Our Cat Mauii - (EOS M subject) - has passed on...
8 months ago
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Baby Mauii, the day he came home to us. Back in November 2002.
* Taken with the Canon IXUS Digital Elph (S100 - circa 2000 model).
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Mauii Nero - 2002-2022
Those of you who have been here over the last 19 years might remember seeing photographs of my Australian Burmilla cat "Mauii". He was famous for being a second-gen (his parents were the first recognized breed) and he was reasonably affordable when we bought him because his breed was considered an "experimental breed" at the time. He was often my subject when testing various Canon cameras and lenses.
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He was also an unusually intelligent cat. More than once we found him clinging to a set of keys, trying to turn them in a locked door. He was toilet trained for human toilets via a device called a "Litter Kwitter", although both of our other remaining cats are as well. They have litter boxes because they still yearn to use dirt... but they can use a human toilet if needed. He was unusually vocal and it's noticeably quiet here now that he's gone. He used to enjoy rides in the car as a kitten but not so much when he grew up. But he was an incredibly affectionate cat and a good friend whenever I was home along or up late after my wife had gone to bed.
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He almost made it to 20 years of age. He was euthanized in our arms earlier this week, just three weeks from his 20th birthday. Sadly, he died as a result of incompetence from an emergency vet who dropped the ball four times, resulting in an untimely and rather horrible death. We took Mauii to another vet where his organs began to fail - and they were simply wonderful in the way they diagnosed him without access to his history and tried to stabilize him. But he went into cardiac arrest and numerous other cascading issues left him with no chance of recovery, despite all the technology available. There will now be legal repercussions on several levels regarding the previous emergency vet, but that's not what I'm here to talk about.
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Mauii didn't really like the camera because it often meant he was the focus of attention. If I pointed a camera in his direction he would often turn away. I avoided using flashes with him whenever possible and this is perhaps one of the reasons why I pursued bright lenses with wide apertures. I covered him with every Canon camera we had and started with the first Digital Canon camera I had access to: the 2.1MP Canon Digital Elph (S100 - 2000 model). More than 7 different PowerShots documented his middle years. The last images taken of Mauii were with the iPhone 13, the EOS M6 and the EOS R6.
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images from the Canon Powershot Pro1 (left) and the EOS M & M6 (right).
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Mauii had a love of sleeping but he learned what time of the evening I would prepare dinner. His one love (aside from sleeping long hours) was chicken. He was obsessed with it. I couldn't cut, marinate or cook it without him magically appearing and howling for a sample He would do a dance in the kitchen for as long as an hour to get me to give him some when I was cooking.
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It's very sad to lose this little guy. We certainly feel he would have gone on to live many more years if certain complications hadn't transpired. He was liked by all the people who met him. He never bit or scratched anyone in two decades. He was gentle, curious and incredibly friendly. I am grateful to have known Mauii and to have so many photographic memories to look back on now.
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The only time Mauii made it to the beach. He didn't like to travel.
Images from the PowerShot G11, PowerShot G1X and EOS M.
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I regret that I will no longer be able to borrow Mauii to test future lenses or existing equipment. I still have to lovely cats to choose from but I'd say Mauii was a significant influence in our lives, much more so than our other two cats. He was very much a member of our family rather than just another pet. No doubt you all have similar pets in your own lives that play a part in your photography. I believe that the EOS M camera was the model that took most of Mauii's photographs and portraits between 2012 and 2022. One of the last pictures taken of him on the morning he was put down was from the M6 (not shown here). The night the original EOS M camera body was released, I photographed Mauii with it (see the one with the pink/purple bokeh balls above).
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So after almost 20 years of companionship and joy, I farewell my feline companion. Mauii was cremated earlier in the week and his remains were returned to us the day before yesterday. I suspect Mauii contributed to the sale of numerous Canon cameras (or so I'm told) and whilst white (light grey?) fur can be a little tricky to expose for, he was certainly a photogenic little buddy. More than a few people here commented on Mauii in the past and said they enjoyed seeing him appear in the threads in this forum.
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** Mauii is survived by Zima, an incredibly stupid rescue that shares a singular lonely brain cell with a phytoplankton. And Quorra, a black rescue who is nearly absolutely silent but is co-dependant to my wife and rarely ever leaves her side.
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EOS M - Mauii taught his other adoptive siblings to use the bathroom
Canon PowerShot Pro1
Mauii with the EOS M6 + EF-M 32mm f/1.4 STM lens.
Taken with the Canon EOS M camera.
A mixture of images from over the years... barely a sliver of the total number.
About 60 seconds before Mauii was put to sleep on Sunday.
Not something I expected to be dealing with this year, let alone this week.
Canon PowerShot S400 (left) and iPhone 13 Pro Max (right).
