Cat sure looks fierce.
Coolpix 950/990 has quite a bit of shutter lag, about 1s in dim situations if it can lock focus. If you want fast response, set to MF mode and set to the appropriate approximate distance. At least the Coolpix MF mode has a distance scale. The inherent DoF of the camera should cover slight focussing errors if you use a medium aperture.
And yup, Nikon metering is thumbsup:
Regards
CK: