Cats are expressive, athletic, curious, and full of purrsonality. Thus they are natural photo and art subjects. But it’s not always easy to capture their essence.
Do you follow your cat around with your phone camera like a paparazzi? Do you keep your camera at your elbow just in case your cat does something cute? You know she will do something photo-worthy. But if she’s like most cats, she’ll do it when you’re nowhere near your camera or she’ll stop doing it before you can focus.
How do you suppose all of those cute photos and videos we see on the Internet are created 
when your cat seems so camera shy? I think a lot of them are staged. The cats are coerced into doing some of the cute, amazing, silly, funny, smart things they are photographed doing. And I’m sure that, in many cases, treats are involved.
I notice that our cats strike a lot of photo-worthy poses. But not always when a camera is pointed at them. When the camera comes out, they either wander off and take a nap or sit back and look at me with a blank stare. As soon as I set the camera down and leave the room, they resume their cute antics.
Maybe cats are simply private. Some of them don’t like to show off for the public. They do not aspire to share their talent with the world and they resist being captured digitally and possibly exploited. Or the cat simply wants you to know she won’t perform on command. She must maintain her dignity. She doesn’t want to taint her reputation as being aloof, poised, and stately. She is, after all, a cat.
