Paramount Ranch is a magical place. You can feel it whispering to you in the sweet fresh air, the gentle blue sky, the delicious sunshine and bubbling streams; in the soaring hawks and wise old oak trees. This is a place where some truely inspired masterpieces of film and television art have been captured forever on film. In January, 2004, I took 6 of my cats with me on a road trip to this special place, as we were fortunate enough to have been asked to participate in a professional photo shoot. We've put together a few pictures for you of some "behind the scenes" moments, and we can now finally share one of the results from the shoot. We want to sincerely thank all the wondeful people in the crew, who made us feel so welcome and such a part of their team. We had the time of our lives!!

Our Foothill Felines RV, carrying our precious feline cargo!

I wasn't sure what to expect on the drive down from Sacramento to Los Angeles. Having recently purchased a small new/used motorhome, I had the room to use extra large kennels for transporting the cats, with litterboxes, beds, hammocks, and space to move around during the trip. I tried to bring a variety of Bengals for the photo shoot, to offer a range of colors, sizes and patterns. Mochamelo, MaiTai and her 3 kittens, and Sunny Spots (okay, she's a Savannah, not a Bengal, but she's so darned cute!!) were the stars of the trip. They slept almost the entire trip down, and adjusted beautifully to their travelling conditions and to the entire adventure!!

The photo shoot primarily took place at Western Town within Paramount Ranch.

'Western Town' was so very picturesque!! I had never been on a real Hollywood set before, and it was such fun to wander among the buildings, and stroll along feeling like I had travelled back in time. There were some other projects going on simultaneously to ours within Western Town, and on occasion, we'd have someone come over to ask us to "keep it down" (our talking, etc.) when they were filming a sequence using sound. The next pictures of some of the cats from Foothill Felines were taken by Dee Hunter, professional animal trainer and photographer. These are not pictures from the actual photo shoot, but rather loving moments captured by her for me as precious gifts from the experience.

MaiTai, left, a star in her own right on this shoot, watching her marble son through
loving mother's eyes, as he has his moment in the spotlight!

Above, mother and son captured by Dee. It was an extraordinary experience working with professional trainers Debbie Silverman and Dee Hunter. What a privilege to be able to see them bring out the personality, desire and trust in these cats!! My cats had never been outdoors a day in their lives, nor had they ever experienced wearing a collar or leash. By the end of the first day of "prepping", my cats had been professionally trained by Debbie and Dee to run from Point A to Point B on command -- outdoors, amidst all the distractions of our beautiful surroundings.

Beautiful Sunny Spots, in this incredible photo by Dee.

We brought Sunny Spots with us also!! We had been asked to bring down some of our Bengal kittens and adults for the photo shoot, which we did....but we couldn't resist bringing Sunny Spots (our youngest F2 Savannah female) with us also. Nobody at the shoot had ever seen a Savannah before in person, and she was a real hit. Debbie had worked with and trained an African serval before, so she was well prepared for Sunny's unique personality and speed!!

Foothill Felines Picasso of Fire'n'Ice Bengals.

However, this little fellow was definitely the superstar of the photo shoot!! An absolutely stunning, clear-coated marble male kitten born to Serrano MaiTai of Foothill Felines and Spothaven Malamute of Foothill Felines, he won everyone's hearts during our week's participation in the project. He was such a happy kitten, and he ran so energetically and with such joy on command, that the photographer and all the trainers and art director decided immediately that he was going to be a major part of their new packaging design for the Eukanuba/Iams company. The only problem was that they wanted him to run with his tail straight out behind him, and in every actual photo, his tail was straight up because he was so excited!!

Stay Tuned for More Details and Pictures of our Hollywood Experience!

Foothill Felines Bengals: "Stalking the Majesty of Nature: Inspired by the Heart!"