Caturday: Christmas kitties

We had a fun morning at Woodland Nook last weekend, taking festive pictures of all the cats and kittens who needed new homes. We’d taken along some Christmassy props, including a small decorated tree, a garland and a stocking.

Needless to say, all didn’t go to plan. First of all, the tree had to be confiscated as the kittens were trying to chew the fairy lights! So we piled the garland into a heap and stood the cats in it. Of course, they kept moving. The addition of cat treats would surely help? But no, if you hide cat treats in a Christmas garland, all you get is crowd scenes... of cats’ bottoms.

In the end we managed to get semi-decent (ie cat in frame but not necessarily in sharp focus!) pix of about eight of the cats.

The winning formula was this. We pinned the garland around an empty window frame that leads from the bedroom to the TV lounge. Yes really... this is a cat shelter like you’ve never seen before – the cats all live together in reasonable harmony (most of the time). I lay on the settee below the window so I could look up at the cats and take pictures (no double chins!). Inevitably, my legs were soon hosting a rather (ie, VERY) large black and white cat, which hindered my movement somewhat. Daughter applied catnip spray to the garland then she and her friend methodically placed the cats in the frame.

The addition of catnip did result in a lot of cats sporting an unflattering “spaced-out” look, but we deleted all those... and eventually we managed to get just enough to warrant a photo gallery on the Derby Telegraph website. You can see it here – hope you like it!

We had a fun morning at Woodland Nook last weekend, taking festive pictures of all the cats and kittens who needed new homes. We’d taken along some Christmassy props, including a small decorated tree, a garland and a stocking.

Needless to say, all didn’t go to plan. First of all, the tree had to be confiscated as the kittens were trying to chew the fairy lights! So we piled the garland into a heap and stood the cats in it. Of course, they kept moving. The addition of cat treats would surely help? But no, if you hide cat treats in a Christmas garland, all you get is crowd scenes... of cats’ bottoms.

In the end we managed to get semi-decent (ie cat in frame but not necessarily in sharp focus!) pix of about eight of the cats.

The winning formula was this. We pinned the garland around an empty window frame that leads from the bedroom to the TV lounge. Yes really... this is a cat shelter like you’ve never seen before – the cats all live together in reasonable harmony (most of the time). I lay on the settee below the window so I could look up at the cats and take pictures (no double chins!). Inevitably, my legs were soon hosting a rather (ie, VERY) large black and white cat, which hindered my movement somewhat. Daughter applied catnip spray to the garland then she and her friend methodically placed the cats in the frame.

The addition of catnip did result in a lot of cats sporting an unflattering “spaced-out” look, but we deleted all those... and eventually we managed to get just enough to warrant a photo gallery on the Derby Telegraph website. You can see it here – hope you like it!