Seattle cat Cooper is the latest darling of the photography world. One day a week for a year, Seattle filmmakers Michael and Dierdre Cross attached a small, lightweight, weatherproof digital camera to Cooper's collar. The resulting pictures form a documentary of life at six inches above the ground. Grasses stand tall in the foreground, and small urban homes loom up against the sky.
Cooper is a former stray that was adopted by the Crosses adopted three years ago. Cooper is an indoor-outdoor cat - a topic which is guaranteed to raise debate among cat owners. (The average lifespan for an outdoor cat is greatly shortened, compared to that of an indoor cat.) But no one can argue with the results of Cooper's foray into photography.
Cooper and his photography appeared on the Animal Planet show "Cats 101," which aired last Saturday, December 6th. (Sadly, Animal Planet currently has no plans to air the show as a rerun, although their Cats 101 website has a lot of fun content.)
The Crosses operate their own film production company, Cross Films. This brings to mind other cats who have taken up their owners' careers, including:
- Veterinary clinic cats who donate blood for feline patients, like Pete, Jack and Ruggles.
- The cat of author Paul Gallico, who penned the book The Silent Miaow (translated by Gallico).
- The theoretical cat of Austrian physicist Erwin Schrodinger, who helped advance the theory of quantum mechanics (but only when you're not looking).