As self-isolation became a necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic, I faced a limited selection of portrait subjects. The months of separation, made necessary by stay-at-home orders and common sense, led me to photograph my (very patient and only minimally annoyed) cats: domestic short-hair littermates of the tuxedo variety, Watson and Sherlock. The paw-traits are an exercise in distraction—both for the cats and myself. The series aims to recreate or reinterpret historic portraits of presidents and First Ladies. Building from my experience making portraits of powerful people in Washington, D.C., these images inject playfulness within the presidential portrait tradition.