LIL: My March 2025 Contribution to the LMAC Image Gallery

The family cat, sleeping.

Today's post constitutes my March, 2025 contribution to the LMAC Image Gallery, LIL. As I wrote this, and tried to put together a post, I thought I'd give readers a little insight into the distractions I work around.

My husband and I recognized early in our relationship that we shared a love of animals. My children have that same love, in abundance. That's why my daughter was able to snap a picture of vultures, which is included among my LIL contributions today. She was taking a trip with my granddaughter to see wild horses, and there she saw vultures. Several pictures I'm contributing today came from her trip.

My husband and I don't do much traveling lately, but we don't have to travel to see animals. We have pets. Or, rather, we have our daughter's pets. Right now there is a dog and a cat in the house. Here's the cat on my exercise mat. Every night he watches me do my modest workout. He peers at me from atop the bed, then gets bored and rolls over. One night he decided to come off the bed and try the mat himself.

He's a rather saucy cat, but that will not be enough to save him from the dog. The dog weighs approximately 65 pounds and the cat about 5. The dog wants to play, but one pounce could be enough to kill the cat. Here is a picture of the dog looking out of the window.

Key to the cat's survival is navigating the house while avoiding the dog. This is tricky for me, because I babysit for the dog upstairs while my daughter is at work (it's her dog), and the cat seeks refuge from the dog upstairs when my daughter comes home.

The two animals play musical chairs, of a sort.

Here's the dog on my bed in the daytime.

We keep a sheet on the bed to protect the coverlet when the animals are present.

When the dog goes downstairs the cat jumps on the bed. Here's the cat taking a snooze (different sheet).

This is complicated because, when we go to bed at night, the cat has to leave. He doesn't want to. So, every night I lift him gently (from the back, avoiding the claws) and carry him into my husband's office. The cat loves my husband's chair. You can see in this picture he has shredded the vinyl cover. Still, my husband does not banish him.

My husband loves that cat, and the cat knows it. Sometimes, when the dog is upstairs, the cat sneaks upstairs also. He seeks refuge with my husband. A partially open door gives him the opportunity to leave and prevents the dog from going in. The dog has a fear of doors, unless they are completely open. Here is the cat, crouching behind my husband's chair.

Of course, when the dog is downstairs he is not banished. He comes to the top of the stairs (a gate prevents him from going farther) and puts his nose between the banister slats. If I don't notice him, he'll bark and ask for a treat.

If this arrangement with the animals sounds a little chaotic, it is. Throughout the day both animals want to be fed, and the dog has to be walked. I love them both, but boy do I love it when my daughter is on vacation. Her vacation is my vacation.

In the pictures posted here for LMAC you will see both pets included. The others were taken on my daughter's trip with my granddaughter. She shot them, and sent them to me expressively for Hive. In a recent blog I described that trip, which was to a wildlife preserve in Maryland, USA.

One of the pictures shows vultures perching in a tree. I left out another vulture shot because it wasn't clear. The shot shows a vulture flying.

While this image is not suitable for the LMAC Gallery (because it lacks clarity), it is interesting. I've read that turkey vultures fly in a shallow V pattern. Here is a (clear) picture from Wikimedia that shows a turkey vulture flying pattern.

LIL
Once a picture is included in LMAC's LIL Gallery,the Gallery, it goes into the public domain. Anyone on Hive may borrow pictures from the Gallery, and anyone on Hive may contribute to the Gallery.

There are more than 15,000 pictures in the LMAC library. This is a rich resource for the Hive community, and has grown entirely from community participation.

If you are interested in helping the library grow even larger, instructions for contributing and borrowing may be found at @shaka's blog, here. While you're there you might be inspired to join in our collage contest. The contest was the original impetus for the creation of the library.

I hope you are entertained by my pet dos-si-do, and by my LIL pictures. It would be wonderful if someone made use of these pictures.

Peace and health to all. Hive on!