May Show Off Thread 2025 - Plant Portraits

[Agent0013]

Welcome to the May Show Off Thread for 2025!
Post all of your wonderful images for this month here. Please remembers to keep your images PG.
Please remember to observes and follow all Image file size and pixel size limits.
Our challenge for this month is Plant Portraits. You may do portraits of any type of plantlife, whether it is of actual existing species or totally fictional ones. They may be single plants, or groups; even forests. Multiple plants in one images is also acceptable.
Animal life, humans, fantasy creatures, or alien beings can be in your images, but the main subject must be plants. This is not to say that other images can't be included in this thread, as we want to see whatever you wish to show off. But for the challenge we are accepting portraits with plantlife as the main subject.

Now to get this started, I am posting this AI generated image to show an acceptable style. I am not including it to be in the challenge, though it does fit the criteria! As I just wrote the prompt for the AI at DeviantArt to follow, I do not consider it to be a piece I did myself. This image is one of many that can be downloaded from my Gallery at DeviantArt, to be used any way the artist wishes for their own art! I am making a resource of free backdrops and wallpapers at DeviantArt, Anyone can grab them to use for their own purposes, so long as they credit me as the one who had them generated. Soon my profile here will include a link to that gallery, which you can follow to find my gallery there. Feel free to browse and collect any images you want from that gallery. The only images there that won't be allowed for use are the ones with my Signature Logo on them.

[Agent0013]

Got some sad news to relate. Two of the kittens have passed. The third, Heidi is still alive but her mother Peaches won't let her feed now. We are looking to get an eyedropper type of feeding syringe, so we can try to save her. 

We found Brit in the kitty bed already gone. Ellora was in my arms when she passed. I was trying to save her when she gave up the ghost. Now there is just one kitten left, and she is proving to be a fighter, but without nourishment, she can't survive. I really don't know what to do to get something in her belly, if I can't get to a store to get a feeding syringe.

It is beginning to seem like my brother and I have been cursed against having our pets! In the last few months we have lost six cats, along with Brit and Ellora. If Heidi passes, it will be 7.

Please pray for our Kitties, because we are already devastated by this.

[Agent0013]

Heidi just passed in my arms too, about 45 minutes ago! I'm not understanding this! It feels like I and my brother have become a target! I don't know what is happening, but it isn't good! We have now lost 7 cats since November 20th of last year! How much more of this do we have to endure? It's more than enough to make most folks just give up! Well I'm not going to! I'm determined to keep at it until we can turn things around! Our enemy named trouble is not going to win!

[Llola Lane]

Awe Agent... Just saw this... Sorry have been busy last few days...

We have had a few kittens pass away on us... It is hard... 2 were with us for a month and then just suddenly passed... Their 2 brothers ended up having PanLuc (like Parvo for dogs)... We brought them to the shelter and they incubated and gave them fluids for 2 weeks before we got them back.  Today they are with us for over 5 years... Foster fails... Mo and Meenie's 2 brothers are in our pet cemetery.

A few years ago we had another baby pass... The girls at the shelter said she probably couldn't digest any milk and therefor never could grow.  Sometimes babies just don't develop internally as expected... Just like some human babies. 

One baby came out dead... No matter what I did the little one wouldn't breathe.  It too is in the pet cemetery but 2 sisters were adopted to a wonderful family that sends me birthday greetings every April 15th.  :)

Sometimes there is nothing we can do but give them love.  You and your brother did the best you could but you don't know WHO mama mated with... or what kind of biological things she had wrong.  Our Weeble who has Cerebellar Hypoplasia got his disorder from a mama who was malnourished.. etc.  But he's doing great. 

I know it feels like you are cursed... believe you me... It seems like every Mama we get is SUPPOSED to be normal and we get ones that are weird.  Our latest Mama is back in heat again...lol.  But... she's still feeding baby Nala so that is a good sign.  Last Mama we had in heat stopped feeding them so I had to bottle feed them kitten milk the last 2 weeks til they were weened. 

You brought them in from the cold and gave them a loving home.  That is all we can do.  It is one reason we don't let our cats outside (not that they would WANT to go out at this point).  You and your brother ROCK! 

Hugzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[Llola Lane]

Great theme Agent... I did a bunch of these for my CANDLEWORKS Art Exhibit in SecondLife.  They were done in DAZ with inspiration from AI... but all done in Daz :)  ENJOY

[Stezza]

do do do lookin'

[Llola Lane]

do do do lookin'
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Haaaaaaaaa Stezza... you always make me smile with your artworks... Thanks for sharing :)

[DanaTA]

Always a fun scene!

[Agent0013]

Llola, we do know exactly who the father of the kittens is, He is our own McCartney, and is the only male Peaches would even allow to mate with her. She and He act like they are a married couple, and my Brother and I did not get invited to the Wedding! LOL

Both parents now know their babies are gone. All three kittens were feeding with no problems; but Brit and Heidi were fighting over the same teet. I think the injuries they may have inflicted on each other's eyes could have contributed to their deaths. Ellora, who was the runt, and last born, is the biggest mystery. She was the most healthy of the three. She passed in my arms. Heidi passed in my arms also, about four hours later. Brit, was the Firstborn, and the first to pass. We found him in the kitty bed, already gone. All of them passed on the same day, so we think it might have been an environmental issue. We've been unable to find any environmental problems though.

Peaches, their Mother is missing them! She comes into the room looking for them! I swear, it sounds like the is actually pronouncing Ellora's name as she calls out to them. 

Peaches seriously has a complex vocabulary, only I am no translator. Sometimes I hear her saying actual human words, and it is always in reference to what the words mean. Somebody told me "Cats can't make certain letter sounds." Like T, D, G, J, P, ect. Well that is proven to me by Peaches to be a bunch of hogwash. Peaches makes all of those sounds. "A cat's mouth is not shaped right for it to be able to make those sounds."
 
My response to that is "What is it that prevents them from making those sounds?" The answer is nothing but silence. So I continue "If you don't know that, then don't be making statements you can't back up with real facts!" I wish that person could be here to listen to Peaches in person! Then he would know the truth.

Sorry about that last part, but it is quite humorous. Just trying to lighten the mood. Yes Peaches is mourning her loss, and so are my Brother and I, plus I think McCartney is too, in his own way. He does come looking for them.

This is what we have learned about McCartney through what we have witnessed:
1. He is as close to being the Gentleman Cat as any cat can be; actually treating females like ladies.
2. He actually apologizes for any accidental injury or calamity he is the cause of.
3. He takes kittens under his wing, mentors them and protects them, whether male or female. 
4. He does his self appointed job extremely well, as our mouse and rat pest controller.
5. He brings his catch to us to let us know he caught one, for our approval. When we praise him, only then will he eat his catch; and he leave no mess for us to clean up.

McCartney is a one of a kind in a million cat, for sure. He chose us to be his forever family. He has proven himself to be most worthy of our love.

Now our next door neighbor's cat seems to have chosen me as her human. So how can I not accept her. She of course has two homes right next door to each other, and can be at either one whenever she wants; but she stays with me more than 90% of her time. I am "The Cat Whisperer" according to my brother, as through the years many cats have come to me unbidden, seeming to know my inner being, and love for cats! 

Something that kind of confirms this is what happened when I went to the Cherokee Reservation. I was watching a performance put on by the Medicine Chief. He was doing a traditional dance. After his performance, he single me out, took me into his place, and said "Welcome! I know you to be a distant relative! You are of my blood!" Then he said "Tell me, what is it that brought you here? Why did you wish to come to the reservation?"

"Well I don't really understand it, but I felt drawn to this place! At first when I got here, I was wandering around, not knowing what I was looking for! Then when I came to your show, I could not tear myself away! I had to see what you were doing!"

He said "You were always meant to come here! Your Great Grandmother was a Medicine Woman!" he said that part like he knew it was true, and it was true! "Will you allow me to tell you things about yourself?"

"Yes! I wish to know."

He had a long list of thing he told me, and I could not deny any part of what he said. The main thing was this:
"Your Totem animal is the Cat. Almost all cats know your affinity to them. They see you as a kindred spirit, and many of them come unbidden to you; even the big cats, such as Leopard, Puma, Bobcat; no matter what kind they are. Domestic cats are naturally attracted to you, also. Nurture your affinity to your totem animal. Let them approach you, and take comfort with you." He looked at me and asked "You have already had an encounter with a big cat, have you not?"

"Yes, when I was 13, a 10 month old Leopard was brought to the school. He dragged his handler toward me. I was scared at first, but the man told me the cat wanted me to pet him. So I did, and it was a profound life changing thing for me! It made me feel,... special."

"And that is what you should have felt." He put his hand on my shoulder. "You are welcome here any time. I invite you to join the Cherokee Nation, because I immediately recognized you as a member of my family, even as I was performing my Sunset Rites. Go and be at peace. If ever you should decide to join the Cherokee Nation, we will be happy to have you!"

I ask you, the members of PFDLives, what do you think about that?

[Agent0013]

AI can be used as part of your art for the challenge. Thanks for posting your images, Llola bouquet and flower arrangements images are awesome always!