Milo Mindbender

Meet Milo, the monogrammed cat. (I think all tabbies with these markings should have a name that begins with 'M'.) Now, before anyone, especially my mother-in-law, gets any ideas, Milo is not the latest addition to our household; he lives a very fine life in southern Connecticut along with Alix, Lucy, Nemo and Nicki. Together they keep a couple of humans, our friends Laurie and Ed, as pets.

While Sherry would have you believe that any cat within a fifty-foot radius of me is hopelessly drawn in for a head scratch, the truth is that only about one in five actually behave this way. So today the demographics proved my theory, and Milo was the only one interested in working with me. Alix and Lucy didn't like me pointing the camera at them, or perhaps the high-pitched whine from the flash unit was bothersome. Either way, as you see, all I have of them is a single frame of each: Alix, above left looking alarmed, and Lucy on the right, glaring at me. Of course, I was interrupting her meal. Nemo and Nicki kept completely out of sight, though Laurie showed us a video of Nicki drinking from a glass.

Milo didn't mind the camera, or the whine, so I was able to get several nice shots of him. He teased me with the pose that I created the above composite from. He was sitting on the counter of the pass-through between the kitchen and dining room, rubbing his face on doorway moulding. I wanted just half his face behind the wall, but there was too much activity in the room to keep his attention. I was only able to get the two shots before he jumped down, and looking at them later, I came up with what you see. I kept the bit of woodwork in the final image because the thought of a two-eared, three-eyed, bi-nasal, double-mouthed, two-tailed, four-legged cat was too weird, even for me.

That and the front legs wouldn't have lined up.