When we were creating the images for the new website last week, we discovered that the banner I’d been using for my blog was too large to fit in the banner spot on the new site. I wanted to use a new picture, anyway, though I still wanted to feature our lovely black cat, Merlin. This time I decided it would be nice to have a picture of him outdoors.

A couple of years ago we lost a lot of our photos in the crash of an external hard drive (lesson: always have multiple backups). So since I didn’ t have a photo that would work, and it was a beautiful day, we decided we should do an impromptu photo shoot with Merlin. Luckily, he was willing to cooperate – even though we woke him up from a nap in the barn. I confess, we did bribe him with treats and petting.

Here are the behind-the-scenes images of our feline photo shoot.

We woke Merlin up from his nap for the photo shoot, but he didn’t seem to mind.

Luckily, Merles likes to follow us around when we’re out in the yard. He was happy to hang out with us.

Merlin’s favorite hangout spot is next door at Aunt Peg’s. We decided to do the photo shoot there.

Sometimes Merlin needed to take a break. He rested near some trees.

This is the photo we used in the final version of the banner. You might be able to see BlackLion on the far right (he cropped himself out in the version we used).

Here are Merlin’s stylist and handler, ElvenTiger and BlackLion. They know how to treat him right!

When Merlin was finished with the photo shoot, he wandered away. And so did we.