Trista, a three year old female short-haired brown tabby cat with green eyes, is looking for a new home in Orange County, CA.
Trista.
Trista is a gorgeous cat; her face reminds both Michelle and me a bit of a mountain lion’s. And when she stands or sits, she emanates grace and power.
Trista looking proud.Trista up close.
Trista has a calm facade (and a white chin!), but underneath it she’s a playful, outgoing kitty.
Trista playing with a feather toy from behind a sisal-wrapped cat tree post.
You know how sometimes when you head to a rescue, a cat just grabs your attention? For me on this trip, that cat was Trista – she’s got a beautiful pattern, a unique face, and she was a ton of fun to photograph.
Trista.
Trista is currently available for adoption through Miss Kitty’s Rescue in Costa Mesa, CA. For more information, and to find out how to adopt her, contact Mindy at misskittysrescue@yahoo.com.
Molly, a two year old bicolor tuxedo white and black short-haired female cat, is looking for a new home in Orange County, CA.
Molly in Mindy's arms.
Molly is a very playful and fun loving cat who loves to ride on people’s shoulders and interact with dogs; she would not be good with small children.
Molly.
Molly is currentlyno longer available for adoption through Miss Kitty’s Rescue in Costa Mesa, CA. For more information, and to find out how to adopt her, contact Mindy at misskittysrescue@yahoo.com.
Oliver, a two year old male short-haired brown tabby and white cat, is waiting for a home in Orange County, CA.
Oliver.
Oliver is a sweet cat who needs a home with no dogs and no kids. He loves to explore his environment, and can be frequently found sneaking through a fabric tube in the rescue.
Oliver popping out of a fabric tube.Oliver sniffs the corner of a cat cage at his rescue.
Oliver is currentlyno longer available for adoption through Miss Kitty’s Rescue in Costa Mesa, CA. For more information, and to find out how to adopt him, contact Mindy at misskittysrescue@yahoo.com.
Hurricane is a seven year old male short-haired black cat waiting for a home in Orange County, CA.
Hurricane.
Hurricane is a very intelligent, outgoing cat who loves people and is not afraid of anything, but who needs to live in a house without other pets as he can be aggressive to other cats and dogs.
Hurricane in Mindy Millers arms.Hurricane looking playful.
Hurricane is currently available for adoption through Miss Kitty’s Rescue in Costa Mesa, CA. For more information, and to find out how to adopt him, contact Mindy at misskittysrescue@yahoo.com.
Zoey and Porsche are two sisters waiting for a home in Orange County, CA. They’re both short-haired white and black bicolor female cats with yellow-green eyes.
ZoeyPorsche
They’re both less than a year old, and they need to be adopted together as a pair. They’re a bit shy and scared in the rescue, but they’re very playful with toys and each other, and will warm up once they get to a house where they’re given a space they can call their own.
Zoey (front; black nose) and Porsche (rear; black dot on her pink nose)Zoey peers out from behind a wall.Zoey
Zoey and Porsche are currently available for adoption through Miss Kitty’s Rescue in Costa Mesa, CA. For more information on the cats, and to find out how to adopt them, contact Mindy at misskittysrescue@yahoo.com.
Are you looking for a cute cat or kitten to adopt in Costa Mesa, California? Here’s a list of some of the cats currently available for adoption through Miss Kitty’s Rescue:
[Note: Click each cat’s image or name to see more information about the cat.]
If you’re interested in adopting any of these cats, please contact Mindy of Miss Kitty’s Rescue at misskittysrescue@yahoo.com. Some of these cats may also be available to be seen at the Petsmart at 620 West 17th St in Costa Mesa, CA 92627.
Miss Kitty’s Rescue is a cat rescue group run by Mindy Miller in Costa Mesa, California. Michelle and I adopted our two cats from Mindy; they were both former feral cats that Mindy tamed herself, and she turned the two of them from fearful, nearly wild cats into two kitties who love spending time with us.
As with most cat rescues, however, Mindy’s rescue is constantly full, and she has trouble finding people to adopt her rescued cats, especially since many of the cats need special homes. To help her out I’ve volunteered to take pictures of her cats pro bono, so she can use them in her own advertising. She has also asked me to do whatever advertising I can for the cats, and thus I’ve created this post, which will link to all the cats.
I write a lot of blog posts about pets. Most of them focus on my own two cats in one way or another, but I also do volunteer work for local animal groups. In this post I’ll maintain a list of my pet-related posts.
After taking pictures of pelicans at La Jolla this past January, Greg and I headed down to Cabrillo National Monument in San Diego to get pictures of Old Point Loma Lighthouse. I probably shouldn’t admit this, but the lighthouse was what I was really looking forward to when I woke up that day; birds and sunrises are fun and all, but I have a mild obsession with lighthouses1.
Old Point Loma Lighthouse stands on the top of a hill at the end of Point Loma, one of the peninsulas that shelter San Diego’s natural harbor.
Old Point Loma Lighthouse: From the south.
The two buildings visible in that image are the primary lighthouse (the multi-story painted brick building to the left) and the assistant keeper’s house (to the right).
The lighthouse and its tower are entrancing with their contrast and symmetry:
Old Point Loma Lighthouse: From the East.
The lighthouse started operation in 1855 with a Fresnel lens; its light was visible more than 25 miles out to sea. The lighthouse currently contains the Fresnel lens from the Mile Rocks lighthouse that was moved to the lighthouse in the 1980’s and installed with the light offset by a few inches (so it’s not nearly as powerful as it should be).
The lens and latern room are gorgeous up close:
Old Point Loma's Lantern Room and Attached Balcony
I didn’t notice these fully while on the site, but when I processed the images I discovered that the edge of the tower’s roof is finished with beautiful details:
Cropped detail view of "Old Point Loma's Lantern Room and Attached Balcony"
I love the cutouts on the roof’s edging, with their Escher-esque detailing. If you look at the metal itself, it’s cut into patterns of waves flowing into each other, yet if you look at the void spaces you can see either horns or birds (I see horns, Michelle sees birds). There are also gargoyles / lions at each corner of the roof. I wonder if these details are original, or a later addition.
Old Point Loma Lighthouse: Angles
As the lighthouse is no longer a functioning navigational light (it was decommissioned in 1891 due to frequent interference from fog), it’s open daily for people to explore. While the latern room itself is sealed off, visitors can climb the staircase to nearly the top of the lighthouse tower (to where the window is in the “From the East” picture above). Climbing lighthouse stairways is just awesome, and this one had a little landing Greg and I could set up on to photograph the beautiful symmetry.
Old Point Loma Lighthouse: Nautilus Stairway
That was one cramped little landing with all of our gear set up, and we both had to wait quite a while for an opportunity to capture images of the stairs with nobody else in the tower. But it was worth it, and how could one possibly mind spending time inside a lighthouse? 🙂
I’ll leave you with a final overview image, showing the lighthouse and it’s rebuilt concrete water-catchment basin with native plant landscaping:
A wide-angle view of Old Point Loma Lighthouse and the assistant keeper's house.
Oh, and if you want to see the scale of the stairway in the tower, here’s a self portrait of me in the stairway:
Some photographer got in my shot, darn it!
Stay tuned for more lighthouse pictures!
1This will hopefully be the inaugural post of a multi-post series highlighting lighthouses I’ve photographed in the past year. And don’t get me wrong – the pelicans at La Jolla Cove turned out to be awesome.
Cabrillo National Monument: Old Point Loma Lighthouse is in Cabrillo National Monument, which is at the end of Point Loma peninsula in San Diego, CA. The national monument’s webpage has an excellent directions page, including a great regional map. From interstate 5 you’ll need to take a few turns on city streets that aren’t necessarily well marked, so print out a good map or have your GPS handy. You’ll also be driving through an active naval base to arrive at the national monument, so park hours are strictly enforced. You’ll need to pay an entrance fee; parking was plentiful on site when we arrived on a winter weekday morning.
Greg and I walked to La Jolla Children’s Pool Beach (Casa Beach) back in January after we got our pelican pictures at La Jolla Cove. La Jolla Children’s pool is a small area of sandy beach that’s been walled in by a beautiful brick sea wall, apparently with the plan being that children could go swimming. Seals have had other plans for the beach, though, so there aren’t many children.
While I’m not entirely pleased with my seal pictures from the day, there was something else on view: waves crashing into the sea wall.
Crash of the wave; La Jolla Children's Pool, San Diego.
Big waves were somewhat infrequent, so I wasn’t able to get too many good captures, but I did get these two.
Cascade of the wave; La Jolla Children's Pool, San Diego.
My only problem is this: I can’t decide which picture I like better. Each time I look at the pair I pick one that I like, but then I wait a few days, come back, and find myself preferring the other one.
So, I need you, my kind reader, to solve this dilemma for me. Which do you like better?
Getting There
La Jolla Children’s Pool Beach (Casa Beach): Found in La Jolla (San Diego), the beach is (to quote Wikipedia) “located at 850 Coast Boulevard, at the end of Jenner Street, in La Jolla, California.” Greg and I left our cars in the lot we used for our pelican pictures (directions can be found in this post) and walked; it was a very pleasant 10 minute or so walk. I have no idea how available parking is in La Jolla or what would be the best location to park, so I can’t help you much; sorry. The beach can be freely accessed by walking down a few concrete stairs, but much of the beach’s sand is roped off to allow seals to lay on the beach unperturbed.
As I was taking my oat grass guttation pictures, I kept an eye out for cute critters on my newly planted grass. And, of course, there were some:
Home on the range: A small family of green aphids on an oat grass {Avena sativa} leaf. The scale bar (lower-right) is 1mm long.
That’s a young family of aphids, just starting out in life. Aphids are phloem-feeding plant parasites, so they’re sittin’ there having lunch. They have a proboscis they insert into the leaf’s phloem vessels, which they then drink like a soda through a straw. Phloem is just about as nutritious as soda, so aphids have serious problems getting enough nutrition and dealing with the sugar overload, but that’s the topic for another post (and probably another blog …).
The larger aphid is almost certainly a parthenogentically reproducing female. She reproduces asexually, creating more daughter offspring from just her own unfertilized eggs. Yes, kids, that does mean that she can have baby aphids without any daddy aphids around.
So, the six smaller aphids (called nymphs until they mature) are almost certainly her offspring. The mother will keep producing more and more offspring asexually, and these offspring themselves will almost certainly be able to parthenogentically reproduce as well1. That grass stalk won’t be happy for long.
It can often be hard to tell from web-sized images how much detail is contained in the original capture. Since I know you’re thinking that these aphids are adorably cute, here’s a crop of the image above focusing on them (see the same crop as a larger image here):
Crop of my "Home on the Range" image; the scale bar is still 1mm long.
I’m not certain what species these aphids are, but I suspect they may be Diuraphis noxia, the Russian Wheat Aphid.
Oh, and the small drop of water at the tip of the grass stalk is there because the grass is guttating – exuding water from its tip due to root pressure. I write about that more in this post.
1 Winged and/or sexually reproducing individuals can also be born, typically when environmental conditions change dramatically (e.g., the onset of winter, or depletion of the food source).
