During the photo shoots for the book, I encountered all kinds of kitty parents: one was an intelligent PhD type who ended up giggling and making up kitty gang signs and cat gang scenarios, throwing signs to her cat; there was an artist mom who was very flexible about covering herself in a sheet to serve as a backdrop; there were two moms who had three cats to shoot and dogs who wanted in on the action… here are a few of the stories from behind the scenes:

The first shoot for the book was with Apollo and his mom, and it was my first experience trying to get wigs on a cat that wasn’t mine. We decided to take the pictures outside, and we ended up chasing Apollo all over the huge yard, trying to get a wig on him. I’m sure we looked crazy to anyone who could see us. The other cat, Pooter, wouldn’t have anything to do with the wigs, but her kitty mom really wanted Pooter in the book. It was my first glimpse of how the kitty parents would act, and it was so funny to see the mom being totally serious when she said, “Pooter, we’ve been working all our lives for this! Come on, you can wear the wig!!” But Pooter was like, “No way lady!” and that was the end of that.

We did the photo shoot of Bacon at a hip little dive bar in Dallas called Lee Harvey’s, in the middle of the afternoon. Bacon is the resident bar cat there, so he’s right at home (on the menu, after bacon cheeseburgers it says “not the cat”). There was no one there except one couple eating at the other end of a long picnic table where we set up a shot. This couple didn’t know what the hell we were doing, they were just having lunch and suddenly there were 3 or 4 people getting ready to put a wig on a cat and take pictures of it. Once Bacon was wearing the wig, he took a sip from a glass of ice water that was sitting on the table. This was pretty funny because it looked like he was at the bar, having a drink like the rest of us. But right after he took a sip, he did a little backwards crawl, accidentally backed off the table and fell onto the bench about a foot below (as if it was a sip of vodka). It seemed like it happened in slow motion, like a wreck: everyone gasped and started to run and catch him, but of course he ended up sitting upright on the bench, perfectly fine. I caught the entire thing on camera – a cat in a wig falling off the table – and the last thing in the series of pictures was Bacon’s feet pointing straight up in the air. It was the funniest thing and I fell to the ground in a ball laughing so hard I could hardly breathe (you can see this series of photos animated on our ecards page!)

Boone’s shoot was so fun we ended up doing two. This was probably influenced by the excellent mojitos being served! Other than a well-stocked and tended bar, the key to a successful shoot is having a fantastic kitty who’s really calm and a handler who can coax a stylish pose with loving, begging, pleading, and cajoling. After a while Boone was kind of over it, but if you really lay on the extra loving and treats you can usually pull out one more good shot. At one point, he ran into the back room, and we had only started for the day so we were a little worried he’d gone into hiding. But it turned out he just needed a bathroom break, then he ran right back down the hall and onto the set, like a true professional. That cat is nuts.

My cat Rooster, unlike Chicken, was not having anything to do with the wigs. So I got inspired and bought a new kitty bed that was super, super fuzzy and put her in it. This made her feel like she was the Queen Bee, so she decided that the wig with the curler in it wasn’t all bad. My husband laid right next to her, petting her, and then moved out of the frame at the very last second. Our little dog, Chi Chi, was always trying to get in the mix and also into the special kitty bed. Of course Chi Chi loved wearing the wig and sat there for hours looking great. This turned out to be to our advantage, because once the dog got in on it, Rooster was a little jealous and wanted to wear the wig too! Sheesh!

Boone and his handler

Bacon and Kaz at Lee Harvey's

Trying to get Tugboat to cooperate

Red's mom gets creative