eye of the beholder . . .

I so enjoy photographing Ike's sweet little face, his slightly curved grin, uncontrolled whiskers, and his intense gaze. At some point during the past year I noticed a spot in his one eye. I initially figured it was merely an oddity with the coloring, but when it seemed to have broken up and/or was joined by additional spots, I got very concerned. I'm a worrier, so my first fear was it might be a tumor. Even though he showed no signs of pain, it became obvious that if I was to get any rest, he needed to be seen by the vet. I put the carrier out and when my husband asked "are you ready to go?", Ike literally got up and walk into the carrier without any assistance. (why are these things never caught on film?). Once we were on the road he was less cooperative and became vocal about how we were over reacting. There was no need to go anywhere. If it bothered me so, he'd be willing to wear an eye patch.



After we disassembled the carrier in order to extract him from it's confines, he was a trooper with the doctor. And much to my relief, his spots were not tumors, but some big word that essentially means pigment irregularities, like freckles. Our return home was surprisingly quiet. I half expected him to bemoan about how he was right and we should have just listened to him.

I love this cat and I will be the first to acknowledge that while I find him so handsome, others might simply see a grey farm cat. The beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, and I am beholding to this fella.