With warm sunshine beaming in through open blinds, I took the opportunity to photograph The Kids while we enjoyed a nice afternoon together.  At some point, I knelt down on my hands and knees so I could put the camera in a special position on the floor where it might be possible to get a good picture of one or another of them who had begrudgingly joined me in such a low place—you know, the kind of place they’re loath to go.

So, as you might expect, me being on all fours provided an easy opportunity for…

Surprise!  Kazon hopped on my back and got comfortable.  He does love to sleep on my shoulders and to climb aboard my back when it’s made convenient.  How could I have expected anything else?

In his usual way, he settled in and went about his own business.  In this case, that meant looking out the windows.

Then he realized I was still on the floor.  That he was lying on top of me didn’t register.  Kazon’s like that, you know.  I mean… well… simple.  To be polite about it.

Then came the question: “Daddy, don’t you want to come up here and play with me?  I’m ‘King of the Hill,’ but I bet you’d enjoy this game, too!  Come on.  Try to knock me off.”

He still hasn’t figured out that I can’t join him up there.

Needless to say, he got cozy and made sure I was stuck in that position for quite some time.

And the picture I was trying to take?  Forgotten, of course.

While I’m on the subject of the intriguing reflective and refractive properties of cat eyes, let me offer two more examples of how, very much unlike most species, felines offer a myriad of colors and intensities when it comes to light bouncing around inside their eyes.  In this case, let’s look at two photographs of Kazon.  In both cases, I used the flash on the camera.  Also in both cases, the direction he was facing and the direction I was aiming were both different.  You can see those variations caused disparate results.

In Australia’s Aboriginal mythology, Tjilpa is the ancestor of the ancient totemic cat-men.  When Kazon learned of this in our recent study of feline legends and folklore, he told me to grab the flashy box (i.e., the camera) so he could show the world his impression of a totemic cat-man.  Unfortunately, Daddy fumbled with the flashy box a bit too long and Kazon grew frustrated.  He even threatened to put the bitey on me if I didn’t hurry up and get it right.  I’m sorry to say that’s when the shutter snapped, and the photo below is of The Kazon That Would Be Tjilpa as he grew increasingly exasperated by the bungling human with the camera.

Kazon was searching for that special place where he could curl up and take a nap.  The back of the couch seemed a good place to look… you know, just in case it was as inviting up close as it had seemed from across the room.