They definitely do become a part of the family. She was with us for 13 years and joined the family right before I started high school. A real queen of the house, regal and gentle. My brother stole rescued her from his roommate when he moved back to live with us. Her living conditions where not that great and we are a family of animal lovers, always have been. Not the first rescue to join us. Though, I am not sure this rescue was completely consensual at the time 😂
Even though my brother saw her as his, she chose me, much to my brother's annoyance, haha. My brother later relented seeing the bond we formed. I had always wanted a cat, but my father was against cats. We always had dogs growing up. She was such an amazing soul though and won over my father effortlessly. When we had to let her go, I was shocked to see my father crying. The only other time I had seen him cry was at his mother's funeral. I cried for days. Even now I am tearing up.
I got a second cat when my husband and I moved into our own space. Kitten from an unwanted litter. She was such a bundle of playful and adventurous energy. Sadly, after 10 months, I noticed something was wrong, she seemed to be experiencing seizures. It turned out she had Feline Leukemia for which there is no cure or treatment. I had to let her go as well. She didn't even see her first birthday. I was devastated.
At the moment we don't have any cats. As I am not sure if my kitten was born with the illness (which I suspect might be the case, as she was very tiny) or if one of the neighbourhood cats which bullied her at times might have given it to her. So until I can ensure the safety of any feline additions to the family by securing our yard, I do not want to risk it. We do have two dogs and a bearded dragon. And I love them very much. But there will always be something special about a cat to me. One day I hope to befriend a cat once more...
I have noticed that the AI can sometimes interfere with photographing. I was having a serious fight with my phone the other day in the garden. I was relaxing outside when I noticed some bees on the nearby flowers. I had my phone on me, so I thought I would see if I could get a shot.
Gosh what a struggle! The darn auto-focus kept trying to focus on different things, mostly in the background! I got so many blurry bee photos. I did eventually manage to get maybe two decent ones. At least the bees didn't mind me and kept enjoying the flowers.
I do have a car, but I still don't really take my DSLR out much. Still, it is nice to have that option. I do sometimes simply have fun and play around with it at home in the garden. And I use it when I know I will be safe, such as at events. But going out alone with it is a definite no no. I have had some criminals try to snatch from me before, once my phone, once my handbag. They didn't manage though, thankfully. And these were not armed, more snatch and run types. But friends of mine have had more violent encounters, so I just won't risk it. Besides, it is really hard to focus on getting a nice photo when you are constantly having to look around and be situationally aware of possible criminals, haha.
Whoops, wall of text, sorry!