TIBBOH THE TERRIBLE

In 1997 one of my coworkers had a stray cat show up in his backyard and have kittens.  My coworker decided to adopt the mother and one of the kittens and give the others away.  I don't remember how many there were.  One of our other coworkers, the lady who introduced me to my husband, in fact, took one of the kittens.  After wondering if Hobbit, my 5lb black cat of terror would accept another cat in the apartment, or eat it, I decided I would take in this last available kitten.

Hobbit did NOT eat the kitten.  I decided to name her Tibboh.  In case you can't see it immediately, Tibboh is Hobbit spelled backwards.  Yeah, I was super clever in my 20's.  It turned out to be a brilliant name and these two cats could not have been more different from each other.  One, tiny and black, and super vicious to everyone except me (and later my husband, step kids and daughter) - the other orange, white and brown and (very quickly) a literally huge bundle of love (expect she was the one that had problems with the step kids, at first).

Hobbit made it to nearly 19 years old when we had to say goodbye in October, 2010.

Tibboh nearly make it to 17 when we had to say goodbye today.

I already miss her always greeting me at the front door.  I miss her following me into the bathroom.  I miss her stalking me whenever I go to the kitchen.  I miss her accosting me as I sit on the couch.  I miss the click of the nails she'd never let me cut, on our floor as she roamed the house.  I just miss her and this absolutely sucks.  

This is the first time I have been petless since 1990.  Or 1991.  I thought Hobbit was born in 1990, but I have vet documents that show she was getting shots and fixed in 1991.  So that's over 20 years of two cats in my life.  For a good decade, it was just me and them.  Then I met my husband and my step kids and our family got bigger, but for 10 years, my cats where my home and my love.

I miss you, Tibboh the Terrible.  Thank you so much for being part of our lives.

52 of 2013 - Week 33

52 of 2013 - Week 33. Picaboo's theme for the week is 'Portrait Posing Tips'. My Focus 52 - Pixel Project theme is 'Pets in Action'.  This is as close to a portrait as I'm doing right now and it's more of a 'Pets in Inaction', but there ya go.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12 (the fancy point and shoot), edited with Photoshop and PicMonkey.

52 of 2013 - Week 32

52 of 2013 - Week 32. Picaboo's theme for the week is 'Tips for Using Window Light'. My Focus 52 - Pixel Project theme is 'Food Photography'.  So here is Tibboh the Terrible, lit with the window behind her and some mini cupcakes.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12 (the fancy point and shoot), edited with Photoshop and PicMonkey.

52 of 2013 - Week 29

52 of 2013 - Week 29. Picaboo's theme for the week is 'Breaking the Rules: Overexposure'. My Focus 52 - Pixel Project theme is 'My Town Photo Essay'. Nope. But here's another picture of Tibboh the Terrible. I likely overexposed the window, so that might qualify.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12 (the fancy point and shoot), edited with Photoshop and PicMonkey.

52 of 2013 - Week 28

52 of 2013 - Week 28. Picaboo's theme for the week is 'Aperature'. My Focus 52 - Pixel Project theme is 'Photographing Strangers'.  And I didn't do either.  So here is a shot of Weeb and her older sister and a good Photobomb by Tibboh the Terrible.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12 (the fancy point and shoot), edited with Photoshop and PicMonkey.

366 of 2012 - Day 244

366 of 2012 - Day 244. Tibboh the Terrible. She's a wonderful fuzzy companion.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12 - f/4, 1/125 sec., ISO-640, camera hand held, no flash, shot indoors. Cropped (and resized), added text, applied Unsharp Mask, and applied High Pass filter around Tibboh's eyes and nose with Photoshop.

Picaboo's Weekly Challenge is posted here: How to Photograph Pets.

366 of 2012 - Day 243

366 of 2012 - Day 243. Tibboh the Terrible. I can't begin to explain what a spaz this cat is. Trying to get photos of her is like trying to get photos of a... well a totally insane feline bent on havoc and mayhem and whose purpose in life is to make you nuts by not cooperating in any way.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12 - f/4, 1/125 sec., ISO-500, camera hand held, no flash, shot indoors. Cropped (and resized), added text, applied Unsharp Mask, High Pass filter around Tibboh's eyes, adjusted Exposure and Levels with Photoshop.

Picaboo's Weekly Challenge is posted here: How to Photograph Pets.

366 of 2012 - Day 242

366 of 2012 - Day 242. Tibboh the Terrible. The joy of adding Tibboh to my little family (I was single at the time) was that now I had black cat fur AND white/orange cat fur all over my house.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12 - f/4, 1/250 sec., ISO-800, camera hand held, no flash, shot indoors. Cropped (and resized), added text, applied Unsharp Mask and High Pass filter around Tibboh's eyes and nose with Photoshop.

Picaboo's Weekly Challenge is posted here: How to Photograph Pets.

366 of 2012 - Day 241

366 of 2012 - Day 241. Tibboh the Terrible. When I brought Tibboh home, I was very concerned about how my first cat, Hobbit, would handle it. Hobbit was known, far and wide, as being a nasty 5 lb black cat of terror. She wasn't impressed with me, but very quickly assumed the roll of 'big sister'. Even though Tibboh outgrew her in a few months, Hobbit was always dominant and seemed to enjoy the fuzzy company.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12 - f/2.8, 1/20 sec., ISO-1000, camera hand held, no flash, shot indoors. Cropped (and resized), added text, applied Unsharp Mask around Tibboh's nose with Photoshop.

Picaboo's Weekly Challenge is posted here: How to Photograph Pets.

366 of 2012 - Day 240

366 of 2012 - Day 240. Tibboh the Terrible. Tibbs was born to a ferral Manx momma (no tail) who had given birth to a litter in the backyard of a coworker's buddy. My coworker took the mother and one of the kittens, I took Tibbs and the lady who introduced me to Wonko took another kitten from the litter.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12 - f/2.8, 1/50 sec., ISO-800, camera hand held, no flash, shot indoors. Cropped (and resized), added text, applied Unsharp Mask around Tibboh's nose with Photoshop.

Picaboo's Weekly Challenge is posted here: How to Photograph Pets.

366 of 2012 - Day 239

366 of 2012 - Day 239. Tibboh and the Weeb.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12 - f/3.5, 1/30 sec., ISO-160, camera hand held, no flash, shot outdoors. Cropped (and resized), added text, applied Unsharp Mask and High Pass Filter to Tibboh, adjusted Levels, and added a Warm Photo Filter with Photoshop.

Picaboo's Weekly Challenge is posted here: How to Photograph Pets.

366 of 2012 - Day 238

366 of 2012 - Day 238. Tibboh the Terrible. Tibboh is my second cat. Her name is 'Hobbit', backwards. Hobbit (aka Wee Hobbit McNasty) was my first cat and she was 5 lbs of black, furry, terror! Tibboh is a much larger, much more mellow kitty. She's getting on in age now, too. She is around 16 years old.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12 - f/4.5, 1/160 sec., ISO-320, camera hand held, no flash, shot outdoors. Cropped (and resized), added text, applied Unsharp Mask and High Pass Filter to eyes, adjusted Levels, Curves, and Brightness/Contrast with Photoshop.

Picaboo's Weekly Challenge is posted here: How to Photograph Pets.

366 of 2012 - Day 50

366 0f 2012 - Day 50. Picaboo's challenge for this week is 'Shooting With Creative Angles'. I can do that. I put the camera on the floor, aiming up at the ceiling, and tried to entice Tibboh the Terrible into coming close to have a sniff. I won't lie, the end result required a bit of force. But I promise, no Tibboh's were harmed in the taking of this photograph.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12, f/2.8, 1/20 sec., ISO-1000, no flash. Next time I'm going to try doing a project like this with a remote shutter release! Adjusted only slightly in Photoshop - Vibrance and High Pass Filter (but only a tiny bit in both cases).

366 of 2012 - Day 21

366 of 2012 - Day 21. Tibboh the Terrible napping with Weeb's little kitty friend. This was NOT Tibb's idea. LOL

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12 on Auto, f/2.8, 1/20 sec., ISO-1250, 6 mm focal length, Max aperture 2.96875, pattern metering, no flash. I adjusted Levels and Curves in Photoshop, and applied an Unsharp Mask, going WAY overboard, but I liked the effect. Cropped and added text.

JUNCOS AND SPARROWS AND TIBBS, OH MY!

We have loads of these little birds near our house. I thought they were chickadees until I was showing Weeb pictures of chickadees, online, and realised they were totally not.

I'd never heard of a Junco until now. But that is what they seem to be.

These photos were taken through our (dirty) sliding glass door (while I was sitting on the couch), so I apologize for the dirty blur, but they are cool little birds. They were teasing me most of the morning, too, flitting away as soon as my camera focused (as well as it could through the grime).

The bird below is a sparrow of some kind. They share the big tree behind us with the juncos.

Tibbs was not impressed with the feathery teasing. This is my excuse for leaving the windows dirty - so the birds know they are safe from the evil fur beast that is Tibboh the Terrible.

THE JOY OF LOVE, DAY 10

Willette Photography & More is offering a free, online photography class this February, called The Joy of Love. There's still time to sign up, if you're interested!

Lesson 10 - SPACE, WHERE THEY ARE MOST COMFORTABLE. There is nobody in our house more comfortable, more often, than Tibbs, our cat. Since our older cat, Hobbit, passed away at the end of October, Tibboh has taken up residence as Alpha-pet and with it, Hobbit's old spot on the back of the couch, behind me. I thought I would try a few shots today. Two of the three shots were using the digital macro.

AND THEN THERE WAS TIBBOH

When Hobbit passed away, it didn't seem to bother our other house cat, 14 year old Tibboh. As they hadn't exactly been best buddies, we didn't think it would make any difference to our remaining pet.

After a while, we began to notice that Tibboh wanted more affection. She became cuddly, which was odd, because she'd never been especially cuddly before. It's been very strange watching her personality change now that she is alpha-cat of the house.

Wonko and I had a chuckle this afternoon when Tibboh snuggled up to Weeb while she was watching TV. Tibboh had head scritching ideas, I'm certain. Weeb, who had never been particularly comfortable with either cat getting too close to her, was happy to share her space and offer Tibboh some attention.

It's been an odd transition. Though I still very much miss Hobbit, it's nice to see Tibboh become more affectionate, especially with Weeb.