Cairo was a curious cat. On leash, he wanted to check out the studio and get a feel for the place. But when it was time to work, he was ready and wanted to. His owner told me Cairo loves to snarl but once we start doing it he wouldn’t want to stop. So at the end of the shoot Cairo hopped on his pedestal and was ready to snarl. And boy did he. His owner would say ‘sssssssspeak’, Cairo would snarl and then receive the best big cat snack, a chicken drumstick or drummy for short. I was three feet from him when I shot this and the feeling being this close to this sort of power was incredible and humbling. I’ll never forget it.