Cooper the Cat is a Catumentarian

Lights, Camera, CAT-tion!

If you watched Cats 101 on Animal Planet last night, you might have seen the segment on Seattle-based tabby Cooper Cross, who photographs his neighborhood from a mini-cam on his collar.

It’s not a new concept. The pioneer of the cat-cam process is Mr Lee, a German cat whose sets of photos are enlightening as well as a bit scary — at one point Mr Lee encounters a ginormous snake (right). Mr Lee’s guardian has been selling these mini-cams for several years, and I was so in love with the concept that I purchased one for our adventuresome feral, Tripper. (Alas, still waiting for hubby to hook it up.) You can see some of Mr Lee’s photos here.

Like Mr Lee, Cooper wanders his neighborhood, snapping photos at regular intervals. His guardians, Michael and Deirdre Cross, are film documentarians, so it comes naturally to him. He shoots one day a week, and his camera takes between 200 and 400 photos a day (once every 2 minutes). Most shots are unusable, but the keepers are sometimes extraordinary. The photos even helped Cooper get a cat door installed — once Mike and Deirdre had proof in hand that the poor ginger sometimes waited hours to be let in the house.

Here are a few photos from Cooper’s gallery (with Michael’s comments):

Cooper’s is a rags-to-riches story. Formerly a stray, his photographic exploits landed him on TV. I’m hoping he gets a show at MOMA.

Check out Cooper’s flickr stream here.