Now if you're a faithful follower of this blog, and who is really? you know I adopted two long-haired cats from our local shelter back in June. You should have seen the look on the East Valley Animal Shelter volunteer's face when we said we wanted adult cats, a bonded pair would be awesome, and black was a preferable color. Because kittens? Everyone wants the kittens but the adults are much harder to adopt out. And black? Honey, the shelters are just full of black animals. There is a superstition about them. But I grew up with black animals and am very partial to them. Black is beautiful.

There was the big long-haired black Mike. He had been in the shelter as an owner surrender so long he was on sale. And there was Boho, a stray tuxedo the volunteer said was a very submissive cat. Sold, we got them. They weren't a bonded pair, they didn't know each other, but they were going home with us. And strangely enough, we accidentally stopped by on Catapalooza weekend and all cats were on sale, $26 each. It was meant to be. What a bargain for a pair of beauties.

Mike is now Mango and Boho is now Kiwi. It's like they instantly learned their names. I will not bore you with the details of how they became assimilated but suffice it to say they not only found a safe home but they found their way into our hearts. And, for the record, Kiwi is anything but submissive. He is king of all.

A week into their stay, Mama, the pet photographer, attempted a photo shoot. Maybe too soon. I got a great image of Kiwi but that was a happy accident, too. He certainly wasn't posing for me. Mango wasn't having it at all.

But yesterday we gave it another try. I just bought some ultramarine seamless paper that I thought would look great with them so I set up my studio lights and made the second attempt. Success! As usual, Mr. Kiwi was the most relaxed about the whole thing, just laying down and getting comfy on the seamless. But once a toy was involved, Mango got in. We got some portraits and some high-flying shots, mainly Kiwi. He is the family jokester.

Ready to have your feline photographed? Give me a call at 818.481.5214. I'm Diana Lundin and I want to be your pet photographer.