from the Today Show (yawn)... and also happened to be the mother of Lenny Kravitz (who?)... who played Cinna in the blockbuster movie The Hunger Games (GOT HER!)
Roxie isn't quite pure white. She's a creamier, off-white... with grey tipped ears. I wonder what they're going to look like as she grows.
We veer away from The Jeffersons to name our white boy kitten. I've had another television naming theme in mind for quite a while.
Meet Clayton. But since we're all close friends, you can call him Clay.
And this is Clay's sister, Wilhelmina. My husband has been insisting upon a Wilhelmina kitten as a condition of fostering.
Okay... so this is Wilhelmina. Wilhelmina Rae, to be exact. We're going to call her Willie Rae, which is a perfect companion name to her brother Clay.
Gosh, I miss that show already.
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Uncle Norman Checks In
And looks disapprovingly at the kittens eating food without offering to share.
Okay, you're right. We can do better than a through-the-door shot.
Norm always tells it like it is.
"You feed those kittens WAY too much. See how they waddle across the floor with those fat bellies? Too much food! Norman will make the sacrifice and eat it for them."
Love Uncle Norman!! We didn't get any really tiny babies here this year so mom is all excited by the Jefferson pictures. Oh - and all of our group baby shots are when they are asleep too. MOL
ReplyDeleteI tried the approach of waiting until they we sleepy (aka more willing to sit still) but my presence riled them up and they were racing around the room within seconds. They love each other, but don't tend to hang out in a full group of five while awake. Their room is big enough that they can pair off or run on their own. Kids have stuff to do without their brothers and sisters!
DeleteKelly-thanks for the Adams family pictures. I can finally tell all of them apart now. Those teeny tiny newbies are precious too. Is it hard to name them when they're so small? They seem too small to have developed much of a personality. I'm guessing that like with real babies you need to wait a while to see what name really fits.
ReplyDeleteGlad they helped. I'll admit that as I was looking at them last night, I had to study a few of the shots and think "Shelby or Malibu?" There are obvious differences between the two, but if I'm just in the room for a quick second or catch one out of the corner of my eye I still have to think about it. Their personalities are polar opposite, which helps. I'll have more on that tomorrow.
DeleteYeah, not so easy to name itty bitty babies that you've just met. It helps to know that these probably aren't their permanent names anyway, so as long as I like it we can make it work. I'm also making assumptions on the gender of a couple of them... still a newbie to all of this, there might still be changes ;-)
Oh Princess Malibu! My very first car was a Chevy Malibu (took me through high school, college and most of grad school) and it started with a silver paint job but ended up a dark tan, so it was multi-colored, too. ;) So I have a special place for you in my heart!
ReplyDeleteSweet itty bitty babies! And Isabel is a lovely name for this Mother Jefferson!
Kisses to Norm!
Our Malibu has the extra coloration of whatever she happens to have been eating most recently. Girlfriend is getting better at keeping herself clean but her nose and toes are generally a bit crusty and grimy.
DeleteAdorable ... everyone is just adorable... But my foggy-Monday-morning brain is (as usual) not working. What show did Clayton and Wilhelmina (names) come from? :)
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness, it is completely my fault that in my late Sunday evening brain I failed to name the show. Clay and Willie Rae were Brenda Leigh's parents on The Closer.
DeleteOh! I didn't keep up with The Closer very closely (you try typing that!). Thanks for the explainer. And for giving us a kitten fix in spite of the idiot that took down GoDaddy. :)
DeleteUncle Norman is looking TERRIBLY handsome -- and, oh, the sacrifices he makes! That boy gives and he gives and he gives. But seriously, thanks for taking him in; he's a fine fellow.
ReplyDeleteI brought Norman home out of complete selfishness. I love him so.
DeleteWait -- Roxie Roker is Lenny Kravitz's mother and Al Roker's cousin? The kittens are adorable, but that's really what I learned from this post!
ReplyDeleteI've known about her being Lenny Kravitz's mother for years now. The Al Roker thing might just be something that a Wikipedian made-up, but since no one has pulled the info from the article I'm going with YES.
DeleteYou are a brave brave woman to decide on which photos you want to take and then attempt to take them. Every time I do that the kitties around me laugh and laugh and give me their butts.. Must say, I am impressed at the outcome :)
ReplyDeletegosh the kittens are cute. Why is it I always think everyone else has the cute kittens and I just have the pain in the tushie kittens??
There's been more than one evening where I sit down to look at my pictures and change plans for the next day's post. You never know when the post that you load will be titled "Guess What? Kitten Butt!"
Delete