Cat Scratch Fever!

It's unbelievable what's happened in the Old Field Studio, recently. It all started when I was working on a lake map. I was about to print the map when I noticed scratches on the flat screen monitor that I use. I thought, I have never noticed these before, wait a minute; there are multiple scratches across the screen. Where did these come from?

A closer inspection indicates that they are fairly deep and appear to be claw marks. I had only two questions: how did they get there and who was responsible. If you look closely below, you can see them.

I immediately had a suspect in mind, "Stormy" our rescue cat. The big mystery was why would Stormy just arbitrarily scratch my computer screen? Well, the answer to that question is very simple, take a look at my screen saver.

Here's what I think happened. My computer will go into sleep mode when it's not being used, but will wake-up and the screener saver will come on if the mouse is moved. Old Stormy likes to roam around the studio alone and hunt for whatever. Stormy must have played with the computer mouse and the screen saver came on with the three owls. Stormy, thinking he had hit the owl jackpot took a few swipes at the owls. Boom, that's how I got scratches on my computer screen. Oh yeah, Stormy has been banned from the studio!

Here you can see a picture of Old Stormy on his cat perch "none too happy!" Folks the moral of the story is to keep your cat away from your mouse. Yes, that is one of my decor maps. I was going to put this picture on my the LeoLakes web site, but may not due to Stormy being in the picture. Oh well, Check'm out at www.LeoLakes.com they make a great gift.

"Life is short, get away from the big screen and get on a big stream!"

Barred Owl

The other evening my wife came in from shopping and said an owl was up the street perched on a line. I can't pass up a picture of wildlife so, I grabbed the camera and off we went. The big question is if I will make it before he flies off. Luckily, he was still there. I was hoping it was a great horned owl because I only have a few photo's of these owls. When we arrived, I could see it was a barred owl, which are very common in this area.

Darkness was settling in, but I was able to use a flash. The picture turned out nice and I like the color of the sky. This barred owl was perched ready to pounce on any rodent that rustled by.

This photo is kind of eerie because of the red eyes from the camera flash. As you can see, Mr. Owl is looking straight at me. I wondered what he is thinking? Probably, "Will you leave me alone, I'm working here." Anyway, Mr. Owl did fly off just after this picture was taken. Not a bad meeting with the wise old owl, but I don't think he liked me.