Photo Challenge - Animals

This month's personal photo challenge was Animals. And what a challenge that was for me. I have lots of pictures of animals - wild, tame and the whole spectrum in between - but for this challenge I wanted to take some nice portraits of my three beautiful outside cats. Unfortunately, they never cooperate. Never. I mean - NEVER! Not even for food or snuggles or a night in the house or a dead mouse or a live one. NEVER. So here is the best of my attempts with each cat. 

Who doesn't love a big orange boy? Cheshire is the symbol aloofness. He is also the hardest to catch when he is outside. When he sneaks in the house on a cold winter night, however, he gets too cozy to try to run and hide when I have to throw him out. The thing I like best about this picture is how he matches the straw.

 Fred is just Fred. He's a cuddler, so much so that when you pick him up, he snuggles up to your neck and if you have long hair, he starts licking it. He is also a tobacco fiend and will really snuggle up to anyone who smokes. He tries to suck in as much nicotine as he can. I don't smoke and I don't have long hair, so he only tolerates me. I chose this picture of him mostly because Cheshire is in the background being a normal cat.

Last but not least is Princess Betty. She has three unique features - the most beautiful green eyes, hair color around her mouth that looks like a chocolate milk mustache and her unicorn tuft of hair. I have never gotten a picture which captures the color of her eyes and no amount of editing helps. You can almost see her milk mustache here. But you really can't miss her tuft of hair. 

All my pictures were taken with my Nikon Coolpix with everything set on auto - I am the lazy picture-taker!