Ginger cat

I painted this ginger cat a few years ago. He’s based on a stray that moved in with us for a while. He would sit on a windowsill and stare out at the garden. I decided to make his view a bit more floral, and almost Mediterranean.

Unfortunately we had to rehome him because he would fight with our other cats and ended up with an abscess in his paw. I spoke to the vets and they agreed to find him a good home. I hope he was happy and it was sad to say goodbye to him.

Small cat?

No, just the camera angle. He does look cute, warm and cuddly. But beware the claws, tickle his chest and he’s OK, but go anywhere near his belly and the paws grab you and his claws will hook into your flesh.

It’d almost 2am, I can’t sleep so I’m watching a silly film and I just looked over to see where the TV remote is and saw him. Now the cat flap has clattered and his sister has come in from outside. I guess she will be looking for a warm chair to sleep on too. Cats cheer me up when I’m feeling really low.

Spend more time with my cats

What do you wish you could do more every day?

Get up in the morning with my cats

They are running around like bats

I mean silly rushing

Each one pushing

The boundaries of reason

But it’s the spring season

Jumping about then resting

And they’re always questing

To find a nook and cranny

To hide in like a canny

Cat, ready to pounce

Or at least flounce

Off in a huff

Which can be rough

To their friendly mate

Who’s left in a state

Of shock

After a sock

In the face with a paw

When they were calm before

Getting all het up

When they meet up

On the bed

They sort of see red

And chase

Yes that’s the case!

Hi jinks

When a claw sinks

In your nose

But it’s fun I suppose!

Phone alarm

Somewhere downstairs my sisters phone alarm is going off. She must still be asleep, but the high pitched tinkling music woke me up and my cats too! I am quite a light sleeper and I have good hearing which doesn’t help. Then on this grey and tinkly morning one of my cats has decided to tunnel down the bed next to me and stick her claws in my knees in order to get a bit of love. Chin and belly rub over she leaps back out of bed. Now I’m awake so I decided to let you know. Perhaps your phone will tinkle or beep and wake you up? X Morning X

Trying to answer!

Are you superstitious?

I’m superstitious about some things, not walking under ladders for instance, or saluting when I see a single Magpie (only after my friend told me about doing it). In the UK black cats are lucky so I don’t worry if I see one.

I wanted to answer this prompt, but for some reason the prompt says I’ve already answered it. I’ve had to go through a couple of extra pages to get here. Should I be superstitious? I think the human brain looks for patterns. If something goes wrong after you walk under that ladder perhaps you have tempted fate? Maybe something bad will happen if you do it again? But the person up the ladder that dropped paint on you might have laughed or been really sorry. Consequently he’s not going to be superstitious about it. The lesson is learned by the victim…

Those paintings

Here they are, quickly painted. I think the date on the bottom one is 1988? I am sure they are watercolour and pencil drawings now I look closely. I’m not sure if they were a birthday or Christmas gift? It’s lovely to see work I did over 35 years ago! To think they still exist x

Old paintings

Two small, quick paintings of cats that I painted years ago. My friend sent it to me recently. Both of them have also got poppy details. I will see if I can zoom in on them to see if I can get clearer views of them. I know they are mine, but I genuinely can’t remember painting them. That makes me feel guilty, I think I should recognise all of my work. Memory frays as you get older x