Boss or Moonpie
I can’t always tell the two black kittens apart in the pictures; I think that’s Boss.
Moonpie in springtime
I know this is Moonpie.
Trees have been busy!
Looking out into trees glowing with autumn sunlight makes me think of nature’s beauties and how cats are part of that too. And yet black cats are in need of protection this time of year. The phases of plant life tug on our hearts and make us sentimental, can’t everyone extend those feelings, whether by logic or emotion, to include little animals? Pictured here in the light of last winter and spring, our cats now stand ready to revel in the fall and later, purr us through long winter nights.
Boss in evening light
I know that’s Boss.
Mostly Mulberry
I love good spooky light-hearted Halloween fun as much as anyone. But sadly I have to again say, keep all cats and animals, especially black ones, safely inside this time of year.
Franklin Buddy
Franklin rocks the autumn light!
Autumn starting on the creek
The cats and I always sit around together, watching. But there’s just a little extra dimension to our watchfulness in the autumn season, for whatever reasons. Humans are hyper aware of the doings of the natural world this time of year.
Boss and Moonpie
Tree sprinkles
I see the imprecise arc of leaves falling and gathering when I go to the creek. The pictures look similar to those of last year, but present leaf placement by wind and water differs. The flowing arc of cats’ precision moves also happens in a flurry of random variations according to disparate feline impulses; moving and stopping for instants scarcely long enough to make pictures.
Black kitty, probably Boss
And we’re off!
Of a sudden Moonpie flows up and over one of her brothers. I don’t even see a ripple or flex of her powerful hind legs as they initiate the jump. It’s like when I don’t see wind, but trees move and leaves fall.
Magnificent Boss cat
There are a few red leaves down, but fall is still draggin’
Small reminder of Halloween festivities, a jack o’lantern carved in another year. I looked at our late Little Buddy when I drew the cat face onto the pumpkin. The hubs carved it and added ears. We’ll view some monster movies on that night.
Halloween Pumpkin starring Little Buddy
Our late Little Buddy had feline radial hypoplasia. His story is in my Muse Award winning book, Catwoods. I tried to use words to paint these cats and settings, without actual pictures. I am so grateful to the many people who have read the book and have good things to say! So I hope if you would like, you’ll get a copy. The proceeds will help us take care of our cats of many colors and patterns. It’s a long book, 363 pages, so that’s a lot of reading. The link to Amazon is at the upper left and there’s also an “Order the Catwoods Book Online” page above, where you can go direct to Borgo Publishing.
Stay tuned, there are more autumn pics coming and the whole gang of cats will be back soon too! (We only have one or maybe two more tropical storms to get through.)
I live near a creek in a forest, in close observation and awe of the wildlife outside, as well as the domestic animals of the household. I'm writer Leah T. Alford. I was "catwoods" on this site Catwoods Porch Party, Itchmo Forums for Cats and Dogs, and a few other sites that may or may not exist now. I have now published a book, and the publisher wanted it called Catwoods. I never expected the book title to be the same as my username, so for now I've changed the username to Leah. For more info, click the "About" button above.
Catwoods Porch Party 
So cool looking! Like little black panthers.
The kitties and I thank you, Petrina! I agree they do indeed look like little panthers!
They’re beautiful–and your photos are too. My cat photos all seem to look alike: sleeping cat.
The kitties and I thank you Ellen, we are happy you like our pictures! With kitties I have to wait for the open eyes, too. LOL I often a have about 5 pics with closed eyes or narrowed eyes to every wide open eyes pic I get.
You do have a lot of black kitties to choose from!!!!
I sure do, now! And sometimes it feels like I have 3 times the actual number of cats!
HOW DID I MISS THIS POST WHEN IT HAPPENED? Autumn and black cats. The two best things ever!
I’m so glad you enjoyed our pictures! We have lots more autumn and black cats coming up, it’s just taking me forever to go through all the pics. Best regards and purrs to you and Louis Catorze!
Dearest Leah,
Thank you for your comment on my blogspot blog: https://mariettesbacktobasics.blogspot.com/2020/11/rip-sweet-barty-boy.html
Did order your book, guess it will be a soothing thing to read from others that love their black house panther or tiger as much as we did and do. Even though my blog is not about cats, below under labels you find ‘Our Felines’, telling you about them.
Like you, I’m a writer and so is my husband but due to his health condition, I’m trying to round off certain stories for him to relive, while he still can. His book has been called the Mushroom Bible and we worked hard on republishing and updated version, with my harvesting segment added. ‘P.J.C. Vedder’s Publications’ is another label.
Sending you hugs,
Mariette
Mariette, thank you so much for visiting my blog and for getting my book! It’s about some of our many cats, and several are house panthers, and I do love them! I am so sorry about the loss of your kitty, Barty Boy. I’m also so sorry about your husband’s health condition and wish him recovery. My husband and I are both struggling with health problems, too. It’s a good idea to write things down and keep the stories going, so they will not be lost. That was a major motivation for me when I started my own book (actually 2 vols, only one is published right now.) I’m going to go to your site and look around, check out your cats, etc. when time opens up, hopefully later today!
Moonie and Boss have amazing tails. They look extra long. Do they have good balance?
They do have excellent balance, they are very agile! They thank you for noticing their fine tails!
Great post! Hubby and I just adopted a black cat named Zoey two months ago! I’m so sorry for the loss of your cat.
Thank you for your kind words, and sympathy! Congrats on adopting a little house panther! We do still miss our Little Buddy. That’s his silhouette in my profile pic.
I noticed that your name above on your comments goes to “a page not found” page. I did see a link to your blog in the email about your ‘like” on my post, but in the email for your comment, it goes to that same page; I’m assuming you would want the name on your comment to be linked to your blog(?)
That’s so cool! Such a beautiful picture.
Hmm that’s odd not to sure why it’s doing this. I’ll look into it now. Thanks for letting me know 💕💕
The WordPress help forum might be able to help you fix it.
This sucks so bad. Not to sure what the problem is and nobody seems to have answers. Hmm. Maybe it’ll fix itself on it’s own.
Sorry to hear, hopefully another tech will see it on the forum and will have some insight.
Thank you so much! I’m waiting for one of them to respond, but thank you a bunch for bringing it to my attention
Yayyyy I believe the issue was fixed. Thank you again! 🙂
Looks like it is fixed now . . . on all your comments here except the first two . . . maybe they can’t go back that far. Anyway I’m glad it’s working for you now!
What little beauties! I used to have a black cat, Bear, who sadly passed on 4 years ago. She still holds a lot of my heart and always will. They’re so special! I still have my 16 year old black and white beauty though, so I count my blessings. There’s a wonderful black cats Reddit thread – yours would fit right in with the other gorgeous ones that pop up on there!
The kitties and I thank you Alana, for your kind words. I’m so sorry you lost your kitty, Bear. I’m glad you have your 16 year old kitty. Older cats are so sweet and I just adore them! That’s an interesting suggestion about Reddit but I don’t I have time right now to take on another website.
Brilliant blog. Images of Boss and Moonpie spiritedly motivating indeed. They are proper sweeties and I adore them. My Megan sweetie looks like them. My Megan sweetie is diagnosed with kidney damage. I feel sad and often try to spend more time with her. She is taking pills and she has more blood test coming up in few weeks. She is little better these days thanks to these pills which seem to be working! Saludos! Ashraf
Thank you Ashraf for your kind words! I am so sorry your Megan sweetie has kidney problems. That happens to lots of kitties and we have been through that with some of ours too. I’m glad the medicine is working for her though. The vets probably have some new meds now.
Thanks Leah. I have my doubts about these so-called Vets. They seem to be more incline to rob my money than treating my Megan Sweetie. They make an attempt to linger the sufferings so that I can continue return to them. That way, they can continue charging me for no real reasons. Within a month or so, these robbers ripped my wallet worth nearly £400 Pounds for nothing but delaying her treatments. You may or may not know, England is pretty backward and outdated both in technology, culture and society a whole!
Wow that is a lot of money, Ashraf, I am so sorry to hear this. I thought England did better than the US since they do have a universal health system for humans. Sad that it doesn’t apply to companion animals too. Our vet used to work with us on costs, but then retired. Our new vet is knowledgeable but more costly.
England’s National Health Service aka NHS, is rotten tomato, but that is in my opinion. It discriminates people based on social, economic, racial and religious status and fully compartmentalized. In a nutshell its crap!
Sorry to hear, that does not sound good.There should not be any discrimination of any kind, my opinion is that health care is a human right.
Charlee: “Hello there, handsome black kitties!”
Chaplin: “We like the cat pumpkin. It’s definitely appropriate that people should carve idols and icons for us cats on Halloween. And the rest of the year, too.”
Lulu: “Little full of yourself, aren’t you, Chaplin?”
Chaplin: “No more than is appropriate.”
Ahahaha Charlee and Chaplin, we agree! Kitties should be celebrated by humans who make art. We should extend that to puppy dogs too. Lulu might even be okay with it, if dogs were included.
Lovely stuff.
Thank you David, I’m glad you enjoyed the post!
Beautiful pictures!!☺️
Thank you The peaceful place, I’m happy you like the pictures!
i love seeing kitties enjoying a good window seat!
I do too, it’s always a soothing sight! I’m happy you liked the pictures!
Beautiful!
Thank you FACE Foundation, I appreciate it!
Beautiful photos as always, Leah.
Thank you Pam, I appreciate it!
Your black cats are beautiful. Nice fall photos too. My black cats ( and all the others to) are inside only so they are safe. XO
The kitties and I thank you Ellen! Our kitties stay inside too. I feel pretty good about the ferals because they are always in the yard and don’t seem to leave, and in fact they stay hidden. XO
We love black cats! And they have a great view from those windows.
We love them too! I think all cats are beautiful but black kitties are just a little extra beautiful, I think. The kitties do enjoy the windows.
Catwoods! You are a wonderful photographer!! I saw the picture of the leaves in the creek(?) and saw the blue of the skies. The blue looked like flowers! I almost asked you what flowers they were! Such beautiful photography of the cats and the fall leaves. Your cats obviously have lots of personality like my Norie. The black ones are truly pantherettes! Loved this post!!
I’m so glad you like the pictures! My kitties thank you too! Our little panthers do remind me of your beautiful Norie. The leaves indeed are in the creek, caught and matted up on an area of low lying rock. (I believe this part of the creek was quarried in the 1920’s because we know of buildings with stone said to have come from this creek. And also because of squared off areas of rock as though it was cut that way.) The blue is reflected from the sky, much of the green is the reflection of the forest, still mostly green (!). We have some leaves turning, but not all. I like having the wide range of colors in autumn pictures.
Well, you sure know how to show their colors, the leaves, the trees, the water flowing over rocks in such beautiful kaleidoscopic ways. I can tell you are a cat lover too. So nice to really know more about you.
LOL, Thank you for the kind words! I’m really sort of an introvert but I’ve had to be more open due to being online and having my book out. For instance, now people know I’m older than I act . . . I do adore cats and have for decades . . .
Age doesn’t matter. I am 69 and still love to look at clouds, birds, nature. I am still a goofball sometimes too. Nice to meet another young at heart.
I have not been so big of fan of autumn leaves because I have to spend so much time raking them up and getting rid of them. The annoying part is they come from the neighbors trees along the fence line! I suppose the leaves are pretty as long as they are somewhere else other than here! I think the black cats will have pretty much a safe vacation from Halloween as I don’t expect much if any of a turn out for it. People with black cats do seem to swear by them as the expression goes, but no black cat has ever asked me to move in, so I have never had my own. I can identify my cats in real life easily but sometimes in photographs their identities over time get blurred, hence the importance of proper file naming. I especially like the Boss (maybe) photo stretching in the window with the leaves outside.
I can see how raking leaves would be a giant chore! I’m not sure about the turnout here for Halloween because in this region many aren’t paying attention to safety guidelines. As a result, the case count of the virus is surging, it’s very sad. Since Boss and Moonpie are siblings they look very much alike so it can be hard to know who is who if I don’t recall a particular day. If they are both in the photo, Boss is much larger, so I can tell them apart. I may take awhile to process photos and due to neural blips from a chronic illness, I may not recall those exact days, so there are a few pics I’m not sure of. If I get one with a lot of good light on their faces, though, there are subtle differences between them and I can tell. Glad you like the stretching photo, it’s one of my faves too!
Great photos. I love black cats. I like how you photographed them in the window.
Correne, thank you, I appreciate it! The windows do provide good back-lighting for kitties, I find.
Great photos!
Thank you Clover and Ivy, I appreciate it!
I Love black cats so regal. You feel a presense and see nothing but their eyes till they step into the light.
Beautiful description of black cats, Penny! I think all cats are beautiful but to me, black cats are a little extra beautiful!
The cats together on the windowsill is a lovely photo 🙂
Thanks June, I like that one too. Those are hard to get, often if a second cat jumps up to the window, the cat in residence will jump down, LOL.
Your leaves are so pretty and your sweeties are adorable! We have 3 black cats in our feral family and I hope they’ll be okay, they hardly ever leave the backyard area.
I’m happy you like the pictures, Brian, and our kitties thank you! We have a similar situation with our ferals, a few are black, but they usually stay in the yard and they have hiding places.
Love the pumpkin! And Boss and Moonpie are rocking that black fur!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy Halloween guys!
I’m happy you like the pumpkin Polly, it was fun to do. Boss and Moonpie say thank you! Happy Halloween!
Great pictures. Is it a rule that most black cats have glowing yellow-green eyes? Boss and my Tiny Terror could have been clones. 🙂
Thanks Joelle, I’m happy you enjoyed the pictures! Ahahaha that must be some kind of rule. I have seen black cats with eyes that are definitely green, but most are gold. And I’ve known of a few black cats with blue eyes. Tiny Terror sounds like a beauty!
He is a beauty, and I love him for who he is — a semi-feral cat. 🙂
He was a tiny, loving little critter, probably not quite 6 weeks old, when he wandered past 5 dogs onto my property. Then, puberty hit and it was “the call of the wild.”
Brave little kitty! I’ve had some cats who were somewhere on a continuum between feral and socialized, too!
In the UK it’s black cats that are most often to be found in shelters, awaiting rehoming or adoption. This isn’t just around Halloween but throughout all 12 months…the crazy association between black cats and witchcraft /devilry is an all-year phenomenon. So sad.
It really is sad, I have heard they have a hard time getting adopted here in the US too. We’ve always taken in whatever color of cats come to the door as strays. All cats are beautiful but I think the black cats are a little extra beautiful.
There are few things more appealing in the world than a pure black cat with bright green “saucer eyes” 😺.
I agree, they re gorgeous!
Some of our trees are already bare, esp the walnuts…the maples and oaks are rather more reticent about shedding their colorful autumn glory…
It is so awful the black cats are in danger this time of the year, so much so that shelters here do not allow them to be adopted out in October.
Fall does move more quickly in more northern latitudes. Our oaks haven’t really even started turning yet. I had heard that some shelters won’t let black kitties be adopted in October, it’s such a shame it has to be that way. I had also heard that some people adopt them to use as Halloween decorations and return them to the shelters after the day is over, sigh.
It’s nice to see more leaves. Ours are past their prime with many trees bare already. Of course, our black cats are fully covered and in their prime!
I’m happy you enjoyed the leaves, I will have leaves to show for a long time! Sometimes sweetgum and oak don’t really get going until late November. I grew up in the DC area and I remember that autumn was more intense but was over more quickly. Here it lingers. That’s a good point about the black kitties staying plush over the winter while the trees are unadorned!
“I don’t even see a ripple or flex of her powerful hind legs as they initiate the jump. It’s like when I don’t see wind, but trees move and leaves fall.”
Such a wonder couple of sentences describing a cat’s jump. Poetry in prose. Proetry.
Thank you Jordan, I appreciate your kind words!
You’re welcome! 🙂
Beautiful photos, Leah! And of course the kitties, too. We haven’t had much transition into autumn. It’s wintry cold here now in the mornings.
Thanks Lavinia, the kitties and I are happy you like the photos! Brrrr at it being cold where you live now! They keep saying we’ll get some really cold weather but when that tropical storms comes up in a few days it will drag warm air from the Gulf again . . .
I love the colors in your photos. They are jewel-like.
Thank you arlingwoman, I appreciate it! We are getting there autumn-wise but it’s still slow.
Pretty kitties and beautiful autumn leaves.
The kitties and I thank you Tim, the leaves are coming along but most of the trees still look green.
Your cats are very photogenic, for sure. I especially like the photo of the two cats on the window sill.
Neil I’m happy you enjoyed the pictures! They are fun for me to make. I liked getting the two cats together there too but it’s not always easy. A second cat jumps up and the first one jumps off, lol!
Beautiful photos, especially of the kitties in the window! I love how they are framed by the window and the light.
I used to have a black cat also (Merlin) and was very watchful of her at this time of year. She and her sister were indoor cats but I had an outdoor catio for them with a cat door. I always locked it at Halloween.
I love the cat-faced pumpkin. Lovely carving job. 🎃
Lynette, I’m so glad you like the pictures! I hope to have a catio one day but it won’t be anytime soon. I’m happy you like the pumpkin too, it was lots of fun!
Your photography is really beautiful, Leah! I love the cats silloughetted, and the colors of the leaves on the crick. ❤️😻😊
Thank you John, I’m very happy that you like the pictures! There are more, hopefully it won’t be too long.