A cat of many faces

We have two stray cats that hang out around our garden these days. Both of them are extremely people-shy and won't let me get within 10 feet of them, even though they see me bringing them food all the time. They mostly hide in the bamboo and under the ornamental grasses, watching, and keeping a lookout for each other -- they do not get along.

This guy is Toe White. He's most likely the father of Super-Whitey's kittens. He may be owned by somebody in the neighborhood because I don't see him every day. Maybe he's got a wide "range" to patrol and it keeps him away for a few days a week. I don't know.

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One thing I do know is that this cat makes a lot of funny faces. I was trying to familiarize myself with another new (old) camera lens, and snapped lots of photos of him while he was eating. If you ignore the fact that he was chewing while I was photographing him, these images are a lot more amusing. (If you also ignore the fact that I didn't quite have the hang of the focus with this lens yet, I'd be grateful.)

taunting (neener neener)

lisping

vampire!

distrusting

amused......... or maybe not.

thhhbbbttttt!

precious. coy. cuteness.

bored.

I hope he's doing his part and keeping the mouse, vole, and chipmunk population down, or I'm going to have to cut back on the food.

I'm alert and on the job -- no cutbacks needed!

I wish he would be less intimidated by me when I'm nearby, but it's probably best that he's not too friendly as we're not lacking in cats around here right now. It would be cool to have another cat hanging around with me when I work in the garden, as I haven't had that since early this year when Super-Whitey was my constant companion.

For now I'll just have to settle for getting a look at him through a long camera lens.