Trying to Catch Torrey on Camera

You may think I love Starbuck more than my other two because there are a gazillion more pics of him on my blog, but that isn't true - he's just much easier to take pics of than the other two...
and here is PROOF!!!

Below are pics taken during a Torrey photoshoot. He's pretty skilled at not having his photo taken!

Almost in the frame!

A nice shot of his behind!
Almost in the frame... again!

Almost had him!

Not quite!

This was almost the perfect shot...
(well, almost all of him in it anyway!!)

Getting close!


He's trapped... gotta be quick!
Finally! One of all of him... shame it's not a great shot!

And so it goes!!

Collage of Torrey

I did a few collages a while back and so thought I should post a few. Here is the first taken of Torrey when he first arrived in Hong Kong back in the summer of '06.

P.S. If you biggify the pic, you'll see it close up! Thanks Lux for the tip!

P.P.S. I'm feeling a little better. Still have flu, but at least I'm functioning =) Thanks everyone for dropping me notes and comments to let me know you were thinking of me! They really cheered me up!

Torrey Up Close - T13 (My First)

The three boys were on my bed a while back and sleeping soundly. I quickly grabbed my camera and took some shots of them, trying to get some close-ups of my very shy boy, Torrey - a marbled bengal.

Torrey is tricolored, meaning he has three colours that are filled with amazing 'glitter' - which doesn't show on any pictures I have except for when he was a kitten (this pic was taken of Torrey at 8 weeks).


His pattern is swirly and very pretty! Lots of sparkly colour!




Whoops! He woke up so I backed off until he started snoozing again!



Torrey is unusual as he has rosettes starting to form within his pattern, even though he is a marbled bengal and rosettes are usually only seen in spotted bengals. The rosettes are getting more and more defined as he gets older (even though you can't see them properly in the pics!) and are now tan coloured in the centre, gold around the outside and dark brown around the gold. Very funky.



But he doesn't have any rosettes on his right side, only his left!



Here are some pics of Torrey as a kitten! The first one is the earliest pic I have! I think he's two weeks old in this pic!


These pics show you his coat at 5 weeks!


He's a really, really, really shy boy, but he's lovely! I have used some techniques on him that are used by those working with Asian Leopard Cats and they have really worked!

So, while Starbuck may look more like an Asian Leopard Cat, Torrey's personality is much more like his wild ancestors than Starbuck's! It truly is like having an Asian Leopard Cat living with me!

P.S. This was a T13 as I have included exactly 13 pics of Torrey! I hope you enjoyed them!

P.P.S. Remember to visit my friend over at her new blog, Fate of the Animals!

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Wordless Wednesday on Thursday

Took me half an hour to post this one pic.
Needless to say, today will be wordless.

Torrey Close Ups

Trying to get close up pics of Torrey can be challenging as he doesn't like cameras! Usually pictures are from afar and then cropped and zoomed to get closer!





But on this day, Torrey was more interested in playing with his mouse than avoiding the camera! So, I got a few pics - awful background (my boxes of teaching resources which I store in the dining room!), but at least I got some Torrey pics without having to do the hold zoom and crop!




I still haven't mastered light and so you can't see any of his contrast or glitter. If you get up really close, he has rosettes and what looks black is actually three colours - black lined with shimmery brown and then light brown. I'll try to get some close ups so everyone can see it more clearly.

Torrey in November

I found some November 2006 pics of Torrey that I like. It's really hard to get a good pic of Torrey as he is so shy and hates the camera (or any kind of attention!). He is getting much better now (Aug 2007), but is still very, very, very shy and jumps at the least little sound.

Strutting through the living room!

Trying to figure out how to get into my scrapbook room! They love it in there with all the shelves and carts. Only problem, if they get in there, it takes me hours to clean up their mess (and by mess I mean all the paper, eyelets, albums etc. that they knock off the shelves while playing!).

While he was smaller than Starbuck in these pics, he is now considerably bigger - all muscle. I guess he just has a larger frame as he isn't as active as Starbuck.

Should I Change His Name???

Here is a weird post. Should I change Torrey's name?

Basically, I chose Sebastian and Starbuck's names - weird and as uncatlike as they may be. But Torrey was the name on his pedigree papers given to him by my wonderful breeder. I guess I never changed it because I wasn't expecting to get two bengals and so never gave it enough thought - when he arrived we all called him Torrey and never got around to changing it.

He is now over a year old and I figure if I'm going to do it, I should do it now. Any thoughts anyone?

(Starbuck on the left and Torrey on the right)

While you're thinking, here are the reasons I called the other two what I did!

Sebastian: I had thought and thought about what to name him and simply couldn't decide. I don't even remember what the choices were! Anyway, I went to pic him up and didn't even think about naming him - I just couldn't get over how this "kitten" was so BIG! Maine Coons are big! You never really get a kitten stage with them - they come out big!

Anyway, I walked into my home (I was living in Swansea, Wales at the time on a one year sabbatical from my job in Hong Kong) and put the carrier down and said something to him about being home and instinctively called him "Sebastian". I couldn't believe the words had come out of my mouth! It wasn't even a name I had considered (read online and you'll find out you are 'advised' to use something one syllable, not beginning in an 'S' sound!!!). Anyway, that was it. He was Sebastian - and he learnt his name very quickly, although I do tend to call him Sib for short.

Starbuck's name was given lots and lots of thought (as you can see, I get again ignored solid Internet advice and named him a 2 syllable name with an 'S' sound!). In the end it was Starbuck off Battleship Gallactica and my love for Starbuck's, combined with my love for Moby Dick that did it - although the coffee had a lot to do with it sad to say!

They all know their names, although "Sib Sib" is now almost a generic term for "Food's Coming"!!!

Anyway, any thoughts? Should I change Torrey's name? If I did, any suggestions?