Author Archives: shadthecat

Shad says Happy Christmas

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I’m not normally given to dressing up in Christmas jumpers or sporting a pair of bouncy reindeer antlers, although I’m always amused to see them on other people.  But never let it be said that this cat doesn’t know when it’s time to let his hair down!  So as a special Christmas treat for John I thought I’d wear the silly scarf he bought me this year.  Yes that’s me getting into the party spirit!  I hope you agree that I pull it off with a certain amount of dignity!  The other shots were taken while I was having a nap on one of my favourite blankets.  I woke up to the flash and gave John a couple of nice poses before going off in a huff to find a quieter spot.  Not that I’m an old humbug or anything!  I hope you like the picture of me preparing the camera for our next photo shoot looking professional and debonair!

Shadow

The New Year is coming and perhaps like me you’ve made a few resolutions that you haven’t quite stuck to in the past.  But I’m an eternal optimist and the New Year symbolises a time of re-birth and starting fresh.  So whatever it is you want to achieve in 2015, you go for it!  I hope you enjoy a relaxing few days, whether you’re with friends or family or on your own.  Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year from John and I at Shadow Photography.  May you find something to smile about every day.

Shadow

Shad gets some sad news

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When I look at the face of this beautiful lioness named Frosty, I see a long proud snout, focused curious eyes and a tufty beard (although I wouldn’t say that bit in front of her!).  She lives at the Isle of Wight Zoo which regular readers will know is a sanctuary for rescued big cats overlooking the scenic beaches of Sandown.  See how her rounded ears are facing forward probably listening to sounds in that direction, fully alert and concentrating on her surroundings, a perfect portrayal of the skill and patience required to capture prey so that herself and her family can survive.  Her broad nose is designed for superior scent detection although her whiskers are a little lack-luster compared to mine (I wouldn’t mention that to her either!).

 

One of the things I respect about lions is that they are the only social members of the feline family, choosing to live in large groups called ‘prides’ and engaging in a variety of peaceful tactile behaviours such as head-rubbing with other lions in greeting and licking each other.  So it is with great sadness I have to tell you that the noble big-hearted Charlie Brown passed away just a few days ago.  I met Charlie Brown at the beginning of the year on a previous trip to the Isle of Wight Zoo and you can see a photo of him just below.  He was a much loved character who arrived at the Zoo more than 10 years ago with his litter-mate Snoopy.  Snoopy was a dominant male who used to lead the lions in their evening roaring sessions but he sadly died in 2012 when it was discovered that he had an inoperable tumour.  Charlie relied on Snoopy for his sense of security so you can imagine how much Charlie must have missed his bro, but the keepers watched him carefully and after a while his neighbour Nahla moved in as his companion.  Poor Charlie became unwell this year and had been undergoing chemotherapy when he suffered an aneurysm and was put to sleep.  As I watched Nahla alone in the enclosure, I thought she looked lost and I wondered if she roared her goodbye when she realised Charlie would never come back.  It’s a sad business and Charlotte (the Zoo Director) is broken-hearted but I have no doubt she will continue to pour lots of love on to the remaining residents and welcome any new arrivals in need of help.

 

I gave Nahla a soft trill and walked slowly away from her enclosure with my tail low in respect and headed towards the tiger enclosures whilst pondering the circle of life.  Life does indeed go on and the gorgeous Ayesha lounging by her pool is a fine example, luxuriating in the winter sun and generally making the place look classy.  There is something regal about these magnificent creatures, whether it’s the aristocratic gaze or the eye-catching stripes I can’t tell.  Just across the way is my old buddy Xena the one-eyed white tiger I’ve told you about before.  Unfortunately Xena’s rock where she sleeps fell-in the other day so her enclosure is in need of repairs.  It seems they’re having a tough time at the moment at the Isle of Wight Zoo and my admiration goes to the keepers who were working hard on this freezing cold day while John, John’s daughter Natasha and myself sauntered around chatting to Charlotte and admiring the view (of the animals obviously)!  On our way home while we were waiting for the ferry to take us back across The Solent, we watched the hovercraft leaving Ryde Pier and as the powerful engines fired up, the blast-off really took me by surprise and a mighty wind shot through my fur and made John’s curly hair stand on end.  We all laughed!

Shad does a Selfie

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Who is this mysterious character strolling along the beach with a camera?  It’s none other than my good friend and business partner, John.  This is a rare sighting indeed because John normally prefers to be behind the camera.  But John’s daughter Natasha cleverly caught him in the frame the other day when we were at the beach on the Isle of Wight.  Twilight was fast approaching and as the sun disappeared I could feel the drop in temperature and the quiet that follows as people head home and the nourishing warmth of day is gone.  As John walked ahead, I felt proud to live and work alongside him, hard-working and honourable man that he is.  But boy does he have big feet!  I had great fun jumping in the footprints he left in the sand.

 

Check out the selfie!  I like the purple shirt John is wearing.  It’s both mine and John’s favourite colour, very chic and a purrfect match for my shiny black fur.  There have been a few cheeky comments about the similarity between us and Ernest Blofeld (the James Bond supervillain) stroking his cat in this picture!  I think it’s the way John’s hand is touching my back.  But I can assure you that John is no evil genius with aspirations of world domination.  Although I can’t promise you that I’m not a secret service agent posing as a photographer with a covert agenda to destroy the arch-enemies of the free world!

Shad & John

Shad Enjoys a Sunset on the Beach

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Now I’m not normally given to romantic notions and the mushy stuff, but a beautiful sunset will have me mesmerised by its radiance and charm.  Is it the warmth of those last rays of sunshine?  Could it be the brilliance of the red and orange hues or the patterns thrown across the sky by the beams of light?  May be it’s the promise of a new dawn approaching?  I think a glorious sunset means something different to every individual each time they look at one.

 

John and I have spent several early evenings on the seafront in our home town of Bognor Regis scouring the promenade for a perfect shot.  I love how the dusk light reflects off the water and the clouds, revealing the expanse of the ocean and the scope of the horizon.  It’s strange to think that while this British cat watched the sun disappear below the skyline, an Aussie cat somewhere in the Tropic of Capricorn was watching the sun rise up in the distance.

 

Some of these pictures were taken the other evening looking out to sea just as the sun was beginning to set in one of our favourite locations, Sandown Bay on the Isle of Wight.  I found the gentle swell of the water washing back and forth very relaxing and gazed happily at the sea-sprays, as the waves broke and the crest of each one spilled effortlessly down its front face.  See how the light dances on the surface of the water, glimmering its goodbye as the day comes to an end.  But for some creatures that live in the sea, their day is just beginning once the sun has gone to bed.  Many animals such as lobsters, octopuses and cuttlefish come out only at night to feed and hunt.  Of course I can’t vouch for that personally, I have no intention of getting my paws wet to check!  As it is, I got damp sand between my toes and it took me half an hour to lick it off!  It didn’t taste good either! But a good photographer makes sacrifices for his art!

Shad looks at the night sky

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Do you ever look up at the twinkling stars shining against the black backdrop of the night sky and marvel at the secrets they hold?  It’s as though the stars are winking at earth, smiling coyly because they know something we don’t.  Is there an alternate universe containing another sleek black cat with satin-soft fur and an eye for the panache?!  Alright, I’m not so much sleek as I am portly, but I’m definitely got style!  Nevertheless, I am fascinated by the brightness of the stars, their contrast with the mysterious shadowy sky and the remarkable shapes they form.

 

Some of the most famous structures up there include the Big Dipper, Hercules and the constellation of Orion which contains a colossal star perhaps 1,000 times the diameter of the sun called Betelgeuse, a red supergiant nearing the end of its and waiting to go supernova.  Imagine that when it blows!  The explosion would be astronomical but probably wouldn’t be seen on earth for a few thousand years thanks to the unbelievably vast distances involved in space.

 

Moon Light

The mysteries of the night sky are part of their charm and so are the bright colours and exciting objects and events like comets, asteroids, black-holes, solar eclipses and interstellar dust.  John and I have spent many a chilly night outside gazing upwards with our cameras on stand-by, but taking photographs of space has its challenges such as cloud-cover and light-pollution.  Here we have captured some nice shots of full moons in all their splendour that illustrate the mountains and craters on its surface (that’s light bits and dark bits to you and me!)  The smooth dark patches on the moon are considered to be valleys where ancient lava flowed and many of these areas have names, most famously the Sea of Tranquility.

 

The moon is covered in impact craters perhaps because it has no atmosphere so it is unprotected from cosmic rays, meteorites and solar winds.  It has much weaker gravity than earth so if I lived up there I would only weigh about on sixth of my current weight.   I like the sound of that!  Plus the lack of atmosphere means no sound can be heard on the moon so I wouldn’t have to put up with John’s snoring!    But I would miss sharing the furnace-like heat that builds up under the duvet on a winter’s night and the treats I get for being adorable, so I think for now I’ll keep my paws on terra firma!

Shad does the Wingham Wildlife Park

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Dry feet are very important to a pussy cat.  We like our paws to be shipshape, our whiskers to float free and our bellies to feel full!  But this day my fur glistened with moisture from the endless drizzly rain that fell from the sky.  It’s not uncommon to see doggies wearing a waterproof overcoat or a tartan jumper, but cats mostly don’t tolerate costumes or too much bling.  And this cat certainly isn’t prissy enough to pull-off a leopard-print mackintosh.  So I went ‘á la nature’, in reverence to my unadorned big cat cousins residing at the Wingham Wildlife Park in Kent.  John, Natasha (the other photographer in John’s family) and I had driven all the way over to Canterbury to catch a glimpse of Poppy the baby jaguar and it was worth every lick of my coat required later to get myself clean and dry.

 

Having never seen a jaguar in real life before, I switched from happy-go-lucky ‘human mode’ (which employs the skills I have perfected to communicate with humans in their visual / auditory way) to ‘untamed feline mode’ (which involves using body language and scent to connect with other cats).  My whiskers stood proud and bristled with excitement as I flicked a few happy pheromones in the direction of Poppy’s mum whose name is Luna.  I wanted her to know I was there to admire her baby so there was no need for her to fret.  You can imagine my surprise when I strode purposefully to the fence and found that Poppy looked just like me – sleek, black, handsome and proud.  The only difference I could see (apart from the size perhaps) was that Poppy had big blue eyes and mine are yellow.  Poppy is the first big cat to the born at the park and she takes after her black mum Luna more than her yellow-spotted dad Loki.  She was born in July 2014 and has recently gone on show to the public now the zookeepers are satisfied that her protective mother is comfortable with the idea.

 

Another new sight for me was the pardine genet.  This debonair exotic creature is very shy in the wild and as such there is not much known about its natural mating, courtship and hunting behaviours.  This mysterious cat-like mammal is similar to a civet, a fossa or a mongoose and has a vast range from Canada down to the Andes.  It’s a protected species throughout most of its range except for a few areas including Ecuador and El Salvador, yet they are hunted in many parts of Canada and the United States.  Seems like a contradiction to me but I’ve never understood the killing for sport thing.

 

There are far too many animals at the park to mention them all but some of the striking ones in these photos are the Puma (also known as a cougar or a mountain cat), the noble lion and magnificent tiger, curious meerkats and the dignified red panda, as well as quirky perky penguins.  There was also a monkey with a teddy who made me laugh because I have a teddy at home, but don’t go telling everybody that!

Shad Says thank you for visiting

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This is a moment for celebration and I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you lovely readers for your commitment and interest in Shad the Cat’s blog.  The reason for celebration is that I’ve had 10,000 views.  I love sharing my escapades and reflections with you and I sincerely hope you enjoy reading about them.  I do have a tendency to contemplate life and sometimes it’s hard for me as a cat to live in a world I don’t always understand.  But I try not to grumble too much despite all the crazy and often unkind things that go on in this beautiful world.  I hope to continue spreading a little smile across all your faces in the months to come and give you a few insights into the unique requirements of the feline variety, as well as some other of my other furry, scaly and prickly friends from the animal kingdom.

 

Zoukia
Monty
Muffin
Muffin
Ginger
Basil
Bandit

 

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Shad continues his trip to London

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As John and I headed into the City of London after our emotional encounter with the Tower of London poppies, we stopped for some comfort food to warm our cockles.  This culinary delight came in the form of hot-dog and chips from a van that claimed it was selling traditional London food!  Mmm.  I believe that sausages were originally imported from Germany and became popular at baseball games in America, and the relish didn’t feel very British to me.  Nevertheless, it was tasty.  Why it’s called a hot-dog I’ll never know.  I’ve come across a few dogs in my time as regular readers will know and not one of them had any bits that looked like a sausage in a bun.  My own theory is that people used to cook meaty sausages that were stolen by the dog when they were still hot from the oven and hot-dogs were born.  Of course a cat would wait until the sausage had been cut into bite-size chunks and garnished lavishly before running away with a decent helping.

 

London Basin

Anyway, I digress.  After finishing my traditional London dinner and grabbing a quick catnap, John and I picked up the pace so that we could see as much of the City as possible.  We walked briskly past the Royal Exchange, originally built in the 16th century as a centre of commerce, it has twice been destroyed by fire and rebuilt and is currently a plush courtyard with offices, luxury boutiques and restaurants. Another unique building you will see in the photos is the Bank of England which is authorised to issue banknotes in the UK and is the custodian to the official gold reserves.  Apparently the vault beneath the City of London needs keys that are 3 feet long to open and holds around 4600 tonnes of gold.

 

Duke Of Wellington
City of London Memorial
London Exchange
Bank of England
The statue of Queen Anne at St Paul’s

Check out these fabulously dressed ‘Beefeaters’ as they’re affectionately known.  The detachment of the ‘Yeomen of the Guard’ is symbolic of London and has formed the Royal Bodyguard for many centuries.  In case you’re wondering, they apparently derived their nickname from their position in the Royal Bodyguard in the 15th century when they were permitted to eat as much beef as they wanted from the king’s table.  No hot-dogs though!

 

Beefeaters
RNLI – Tower Hill

My tough little paws were starting the feel the strain as we sauntered along the Victoria embankment at the boundary of the City of London but a good photographer learns to power through.  From the Waterloo Bridge we took photos of the London Eye, Westminster Tower and the Houses of Parliament. Boy that Big Ben looked huge from the street below and the Gothic architecture was impressive and imposing.  According to the locals, Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the clock at the north end of the Palace of Westminster which was cast in April 1858, making him around 156 years old.  He is 96m (or 315 feet) up in the air and the clock weighs about 13 ½ tons, about the same as a small elephant.

 

London Eye
Westminster Palace

We headed to Trafalgar Square which was thriving with tourists and smart office workers going about their business.  Here we saw Nelson’s Column and the National Gallery and ended our whistle-stop tour of London on a poignant note in front of the bronze soldier.  The 7.5m high soldier sculpture commemorates the WW1 centenary and is based on the Unknown Soldier.

Shad does the poppies at the Tower of London

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Picture this – a sleek black portly cat setting out for London from deepest Bognor Regis with nothing but a polka-dot bag on a stick and a dream. Rumour had it that the streets were paved with gold and this cat from humble beginnings was off to seek his fortune.  When he reached the bustling city he couldn’t believe his eyes, there were horses and cars, great tall buildings and hundreds of people, but nowhere could he see any gold.  This lucky cat with a vivid imagination was indeed on an adventure but didn’t have to worry about being tired or hungry because he was taking a trip with his ‘dad’ and business partner (John) to England’s capital, not to seek treasure but to pursue the passion in his life – photography.

A sea of red

A sea of red

John and I decided to take the train up to Londinium to see the beautiful Tower of London ceramic poppies before they are dismantled later in the month.  Each of the 888,246 poppies represents a tribute to British or Commonwealth service men and women who have been killed in action.  Around 4 million people are expected to have visited so far but it will be dismantled shortly to go on tour across the UK, being displayed around the country and then permanently in the Imperial War Museum.  Some of the poppies will be sold for £25 each and the net proceeds will be shared between the six service charities including Help for Heroes and the Royal British Legion.

 

The sea of red poppies is a moving piece of art that reflects the scale of the sacrifice made by the service personnel who have died in the line of duty and the humans that had gathered to look at it were full of admiration for the artist who created them and the meaning behind them.  And that wasn’t the only picturesque scene I witnessed on my jaunt to the Big Smoke.  The view of the city from the bank of the Thames was stirring – the bold structures that silhouetted the grey stormy skyline, the brightly coloured clothing of crowds wandering along the embankment, working barges and busy pleasure-boats bobbing noisily on the churning murky waters of the fast moving river.

 

The  naval vessel in the picture is HMS Severn, a Royal Navy river class patrol ship paying a visit to London for a few days so the crew can attend the Remembrance Service at St Paul’s Church on Armistice Day and help raise money for the London Poppy Appeal.  HMS Severn is moored alongside HMS Belfast, part of the Imperial War Museum’s exhibits that tells the stories of life on board this warship during the Second World War.  Look carefully at the photos and you’ll also spot St Paul’s, the Shard and the Monument – a tall stone column topped with a flaming urn covered in gold that stands as a memorial to the Great Fire of London in 1666.  I hope you enjoy the pics and I’ll tell you more about my London adventure next time.

The City

Shad talks about his buddy

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One day, a friendly young kitten was found wandering the streets of Thessaloniki in Greece.  The lady who found this kitten with no name took pity on him because he had no one to care for him and he had suffered an injury.  Despite dragging a lifeless paw around with him, his happy go-lucky nature shone through and he was taken to a shelter to be fostered.  The volunteers at the shelter did all they could to help him, along with the many other kittens and cats they rescue.  He was named Pasas, fed and watered, played with and cuddled, kept free of fleas and parasites, safe and warm.  But they did not have the resources to treat his injured paw which remained limp by his side.

 

As the weeks turned into months, the plight of this plucky little chap was captured by the Greek Cat Welfare Society, a UK charity which has been working in Greece and the Greek Islands for the last 22 years, neutering colonies of stray cats and educating and supporting local people to have their pets (both cats and doggies) de-sexed.  Despite the lack of food and care and sadly some cat-hating people who poison them and dispose of them cruelly, there are still many thousands of unwanted cats roaming the streets in Greece thanks to our phenomenal potential to breed.

 

Anyway, to continue the story, a photo of Pasas the Greek boy with the floppy paw was printed in the Greek Cat Welfare Society’s newsletter and caught the eye of an English lady with a love for the feline variety.  She offered him a home and so began the next phase of his journey through life.  He had to be micro-chipped and vaccinated against rabies in order to receive his pet passport, before he was put on a flight to Paris and then driven from Paris all the way to the Sussex coast.  This was all generously paid for by the Greek Cat Welfare Society.

 

Young Pasas was renamed Zoukia and spent the first couple of weeks in his new home hiding in the cupboard or behind the bed, staring wide-eyed whenever his new owner looked at him.  It must have been scary and stressful to endure the 10 hour journey in a cat box with all those strange noises of the plane and the cars before being taken to a totally different place that smelled and looked unfamiliar and was already occupied by 4 other English rescue cats who didn’t even speak the same language!  But Zoukia is a resilient boy with an instinct to survive and coped admirably with the challenges he faced.  His new owner quickly whipped him off to the vets to get that droopy paw sorted out, especially as he had now developed an ulcer on it where it was always rubbing against the floor.  He was diagnosed with a brachial plexus paralysis (damage to a nerve resulting in a limp paw with no feeling) probably caused by a car accident and the vet recommended amputation.

 

Now you would think that this poor creature, having had such a bad start in life, would end up a shy nervous little sausage barely able to hobble his way to the food bowl for a bit of bread and dripping.  But I can assure you from personal experience of being swiped at by this cheeky little monster on several occasions, he is strong-willed and adventurous and he rules the roost.  He enjoys life and seems oblivious to the fact that he has a paw missing.  May be he wouldn’t fall off fences and stumble out of trees so much if he remembered, but this happy go-lucky cat lives life to the full, and even though he occasionally loses his balance, it doesn’t stop him leaping into the air to catch a moth or hurtling down the garden at top speed after one of the other cats.  What an enormous change from the streets of Thessaloniki city where he grew up.

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