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Last autumn, a new kitten has joined my mother’s family.
When my mother went to a springwater site at the foot of a hill where she often visited to collect water, the kitten was hobbling.
It looked tiny, thin and so weak.
The place was remote, so probably someone threw it away.
My mother already had two cats, but she couldn’t ignore and brought it home.

After then, she took it to a nearby animal hospital for examination and it got treatment for injuries and illness. It is female and its color is black and white but mostly white,
so my mother named it Shiro(white). And her forehead is so-called “window’s peak”.
She recovered completely at the end of last year and she was spayed, so I was relieved.

By the way, I was worried about compatibility between Shiro and the two cats have lived already. I have heard that in case of house cats, a new comer became stronger than old ones. More or less, it seems to be true because actually Shiro was jumping and moving vigorously but the old cats looked uncomfortable and they wanted to go out soon.

But now finally, they are getting used to each other.
Also, Shiro has been growing and has become tame.
I hope that they would get on well forever. (H.S)

Recent Shiro. She was fully grown.
She is friendly and clever.

On a TV show, an animal photographer Mitsuaki Iwago, who is well-known on Japan’s NHK BS TV’s cat show, talked about the secrets to take cute photos of cats.

To take cute photos of cats, first you need to get along well with cats.
In order to do so, you need to,
1. First, greeting
You can say “Good morning” or “Hello”. Your local language is better.
When Iwago greeted a cat in London with “Good morning” but it ignored him.
Because the greeting was American accent!
2. If there are kittens, you should say hello to their mother cat first
Where there are kittens, there must be their mother cat and is watching them.
So you need to greet the mother cat first.
3. Praise
Every time Iwago meets a good cat, he praises it “You are a good boy”
or “You are beautiful”. It seems that cats don’t feel bad hearing those words :)

After you became friendly with cats, it is time to take photos.
Iwago said,
1. First, greeting again with the eyes of cats
2. When you pet a cat, you should show your hand and pet it
(Don’t pet its head from above suddenly)
3. Use camera lower position, and take photos with praise
4. When you take photos of a black cat, it depends on light.
So you need take photos according to the light.

And now you might be able to take nice photos like Iwago?

By the way, Iwago doesn’t take photos by using a smartphone. One time when he went to a cell-phone shop to get one without camera, and its woman staff told him “I will show you how to take cell-phone photos :) （H.S）

My cat “Gil”. This angle is unusual.

The most popular cat “Mofu Mofu” in Gotanjoji Temple in Echizen City, Fukui Prefecture.
The Zen temple is well known as a “Cat Temple”.

Its back shot is pretty good too. Mofu Mofu is a Norwegian Forest Cat.