I’ll scrabble together a “Best of 2013” — and maybe “Best of 2012,” since I didn’t get around to it last year — at some point, but for now, let’s talk about cats.
I love cats. I do. Unfortunately, I’m pretty allergic to cats. This means that every time I’m on assignment and a cat is in the vicinity, that cat finds a way to rub up against my legs. In return, I find a way to get that cat in a picture.
And then I manage to get that picture published.
According to some people in the photo department (my editor, and Kate), six published cat photos (out of nearly 1,500 published photos in 2013) is a lot.
I guess it is.
Here they are.

© 2013 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. Omega Horse Rescue director Kelly Smith bundles up hay feed for the following day, on Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013. Kelly Smith, director of Omega Horse Rescue in Peach Bottom Township, rescued a horse from a kill auction whose photo she posted on Facebook. A Massachusetts teenager recognized the horse as hers, and is now reunited with it. DAILY RECORD/SUNDAY NEWS – CHRIS DUNN
In my defense, two of the six photos involve barn cats, which are basically the most bad-ass domestic cats around. I mean, check out Rascal:

© 2013 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. One of Eric Thomas’s Belgian Draft horses approaches Rascal the barn cat on Thomas’s Springfield Township property on Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013. Eric Thomas and his family own five Belgian Draft horses, which weigh about 2,000 pounds each, and keep them and three other lighter horses on their 50 acres in Springfield Township. “As a kid, I wanted elephants, so this was the closest I could get into it,” Thomas said. The family got their first team of Belgians in 2000. DAILY RECORD/SUNDAY NEWS – CHRIS DUNN
And I’ve also been working on a three-part series about a married couple who operate a white-glove travel agency, and they work out of home, and they have a naked Sphinx cat. A NAKED SPHINX CAT. How could I not make sure to get photos of a naked Sphinx cat?

© 2013 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. Jason Holland wears his pilot’s uniform as he enters information from scores of business cards he’s collected onto his computer and social networking sites, as Sphinx cat Bailey nestles in his lap, on Wednesday, May 15, 2013. Jason and Sandy Holland’s white-glove travel service, Travel Simplicity, has recently turned a profit. But Sandy Holland, who has been the primary provider since they started the business, continues to work her full-time day job even as she helps the company grow. DAILY RECORD/SUNDAY NEWS – CHRIS DUNN

© 2013 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. Bailey the Sphinx cat watches from a high chair as Jason Holland mixes up another batch of chocolate chip cookies, which he and his wife Sandy Holland serve to potential and existing clients at trade shows and during meetings, on Wednesday, May 15, 2013. DAILY RECORD/SUNDAY NEWS – CHRIS DUNN
Gettysburg cat:

© 2013 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. Buddy the cat stands up to look out a window in the Shriver House Museum’s attic, which during the battle at Gettysburg served as a sniper’s nest for Confederate soldiers. Blood stains have been detected on the wooden plank floor, and bullets are still embedded in the brick walls of the house that is now a museum depicting civilian life during the Civil War. Private musuems in Gettysburg are starting to prepare for the 150th anniversary of the battle this summer. DAILY RECORD/SUNDAY NEWS – CHRIS DUNN
And, finally, spot-news cat:

© 2013 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. Holding a Dora the Explorer blanket and a wet cat, a woman prepares to disembark a five-ton rescue vehicle after she, four girls and two dogs were rescued from a flooded Hellam Township mobile home park on Friday, Oct. 11, 2013. Chris Dunn — Daily Record/Sunday News
But even my cat-loving editor says she’s getting tired of my cat photos, so I guess I’ll have to seek out a new favorite animal for 2014.
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