of cats and college


The Trail of Pawprints: On Feline Guests, Digital Traces, and Unlocking What’s Within

​It is extraordinary how much presence a transient creature can leave behind. Over the past few years, I estimate around seventeen different cats have passed through my life—some dropping by for a quick bowl of food, others pausing for a deliberate scratch behind the ears, and a few simply peering through the glass before vanishing back into the neighborhood, never to be seen again.

​When your mind isn't consumed by the relentless noise of everyday life—times when even sitting in meditation feels restive or frustrating—you start paying closer attention to these small visitations. Cats possess a quiet charm: their unbothered manners, their fierce independence, and the gentle mystery of their comings and goings.

​Mapping the Territory

​We’ve all watched those online POV videos of cats roaming their territories, but strapping a camera to a pet's neck never felt quite right to me. I did, however, attach a temporary live tracker to Flop for a few days to understand his daily routine.

​Watching his movements on the screen was fascinating. I zoomed in on the map as he stalked through bushes and navigated fences—tiny, erratic movements in every direction, covering more ground within a one-inch radius on my phone screen than I had walked across in days. It provided genuine insight into his world, his territory, and his rhythm. Once I understood his habits, the tracker came off. I used it once more on Jerry, got the same valuable insights, and retired the device. Today, it sits on a shelf—battery flat, rubber collar dusty, and its charging cable hanging tangled behind the microwave, its job complete.

​Reconnecting the Wires

​While drafting these reflections, something unexpected happened: I suddenly figured out how to embed images directly into the text again. It’s a feature I used seamlessly years ago, but like many digital habits, the steps had faded from memory through disuse.

​It immediately brought back a moment from years ago at Kendal College. During a one-to-one session, my tutor looked at me and said:

​"It's all in there, Andrew—you've just got to find it."


​At the time, it felt like a simple reassurance about software skills. It took a few years to realize the poignant truth behind her words. The knowledge, the memories, and the creative instincts don't disappear when we step away from them; they simply wait for us to clear the clutter and find the path back.

​Studio8

​Ran into an interesting creative parallel today while drafting some notes and working on image placements.

​Over the years, I’ve tracked the territorial routes of a couple of our studio cats (Flop and Jerry) using short-term GPS collar logging. The goal wasn't to monitor them indefinitely, but simply to observe their spatial habits, mapping their micro-movements within a tiny radius to better understand how they navigate their environment. Once the data served its purpose, the tech was shelved—the tracker now sits dusty behind the microwave, its job done.

​While writing up those observations, I had one of those sudden workflow breakthroughs: I remembered the exact steps to inline-embed images within my post editor—a function I hadn't used in ages and assumed I’d lost the muscle memory for.

​It brought back a conversation I had years ago with an instructor at Kendal College who told me, "It's all in there, you've just got to find it."

​It’s a good reminder for the studio floor. Whether it's mapping a subject's natural territory or dusting off an old software technique, the capability is usually already there in our past experience—we just have to set up the right environment to let it surface again.

​FB

I put a small GPS tracker on Flop for a few days. Watching his tiny dot zoom around the neighborhood map was brilliant—he covered more ground in a one-inch circle on my screen than I’d walked all week! Once I figured out his routine, the tracker went straight into retirement. It’s currently sitting behind the microwave in a tangled mess of charger cords, never to be seen again! 😂

​Also had a mini triumph while typing this up—finally remembered how to insert photos straight into my text posts! An old tutor at Kendal College once told me, "It's all in there, Andrew, you've just got to find it." Took me a few years to realize she wasn't just talking about computers! Hope you're all having a lovely week.

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