Remembering Jose the Cat

Tonight I'm remembering Jose the cat, who crossed the rainbow bridge today.  It's always the worst when you hear the news of someone's passing... so tonight I write with a heavy heart remembering this sweet guy and re-posting images from our shoot 3 years ago (because the photos in my original blog post are not showing up so I can't link). Losing a furry family member is one of the very worst things a person can experience... I think of my own fur-family and my fur babies who have also passed away, and thinking about pet death is really hard to stomach.  I'm a huge animal lover, even from the 3rd degree it's hard to not be upset, but then I think... thank goodness for photos - they really help keep the good memories alive. Jose was the winner of SF Bay Guardian's Cutest Pet of the Bay contest and thus won a complimentary photoshoot with me!  Here's my version of a clone shot of his winning photo from the SFBG contest: I have to say, I remember every single animal (and most people) I've photographed, and Jose was one of my favorites, not to mention one of very few cats! (Come on cat people, photoshoots aren't just for dogs, hehe). It was a drizzly day and I remember arriving late to his session and feeling horrible because my previous photoshoot ran too long and then I got stuck in traffic driving through San Francisco (oops).  When I got there, his parents were so excited = BEST (which  made me feel super happy and excited but even worse that I was late!) We started off shooting in the bedroom where he felt most comfortable and re-creating the shot above... here he is getting warmed up. You can tell he comes from a family with great style. Here's Jose looking amazing in this amazing chair aka his throne! "Get this string off me." Into the kitchen we went... Jose was perched up on the island, his favorite place to keep an eye on things and get treats. Looking very dapper in his sailer outfit! Modeling is hard work!