Category: Cat

Gemma cat

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I was watching a video today and remembered one if our old cats, Gemma. Like the cat in the video she would ride round on my shoulders, and was determined to stay near me. I once visited a friend in the street and went in through the front door. I came out the back way after the visit and could not see her so I went through the entry (passageway) back to the front, and there she was, sitting on my friends doorstep, waiting for me.

We first met because she had been going to my friends house and eating the dog’s food there. I had recently lost my old cat, he had died of old age, so I agreed to take her. We booked to have her neutered but she was pregnant. She was fine up until the birth but did not bite through the umbilical cords, When  we got up in the morning the kittens had been born, but one had died. It was a shock as I had not realised there was a problem. We were saddened by the kittens death.

As there were three kittens left we kept two and gave one away. This was because it was an odd eyed white cat, and we didn’t think living by a main road would be good for it.

Her two kittens, a male and a female lived with us too. All of them lived long lives, I think they had a good life with us.

Anyway we had not realised how bright Gemma was. I have a painting I did of her from a photo. If I was outside with her and tapped one side of the gate post she would jump across the gap to me. She was so good at it that I could take a photo of her in mid air, this was the basis of a painting called Gemma leaping.

Her happiest spot was sitting in the sun on the window ledge upstairs. This is my favourite cat painting, and most loved image if her.

Two cats together…

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This was what I saw when I got up this morning. Two cats together, going about their business, looking out for birds or squirrels. Not a care in the world. I wish I had their life!

The thing is I have to leave them a space to sit in because they just knock things off the cupboard if I don’t. I have had broken glasses and side plates to prove it.

They don’t go out so I guess it’s fair enough, but both of them don’t like going out. They will look out the front door but if a car is driving along the street they dart back in. I’ve never known such scaredy cats!

Anyway, they continue to thrive, despite not being allowed out. Maybe one day if I can get them in a harness? But I doubt that would work………..!

 

Black cat appreciation day

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Some people don’t like black cats,  but I do. I had two of them over the last few years. A female who was very sweet and tiny, and a big male who would sit and guard the cat flap at night.

My only worry with black cats is that they are difficult to see at night so I always put reflective collars on them. That goes for black and white cats to as they tend to have black bodies and the white parts are underneath or on their legs.

Black cats are supposed to be lucky in the UK where in other parts of the world they are meant to be unlucky. They have a history of being thought to be witches familiars, but I think if a lonely old lady wants a cat to keep her company she should not be persecuted for it. If a black cat walks in front of me I try to stroke it!

Cats were worshipped in Egypt and thought to be related to gods.  I think the Egyptian cat God was Bast? however I may be wrong? Cats have lived with humans for thousands of years and caught mice and rats which eat grain, so they were well liked on farms.

Ideas for Black cat names? Sooty, Blackie, Beauty, Smudge, Molly, Lady, Archie, Night, Moonbeam…….

Decorating pottery

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For years I have drawn a little cat in a hat, useful if you want to talk to someone and they have a fidgety child. I would ask if they would like me to draw them a cat, and then draw this motif, with a pointy hat, and a name tag on its collar so the child could choose the cats name.

I also like decorating pottery so took the opportunity to do so at Trentham Retail village. This is on the A34 near Trentham village, a couple of miles South of Stoke-on-Trent, near the Stoke South junction of the M6 motorway.

There is a shop there selling pottery called the Potters Barn. They have glazes and blank pottery so you can decorate pots yourself. I know it’s usually for children, but I don’t see why adults can’t do it too.

Anyway I painted two cats, so you will see one or the other depending on which hand you hold the mug in. There are various things to paint so I chose a large mug. It cost me £15, but when you think that’s including the firing of the mug, it’s no too bad.

The final result should be bright and cheerful. I added numerous flowers in the background and dots on the rim. I should get it back I a couple of weeks.

Monoprints

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I had fun today doing some mono printing, which means one print. Basically you rolling onto a clean flat surface, then you can use objects to scratch through it, or add different colours. You can do one print then add a different colour and as long as you line the paper up in the same place you can get different effects.

I chose to draw a cat into the rolled ink. Then you gently lay the paper on top, press down with your hands, not to heavily, then carefully pull the paper off. Of course the image is reversed from what you drew, so if you add text it needs writing in reverse.

The ink we used was really thick, so I actually managed to get 3 or 4 pictures from each ink drawing. I added some black pen drawing I top of a couple of them, I don’t have photos of them as they are not finished yet. Thanks to another member of Etruria Artists for these photos.

Cats and boxes

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Apologies for my lack of skill in rhyming…..But here is just something I had to write when I saw these two! I am trying not to use plastic bags, so sometimes get shopping in cardboard boxes.  My tom cat has decided  one is his. So what happens when you bring in a new one? A confusion  of cats….

Maybe cats and cupboards?

A confusion of cats,

Sits in a box,

Shrodinger puzzle….

Which box to choose?

 

Cat on a cupboard ,

Cat sitting up high.

One cat – both boxes,

The other has none.

Share or not share?

 

Cats have ideas,

Sure of their wills,

always delightful,

and bonkers

Still!

Casey

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If ever there was a strange cat it was Casey. He would jump in to any box, and kite! Black and white, with golden eyes, white paws, weighing in at around 5 kilos.

Casey was a stray, he kept going into a local shop and walking along the shelves, knocking things down. I was asked if we would take him in as no one else had claimed him. So he became our cat for a while.

But Casey was not clever. Every day he would sit on the white line on the centre of our road, every day, just after 5, when cars were driving down the street. Every day risking his life. I would drive round the corner, get out of the car, and call him in. I never knew why he did it, but as the evenings got darker I became more worried.

Then one night he limped in through the back door. We took him to the vets and they said he must have been hit by a car. The head of his femur had been broken, where it fits into the hip socket. We had to let them operate to remove it, the hip would recover if he was kept quiet and not allowed to move around much. We got a small cage and he had to stay in it for 3 months…..

Eventually he was allowed out. He was fit and healthy again, but I doubted his ability to stay safe. It was winter so Casey was given luminous, sparkling collars so that if he did go onto the road he would be visible to cars.

Nothing happened for a while. I took  a photo of him playing in the kite and decided to paint it.

Then one night he went out and when I looked for him in the morning he was nowhere to be found.

Worried, I put up posters, I rang a local cat charity, and then as it was the weekend, I had to wait for Monday to ring the council to see if their waste trucks had picked up a black and white cat. But there was no news.

Finally I rang another charity, yes they had collected a badly injured cat, they told me which vet he had gone to. It was on the other side of the city, it was the emergency vet that they used.

I rang in hope and fear. Yes they had received the cat, but it was badly injured when they got it so they had put it to sleep….. I was shocked. I asked why, and they said it was because no owner could be found! I asked what would have happened if I had found out where he was earlier? They would have operated to remove his leg! I could not get over the fact that he had been euthenised because I had not contacted them….I was so upset. His life was taken because there was no one available to pay a large bill….I was totally broken, felt so guilty. But there was no way I could have known where he was. It was before microchipping came in. My cats are both microchipped.

I still miss that mad, weird cat…..

Black and White cats

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Two tiers of cats, one tries to get higher than the other. Both sleep, then a tail flickers or a whisker twitches, and they wake, wash, then chase each other round the room, upstairs, into the front bedroom, thundering paws shaking the floorboards.

Hot cats sleep more in this weather, try to find cool places. The newly refurbished kitchen is ideal at night. Apparently there is a lack of insulation in the roof so it gets cooler in the evening. I walk in there and one cat is curled up in the fruit bowl and the other is lying on top of the cooker cover.

One morning this week the male cat was asleep in a box. Why would an animal covered in thick fur decide to take a nap in something that would make it warmer?

Black and White photos of black and white cats appeal to me. You can see more of the patterns on their coats. The background colours are not there to distract your vision and the gradation of greys makes for a more interesting picture.

Sometimes one cat is easier to take a picture of than the other. Our female cat is very friendly when she wants a fuss but more often than not she will find somewhere quiet under a cupboard to sleep. She also runs off when I try and photograph her.

They are a brother and sister…..but the male is twice as large as the female. I like it when they move in synchronisation or lie down in mirror image positions.

I love my cats, and I think they love me back.

X

 

Cats and keyboards

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“Get off you pest!” I don’t shout at the cat…

“You’re in the way,”  I think but stay silent.

“No paws here!” I meant to say, but no breath escapes…

“Ok, that’s my keyboard,” I mean to yell…

Curled up, cute, cuddly,  the cat snores.

 

“Shift cat, I need to type”, I quietly think.

“Your tail is in my paint! Don’t twitch it…”

“No, its gone all over the paper…Drat, Cat!”

Whiskers twitch, as quietly…

Curled up, cute, kitty, snores….

 

“No don’t lick that here! ” A feeble squeak emitted.

“Dont wash your paws in the kitchen sink,” I think…

“No furballs allowed,” I try not to choke,

“No cat food on the cupboard,” I cry……

Curled up cute, cat, snores…

 

All the world to rest in, and you chose this lap?

Go ahead cute cat, curl up kitty, and snore …..

X

In memory of Tig

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This is a digital drawing I did of my old cat called Tig.

He was a stray, and turned up one day at our back door. Our other cat Casey had died following a road traffic accident so we were happy to give him a home .

Tig was a character, he was very friendly and fun, his one fear was of the window cleaner. He would always run and hide when the man came round next door. Whether it was the rattle of his bucket, or his ladder, Tug would absent himself until the man had gone.

He was a climber and loved the trees in our garden. He would sometimes climb up the goat willow tree on the corner of the garden and jump to a neighbouring roof to sunbathe.

Life was sunny for Tig. He loved a fuss, and he had such a cute face. I even started doing tiny drawings on a website called Youdraw that I called “the adventures of Tig”. I didn’t write it for long but people knew about him and liked him.

Then, well , the day came when he didn’t come home after the window cleaner had been. We had put posters up when Casey went missing, and on the following day when he still hadn’t come back I decided to do some posters and print them off. But before I did them I visited the neighbour because Tig used to go in his house for a fuss…….

As I walked out of his front door I saw Tig curled up outside our front door. I rushed over to him, but he wasn’t moving. As I got close I could see he wasn’t breathing.

I didn’t understand how he got there. Then my partner came out of the house. He had been looking for me. He explained he had found Tig in our garden, and realised he had died. He didn’t want me to see him straight away because I would be upset so he had left Tig outside while he went in to get me.

He did not know I was at the neighbours, and was upset that I had found the cat. It was a horrible, sad, day.

It seems that Tig may have been poisoned. We contacted the vet, but they told us even if they did an autopsy we would not know where he had picked it up.

Tig is buried in our garden, under the goat willow. I still miss him.