Boy, Cat, You've Sure Got Some Stuff...

If you spend a lot of time around cats, you've probably figured out that they are incredibly photogenic. Mine spend most of their days reveling in lethargy, sprawled across the top of the couch or curled up in a tiny corner. While they lie there purring, it's not too difficult to arrange and snap an undignified picture. I know I have quite a number of such poses, the most recent of which features my cat Peaches wearing a badminton birdie as a hat. Her wide eyes reveal that she was feeling remarkably patient that day, allowing such an intrusion while she was actually awake. I was taking my chances; Peaches is known for abrupt mood swings, and it would have been all too easy for her to decide to sink her sharp little teeth into one of my fingers in retribution. But these are the risks we take for posterity.

The book stuff on my cat, assembled by Mario Garza, clearly reveals that I am not alone in my compulsive cat photography. A couple years ago, he decided to create a website featuring photos he had taken of his cat Love with a series of strange objects on top of her. Love didn't much mind being his model; she was too busy snoozing. And when other cat owners saw her, they gladly shared their own photos of oddly garbed felines. They even began actively seeking out opportunities to test Garza's philosophy that "stuff + cats = awesome".

Some of the best of those offerings are collected in stuff on my cat, which contains no words aside from an introduction and the cartoonish inscriptions of names on a few of the pages. Throughout the book are pictures of cats of all dispositions and physical descriptions. While some of them appear to be candid, most clearly are the result of human interference. There are several shots of cats boozing it up and several of them peeking, E. T.-like, from amidst a mountain of toys. There are cats with clothes, cats playing games, cats with other cats. Few of them failed to put a smile on my face.

The small volume, designed by Ayako Akazawa and featuring drawings by Deth P. Sun, is a terrific little coffee table book for only ten dollars. The only downside is that so many pictures are available on the website (www.stuffonmycat.com), the purchase of the book is rendered unnecessary, except that it's so much more satisfying to hold a book like this in your hands - or even, if you feel so inclined, to place it upon the nearest cat's head for a quick picture.

The photos included in stuff on my cat are fun and brightly colored, with marvelously expressive cats and some exceptionally bizarre items. There are also calendars featuring stuff-laden cats, and at the end of the book, it suggests visiting the website to see about including your entertaining cats in the 2009 calendar. I'm off to do that now, after which I will examine just how tolerant my cats are feeling today...