I am a bad boy!

Well, so much for keeping up with the blog! LOL! I just don't have time to do everything I want to do in life and still keep a timely blog so let me catch you all up with my life the past few months. Let's see, I put up an amateur radio antenna and have been talking to a lot of people all over the world. I have been practicing and playing a lot of chess. We took in another cat, which makes 13 now, and the new cat (Wyatt) is a sweetheart. Most of all I have been taking wildlife and nature photographs all over north Florida.

The photo above is the current me helping to set up our local photography club's exhibit at the Larimer Art Center. I have 4 pieces displayed in the exposition. It runs through May and the reception is this Friday. Frankly I hate going to receptions but they are a necessary evil when you are a professional photographer.

Here are a couple of shots recently taken:

This is a neat view from the top of the St. Augustine lighthouse, showing the shadow of the lighthouse falling on the keeper's house.

and here is a cute great white heron chick staring at the camera.

I have been trekking through a lot of swamps, taking a ton of photos, and generally having a ball. I promise I will try to do better blogging in the future but you know how that goes. Take care, my friends, and see you again soon (hopefully!).

Where Does the Time Go?

Sorry I have been neglecting this blog for so long. My photography has occupied a lot of time and I have yet another cat! That makes 13 and we have officially gone past saturation here. A month ago I came home to find a little black cat waiting for me in the driveway. I named her Laila, which means "dark beauty", and I've been working to tame this very shy girl.

Last week I got special permission to photograph some animals at the private St. Augustine Wild Reserve. They normally do not allow photography so this was a wonderful chance to capture some beautiful cats and other animals there. They take in animals that are confiscated or are surrendered by owners. Here are a few nice shots I took there:

A beautiful cougar in a pensive mood.

 An arctic fox once owned by Michael Jackson. Though very shy, she wanted to be friends and she came up and licked my hand.

A rather irritated black panther. I had to watch myself with this one as I suspect she wanted to rip my throat out.

I white tiger in a very playful mood. She rolled over on her back and I snapped this shot while standing over her.

I hope you enjoyed seeing these as much as I enjoyed capturing these magnificent creatures. I will post a few more shots from the reserve in my next post as there were just too many good shots to cram all of them into this post. Until then, all the best to you!

Charles and Clint

A few weeks ago we added two kittens to the menagerie here. Please let me introduce Charles and Clint. They were discovered living in a backhoe by a former coworker. She contacted me and asked if I could do anything to find them a home. I originally intended to foster them but you know how that goes! They are now members of the gang here and as you can see in the photo they are very happy and spoiled.

This is Charles. Since we got them at about 4 weeks of age they were emotionally insecure. Charles likes to latch onto my neck and dry suckle. This is the first time I've faced that behavior but I put up with it. Despite having a heart murmur Charles is very active and playful, though he is more contemplative than his brother.

...and here is his brother Clint. You can just tell from his look that Clint is looking for trouble! He is very affectionate but at the same time Clint is always getting into things here. I have nicknamed them "The Manic Twins" because they are constantly flying around the house and wrestling with each other. They get along great with the other cats here. Clint has taken up with Sam the Man who will undoubtedly teach him how to be a major troublemaker. Charles has a girlfriend, our 12 pound white girl Luvey. He is quite a Romeo and has her licking his head at times.

So that is the news here on the cat front. Later I will write about my latest photography trips and share some photos from them.

Evil Space Kitties!!!!

A new video by the Cat Wrangler. It is demented and cute!
Evil Space Kitties

Kitty In A Box!

Well, I originally planned on having a humorous video of our cat Sam the Man playing in a box. Another cat of mine, Beau, had somewhat different plans for the way this video would go. I laughed so hard I literally cried. To this day I still have no clue how Beau managed to fit through that tiny hole! Watch them and I hope you enjoy the mayhem. Kitty In A Box!

Sam The Man!

Sam has a new Facebook page now at Sam's Facebook Page. Here you can check out the latest news on The Man himself and view his fantastic videos. Drop by and become a fan. Sam expects it!

Anatomy of a Music Video

Here is the Southern Kitties video.

I thought some of you might find it interesting how I made this demented, funny little music video so here are the basics:

1) I storyboarded the original idea to get a feel for what would be needed to put this thing together.

2) Worked on the drums, banjo, and bass using a MIDI program. Once this was transferred to .wav format I burned it on a CD for further use.

3) I added live vocals and background acoustic guitar while monitoring the CD. After putting all tracks on a program called Kristal I added a prerecorded jaw harp and balanced everything for volume. I also added a little reverb and compression to a couple of the tracks. I then mixed down and recorded the result as a single .wav file to be used in the video.

4) I went through hundreds of cat photos to get a few that would be suitable. The main cat photo was touched up with a paint program and made into a series of photos showing the mouth opening. I had to add a tongue and teeth cut out of another photo to make these look realistic. Otherwise all you would see would be a gaping black hole for a mouth!

5) Now comes the tedious part. Each photo was converted to transparent .GIF photos and stratigically placed over a background photo of a field. Each photo had to be lined up in the proper sequence and place to show the mouth opening and closing in time with the singing. I did this one or two frames at a time over thousands of frames. This step took about 2 long days of work.

6) I then added peripheral touches like the other cat heads and flying bird and placed them in proper locations on the screen, moving them in the desired direction using the Adobe Premiere motion feature.

7) One day of fine tuning and fixing goofs in the movements and it was done. I then converted the whole thing to mpg2 format using Premiere and put it on YouTube.

I hope this helps any aspiring videographic animators out there. The result was crude but serviceable and the cost was 0$ since I already had Adobe Premiere and the other programs were free. I used a program called Audacity to record the sound and Kristal for sound mixing.

All the best from the Cat Wrangler! Now I need to get back in the field and take some nature photos.

Where I Am Right Now In Life

Hi all! It's been awhile blogging because I have been so busy pursuing my photography, making videos, and caring for a sick cat. Let me catch you up on my life, if anyone out there is still even remotely interested.

Well, my former principal at Bartram High School, Brennan Asplen, has managed to scare the crap out of most of the faculty so they will not even talk with me. You see, he and school superintendent Joiner are afraid that I will tell some of the garbage that goes on behind the scenes in what passes for education in St. Johns county. Joiner and his minion Asplen decided that the best way to muzzle me is to cut off all communication between myself and my former coworkers. The funny thing is that I really couldn't care less what they are up to. I have too much of a full life here without picking through their dirty laundry. I guess that is how paranoid public officials act when they have a lot to hide. It is both humorous and tragic at the same time.

Our 13 1/2 year old cat Sebastian has been fighting a tremendous battle with calicivirus, a virus that attacks his gums and trachea. He developed pneumonia and spent time in a hospital in Jacksonville. He has just finished a 2 month course of antibiotics and has been going to our local vet daily for medication to help his nausea and lack of appetite. He is a tough little guy and is hanging in there.
Here is a recent photo of him.

I have been making new videos about our cat menagerie here. My favorite so far is a music video I made about Sam The Man. I think you will enjoy it!

I have also been taking lots of photographs in my second career as a wildlife/nature photographer. Here is one of a robber fly:

and here is one of a least tern:

My commercial website has these and a lot more photographs I have been taking this summer. It is Kenneth Albin Wildlife/Nature Photography. I have greeting cards, posters, and framed portraits of my best work there.

So that is pretty much what I have been accomplishing so far this season. I will try to update this blog more often but with so much going on it will probably be hit and miss. Take care and hope everyone is doing well.

Sorry for the long delay

I will try to catch up on what has been happening the past month. First and most importantly, we lost our sweet little Iona who I had been working so hard with to tame. In the 8 weeks she was with us she turned into a very sweet girl who loved petting and who learned how to play with toys and with the other cats. She was really enjoying herself for the first time in her life. We think that during the surgery to place the pin in her leg she picked up an infection we did not know about. This bacteria spread slowly into her bone and then all through her body. Her other health issues we were dealing with masked symptoms until it was too late. She stopped eating and we took her to the vet. The two antibiotics they gave her did not help so we took her back in 3 days. The vet knew she had to have a stronger antibiotic even if there were risks involved if we were going to save her. He gave her an injection of gentamycin. She was allergic to this drug and she suddenly collapsed and stopped breathing. They gave her oxygen and tried to stimulate her to breathe. I gave CPR. All this did not help and in a few minutes her heart stopped. We buried Iona in the front yard next to a small lemon tree where she used to look out the window. The vet thinks the germ was already systemic throughout her body and in her weakened condition the gentamycin pushed her over the edge.

I have been extremely distraught over her death as I had become so close to her. Shortly after her death I developed eczema and had to go to the dermatologist. He said that it was the worst case of eczema he had seen in his 40 years of practice. He gave a cortisone shot, prednisone pills, and the strongest steroid cream made. I have been dealing with this for the past 3 weeks. It is about 75% cleared now and hopefully in another week or two it will clear up completely. I've been sleeping an hour or two at a time before waking up with the dryness, burning, and itching. If anyone out there needs a great moisturizer I can recommend Cerave lotion. It is very gentle on the skin but helps to lock in moisture better than any other moisturizer I've found. Even with this my skin absorbs it quickly and I have to put it on several times each day and then sit under a vaporizer.

That is pretty much what my life has been like for the past month. Hopefully after I finish healing I will be able to get back to my photography. In the meantime here is the last photo taken of our sweet Iona. Even that last evening she still managed to play with Sam through the baby gates, slapping playfully with him. She enriched my life and I miss her so much.

3 Weeks Working With Iona

I've been totally tied up with taming Iona lately. It's been a real challenge but I've seen tiny improvements daily. She has now figured out how to play with her 'ball in a ring' toy. Iona is more relaxed and she is also starting to put a little weight on her bad leg. Here is a photo I took today of her resting in the window with her little stuffed toy. The surgical scar where they put the pin in is evident. I estimate she will take several more months of work before she is completely tame.

Iona Has a Godfather

Her godfather is Goldy McJohn, original keyboardist of Steppenwolf. He loves cats!

Here is Iona today. Notice her sling is gone now and I've been working with her a lot this week. She has mellowed out a lot from the totally feral cat we took in 2 weeks ago. She is doing great and will just get better over time. She took some treats from my fingers today!

Iona Update

I've been completely tied up this week working with Iona. She went in for a check at the vet Thursday. He thought he could get her out of the carrier by wrapping her in her towel but he changed his mind when she started hissing and growling. He looked her over in the cage and said everything looked good so far. Next Thursday she goes in for x-rays to see how the healing is progressing.

Working with a completely feral cat is quite a challenge. It took a few days before Iona would use the litter box regularly. She still greets me with a hiss most of the time but I think she is starting to gain a little trust that I'm not going to grab and harm her. I am feeding her Wellness kitten food. It is probably the best canned food, containing no additives or byproducts. She is about 10 months old but only 5 pounds due to malnutrition so I'm trying to build her up with good nutrition. She is eating very well. Iona has made tiny increments of progress. She touched noses with a couple of our cats through the baby gates so far. Here she is today giving me that famous "eat poop and die" look that she uses when she thinks I am going to get too close.

After the surgery

The vet put in a pin to hold the broken humerus. The shoulder popped back in as he was working on the humerus and seems to be stable so he left it alone. Iona was bandaged and the arm was placed in a sling. She was given a long term antibiotic and a pain patch. She ripped off the E-collar about 30 minutes after she got back home but has not been picking at the bandages. Iona is eating well now and she is apparently feeling ok since she hissed and growled at me when I brought in her evening meal. She goes back to the vet for a checkup Thursday.

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

While I was at my chiropractor this week one of the workers told me about a cat she was feeding behind the building who had a badly hurt leg. I could not turn away from this poor feral kitty so I brought a trap to the chiropractor and got the cat Wednesday. She was so feral she was throwing herself against the cage violently so I took her to the closest vet there. She scratched the vet, pooped on the floor, and tried to climb the walls before they sedated her. They took x-rays and found she had a dislocated shoulder and a fractured humerus, probably due to being hit by a car. They also treated her for hookworms and fleas. I then took her to my vet to evaluate her for possible surgery. We have a good orthopedic surgeon there who said he could do 2 surgeries in 1 day. Monday he will pop the shoulder joint back into place, holding it by moving a muscle and putting in a plate. He is then going to rebreak the old humerus fracture and put in another plate.

We named her Iona and have her isolated in a room at home. She is completely feral and I have started working to gain her trust. So far she hisses and growls a lot and has not figured out how to use a litter pan. She is at least eating well so that is a start. It may take months to get her somewhat tamed since she has never been touched by a human before. Here is Iona's first photo at home.

The total cost of her medical bills will be around $2000. As a retiree on a limited income this is really draining our bank account. We asked our vet to let us put in a donation jar but they refused. I am asking for your help. Please buy a nature photograph or greeting cards from my site at Fine Art America. It will go to help pay for Iona's medical bills. I know she is only one feral cat but it is everyone's responsibility to care for these poor creatures. Please help.

The Toilet Bowl Incident

The other morning after I suddenly woke up with Sam's claws in my feet I went to the restroom. When I raised the toilet seat Sam the Man promptly jumped into the toilet. I dried him off and he immediately chased another cat through the house. Here is Sam after he finally collapsed from exhaustion.

Pet Photo of the Month

OK ladies and gentlemen! Ellen needs your help so she can appear on the channel 17 TV station this month. PLEASE vote daily for her. You have to register but it is quick and they do not share information with others. Thank you so much for helping to put cute little Ellen over the top in this contest.

The Transition to Retirement

One thing I've quickly found out is that when you have been teaching for as long as I taught it is very difficult to wind down. Your brain and body are telling you that you must be doing something! Relaxing is going to take some practice.

I have decided to not have any further mention of the St. Johns County school system except to respond to news reports. Getting into a pissing match with individuals won't improve the schools here so why bother? I would like to say that my last year at Bartram Trail we earned another "A" on the FCAT test that Florida has as a mandatory test. What does this mean to me personally? About half of my lawn equipment will now be paid for! Other than that, not much.

I am sitting here with our little tiger Sam, who we nicknamed 'Sam the Man' because of his feisty nature. Here is a photo of Sam one of the few times he has been relaxed.

It Takes a Thief

I got my camera out of the top drawer to download photos. When I came back to put up the camera old guy Beau was raiding the drawer for any goodies. When he didn't find anything he wanted Beau spread out in the drawer for a nap. Luckily I still had the camera in hand so I took these sequential shots. Boy, does Beau like drawers! This is perhaps the 10th time he has raided a drawer here!

An Ending and a Beginning

As promised I have retired (pun intended) my teaching blog and now will travel down new paths. Here is the first new item. His name is Sam. Yesterday I saw an email by a coworker telling how her neighbor who works at a restaurant found a kitten eating in the restaurant's dumpster. I contacted her and said that we would take the cat. Today I picked up the supposedly female cat whom I had named Samantha and found out it was a "he". Samantha became Sam and I took him to our vet for a checkup, tests, and parasite treatment since he had grown up outside. Sam is 1.4 pounds and around 5 weeks old. He had a horrible case of fleas which were treated along with a preventative dose of medicine to kill intestinal parasites. Other than that the vet said he was in great health. Sam is isolated in a room at home now and there are four cats peeking at him under the door. He is a feisty little guy who loves to play. After dealing with him awhile the vet just shook his head and told me that I was going to really have my hands full with this alpha cat in training. He has already learned how to play with a ball today and is napping some and exploring the room. I know I am crazy to accept cat #9 but he may have wound up at the pound otherwise so I have few regrets about it so far. Sam is adorable with his huge ears and frantic playing.