Meowy Monday

No new cat photos today. But a couple of old ones.

Today's first random cat photo is one I downloaded from my old Flickr account, Katten & Draken, before deleting it. It's several years old by now and depicts Isse (on the mill stone), Mini (below) and Mimi playing in the snow. Really hard to tell from this small pic -- there is a larger version on my laptop that doesn't work -- but I managed to snap a pic just as Isse "threw" snow in Mini's face.

But maybe you're tired of snow and cold now and want to dream about warmer days?

I love the look on Randa's face in this one. Isn't she cute? And so tiny! It feels like a lifetime ago. Must've been in 2005 I think, because the next summer this happened. Svisston's face of pure terror is also incredible. Vitis is a bit more hesitant, waiting in the back -- while his brother and sister are on the lookout.

This was their first day outdoors and the world was so big, so unknown and so scary -- drawing from lessons learnt from earlier litters, we carried them out in a "safehouse" that they could hide in and from which they could explore the world in the own pace. The grass was especially scary and so very unlike any surface they'd ever walked on indoors. The first day was scary, they preferred the safety indoors and when we took them back inside they were trembling, but soon curiosity won over fear and they found that the big unknown was fun, not fearful. They began to explore and before we knew it they were old enough to follow us around the gardens and forests.

~*~

I'm trying not to put too many sad memories into these photos. I want to show the joy in them, the joy I felt went when taking them and the joy in those cats' lives. If you've followed my blogs or known me for some years now, you know there's a sad story I can tell about both these photos. Before writing this post, I was on my blog reader reading about a jewellery maker who just lost her beloved cat, which made a lot of sad and bad memories of last year surface. I had a cry, both about her cat and ours that we lost. And it was a bit sad to look at these old photos again, but most of all the photos made me smile. Not a melancholic smile, but a smile of happiness when I think of the joy in these young cats. It's all about letting the sorrow and grief go from focusing on the deaths (and the ugly feeling of guilt) to being about memories of their lives and their beautiful personalities.