Retrospective: Pippin knows POSE

Pippin around 6 months old

The camera was constantly being pointed in Pippin's direction. I never used flash, which is why so many of my baby Pippin pictures are of him being sleepy. It was the only time he was still enough to get an in-focus shot! And this was an old camera, my mom's; so it wasn't the latest and greatest in technology. And fifteen years ago, the latest and greatest wasn't digital. It was just a better film camera.

So I have the computer apart again, who knows why--I don't remember and my photo album doesn't say why. Pippin liked metal. Cool metal. He was always hot. That was another weird thing about him that I wasn't used to. Pizza and Tiger were solar panels, always searching out the warmest, most intense sunspot in the room. Pippin went for the cool drafty areas.

The big side of my computer, when placed flat on the desk, was irresistible. It attracted Pippin almost instantly. I reached for the camera, and for the first time I said, "Pose for me." I really wasn't thinking about what I was saying. I didn't expect anything different to happen. 

Pose for me!

He drew himself up, nice and neat, put out one immaculate white gloved paw, and gave a perfect model's stare off into space elegantly gaze.

I was so startled I almost dropped the camera. I caught the strap, got the camera back into my hands, and only then took the picture. And Pippin held the pose during this entire clumsy episode.

Then he changed position and posed again.

A goofy pose this time

He waited each time till he heard the camera shutter click. Oh and believe me, he got plenty of praise. Such a good kitty to pose for me! Want to pose again? Of course, yes, that's beautiful! How about again?

The third pose

I really don't know if he would have kept going, but I didn't want to make "pose" a boring thing. I thought perhaps if I kept it interesting, he'd do it again sometime.

And he did. All I had to do was ask him to "Pose for me" and I'd get a lovely set up pose. Which he would then hold until I took the picture. I never asked him to pose while he was playing, though; I figured that was a bit much to expect of a kitten (no matter how big he is, and by the way, he's still just 6 months old in these pictures).

As he grew up, I no longer had to even ask him to pose. If I had the camera out, he'd look at me and see if I wanted a posed shot or a candid one, which usually he could deduce from my body language, and then he'd either pose or go back to doing what he was doing. Sometimes if he didn't want a picture of what he was doing to be taken, he'd deliberately pose. Like when I tried to get a picture of him sleeping in the sink. I never did get that shot!

How he learned what the phrase "pose for me" meant, I'll never know. It was very useful, though!