Christopher L. Bennett -- Kitty Pictures!!!!

Kitty Pictures!!!!

On June 20, 2008, Natasha passed away from advanced age. She was surrounded at the end by those who loved her, and the vet made her passing easier. She lived 17 years and 4 months. She survived a battle with thyroid disease when she was younger and had a good many years she might not otherwise have had. She brought much beauty, warmth, and silliness into my life, and kept the world safe from many dangerous pieces of string and paper. She will be missed. The page below remains unchanged as a tribute to her.

These are pictures of my friends Shadow J. Greyfellow and Natasha J. Cinnamon. The recent ones were taken with my new digital camera; the older ones are scanned Polaroids.


Tasha looking deceptively ladylike (July 2003)	Shadow in classic glower mode (July 2003)

Shadow in his favorite place, with Tasha looking on (July 2003)	Tasha engaged in her favorite activity. She eats most of the food, yet somehow Shadow ends up being the chubby one. (July 2003)

Here they are as 8-week-old kittens -- from the start, Tasha was characterized by feisty abandon, while Shadow was more deliberate and reserved. (April 1991)	But when the Shadow strikes, beware! In action, Tasha's a Tasmanian Devil, a whirlwind with limbs flailing everywhere, while Shadow's a steel trap waiting to snap shut. (April 1991)

Not the best photo quality, but here's one of Tasha's more spectacular leaps. (June 1991)	I love baby Tasha's pose here. She's always enjoyed her dinner. These days Shadow's learned to stay out of her way when she's eating.... (April 1991)

Here's the original "Tasha the Mountain Climber" photo (April 1991) which I used for the picture on the main page. I used Corel Photo House to combine it with a photo from my trip to Vasquez Rocks, the famous TV/movie location. (This photo is not staged. Baby Tasha was an avid mountaineer.)	And here's the original Shadow-on-a-bicycle photo, from June 1991. I have to admit even this version is staged (I put him on the seat), though I think it's a recreation of something I saw him do on his own. I always hoped that someday, somehow I'd be able to superimpose this onto an outdoors background, and now I have.

Unfortunately I don't have a picture of Shadow's most infamous climb. Back in their kittenhood, we were trying to train them to be outdoor cats, but they were afraid of the outdoors. Once we put Shadow out in the backyard and walked away. He promptly ran over to me and climbed clear up to my chest level before I could get a hold of him and get those needle-sharp kitten claws out of me. I was laughing and in pain at the same time.

Ironically, a couple of years later Shadow had his leg broken in a right-of-way disagreement with a car, and although the vet did a brilliant job of reassembling the fragments into a working femur, it still couldn't be as strong, so they had to learn to be indoor cats again. Shadow's been rather neurotic ever since, but he's mellowing somewhat these days. (Tasha was insane to begin with.)

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