Hobkin doesn’t like the flash

Took pictures of Hobkin the other day with our shiny, new digital camera. He doesn’t like the flash.

I took a picture of him eating dinner, and he scampered under the hutch, abandoning food even, to peer distrustfully at me until I put the camera away. Then he ventured out and went back to snarfing down his meal.

In the future, I’ll probably turn the flash off and just set the shutter speed slower when I take front-on shots of the poor, wee fuzzwit. I know I get blinded by flashbulbs at conventions, and typically the photographers there are considerate enough to ask (and therefore give me plenty of warning) before they pop them in my eyes. I can only imagine how disconcerting it must be for Hobkin.



He’s not really as fierce as he thinks he is.


Playing with his blue mitt.

Skunk yoga.


All tuckered out.



Writing Stuff:

Received an excellent critters crit from dionycheaus on my current offering.*waves* I do think, however, that four weeks is just way too long for a story to be up. Hell, I think three weeks is too long. I know I’ve said this before, but I’m getting antsy to send one of the dang things out, but I feel obligated to hold off until the final crits come in.

My muse made an appearance. I had a feeling she would. 2K words on the “Island Love Story” which is going in a slightly different direction than I had initially intended. Debating now whether I want to steer it back, or give it free rein to go where it seems to want to go. It’s also beginning to crest over 5K and I need to decide if I want to try to fight to keep it at short story length, or let it expand out into novelette, as it seems to have a mind to do. I could probably wrap it up in another 2K, but I could also let it loose for another 5K or so. Ornery stories, acquiring a life of their own. Piffle, I sez.

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26 Responses to Hobkin doesn’t like the flash

  1. mery_bast says:

    How big is he now?? He looks so fluffy and big (not big as in fat but big as in imposing and sturdy)!

    • Eugie Foster says:

      No, no, fat is accurate! He is, like his mommy, on a perpetual diet. We haven’t weighed him since the last time he was at the vet, where he logged in at a whopping 8.5lbs. But that was in winter and I think he’s lost a little winter weight. I’d estimate he’s probably at around 8lbs these days. He could probably stand to lose another half pound . . .

  2. cmpriest says:

    all together now…

    *AAWWWWW*

  3. fenrah says:

    oh, so cute

    Loved the skunk pics! (as always) My cats aren’t crazy about flash, either. However, as you said, with a digital camara, you can usually just turn up the light setting (equivalent of slower speed film). They only animals I’ve found this doesn’t work with are black ones (like my cat Rhett), who need the flash to set off their shine. Otherwise, they look depth-less. *shrug* Hobkin is probably light enough to escape this fate.

    • Eugie Foster says:

      Re: oh, so cute

      The last, closeup shot I took sans flash. It seems to have cast a sort of orangey color over everything, but that can always be colorshopped out. But he’s got plenty of depth . . .

      • fenrah says:

        Re: oh, so cute

        I’ve had that happen, too. You might try taking several pics, one after the other, with different levels of brighteness setting. Then compare them. That’s the only way I was able to find the one that worked with Rhett.

  4. Um, by any chance, he isn’t related to Flubber?

    Have you seen that movie by Robin Williams? It is this Flubber thing that hates flash camera, whenever, he’s exposed to it, he goes nuts!

  5. He’s so cute! I showed the picture to my hubbie and he said, “Yeah, it’s a skunk…”

    Me: He’s cuuute!
    Him: *shrug*
    Me: It’s a Smudgie skunk (my cat Smudge is blank and white, all black and white cats are now known as “Smudgie kitties”)
    Him: All skunks are Smudige skunks!
    Me: I know — they’re cute!

    Maybe my next critters will be skunks… 🙂

    • Eugie Foster says:

      Hee! You should tell your hubby that not all skunks are Smudgie skunks!

      They come in just about every color you can think of. Mahogany, smoke, champagne, white, lavender even. And actually, Hobkin isn’t technically Smudgie either. He’s a choclate chip–brown and white, not black and white.

  6. Ooh, Hobkin looks *so* soft. Makes me want to brush and pat him. 😉

    ~Maggie

    • Eugie Foster says:

      Ooof. I just gave him a brushing last night, and I’ve still got the welts to prove it. Ouch. And there’s skunk fur everywhere. He is incredibly soft, though!

  7. t_rex says:

    He may be upset about the flash, but he *is* really cute all pissed off like that.

    • Eugie Foster says:

      Isn’t he? When he stomps and charges at us, I know he’s trying to be fierce, but every time I just go “Awwww!” Probably aggrevates the hell out of him . . .

  8. ex_girlmech says:

    ohmigod eugie HE IS SO CUTE!!
    promise me if we ever meet that i can cuddle him if he lets me?

  9. whitecrow0 says:

    …And she emerges from the shadows to echo all the “He’s Cuuute!” comments. :} I especially like the first pic, that shows off his widdle claws, and “Skunk Yoga,” which just flows.

    • Eugie Foster says:

      Matthew and I were observing one day, when Hobkin was being especially insistent about being fed, that he was a beastie of pure yin, at which point he started doing skunk yoga to show us that he’s got a proper level of yang too.

  10. dionycheaus says:

    ::waves:: the blue mitt pic is my favorite. He looks like he could give some of the fluffball dogs I’ve seen a run for their money!
    (people like to bring their dogs into video stores for some reason. I’d welcome a skunk to liven it up a little, but they’re illegal in california, I think. Everything is illegal in california.)

    hope the non-flash pictures come out right and hobkin poses happily!

    • Eugie Foster says:

      One day when we brought Hobkin to the vet, another woman was there with her little dog, one of those toy breeds. We fell to chatting, and weigh-ins came up as a topic. Her dog weighed something like five pounds! Hobkin, if he didn’t turn tail and flee, which is more likely, weighing in at 8lbs, could totally whomp on a yappy dog. But I suspect he’d run. Skunks are not brave animals. At least Hobkin’s not!

  11. redgloam says:

    do you get sad when you are driving and smell a skunk? or see one on the side of the road? I will be from now on.. your Hobkin is so cute!! I must get one.

    • Eugie Foster says:

      Seeing road kill always makes me sad. It always has. But yeah, seeing a dead skunk in the wild has taken on new poignancy since we got Hobkin.

      • redgloam says:

        I never like seeing that, either. Especially skunks though, because they’re such neat little critters. Once, at a park, a skunk was stuck in a garbage can. So we put a huge log in there, so the little guy could climb his way out. We were sprayed of course, but at least he had a way out now.

  12. dude_the says:

    Hunh

    Hunh. Don’t recall him reacting to my flash when I was taking pictures. Must be just mommie flashes he objects to. 😉

    PJI

    • Eugie Foster says:

      Re: Hunh

      It could be just nose-on shots that bother him. I took several of him from the side and back, and it didn’t particularly phase him. Or else he was just stomping me ’cause I was interfering with food snarfing activities . . .

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