Great Depression cat not a freeloader

I have written stories about photographing dogs, but not cats, yet they have also played an important part in my world of photography.

Growing up in the Great Depression, we had a cat that lived with us in the cellar for 10 years. He paid his way, doing a better job than our mouse traps.

He was a gray and white run-of-the-mill breed. I didn’t even have a box camera in those days, so I was never able to capture a picture of him.

In 1951, I won my first (KINSA) Kodak International Newspaper Snapshot Awards Contest in The Vindicator. It was a photograph of three kittens scrambling over the back of our couch. These kittens were borrowed from a friend for the photo shoot. It was a finalist in the local judging and went on to the international contest judging.

Important role

In 1961, a lone kitten poking his head out of a plastic sewer pipe went on to the finals under the auspices of the Akron Beacon Journal. The photo was also published in the 1978, 1981 and 1985 editions of a Kodak book entitled, “Kodak Films, Color and Black and White.” So cats did play a very important part in my photographic life.

Later in life I became allergic to cats, and photographing them became out of the question.

We owned another interesting cat that I never photographed, because he never sat still long enough for me to capture his image. He was always tom catting around.

He was a full grown, farm fresh, rust-colored tom cat that we acquired from a farmer. He was spotless, restless and energetic.

After a few days, young Tom decided to take off and scout the neighborhood. When he came back from an apparent tryst, he looked like a dirty alley cat. He was given a bath and restored to his natural rust color. He was sent back to his original farm home to sow his oats there.

Over the past half century I have given equal photographic time to man’s best friend and cat’s worst enemy, the dog. In my archives there are four KINSA finalists of my best friends, dogs.

X Michael J. LaCivita is a Youngstown retiree who, while he no longer photographs cats, writes from time to time about those and other memories. He is an inductee into the Ohio Senior Citizens Hall of Fame and Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame.