Friday Cat Blogging

A neighbor cat. A roly-poly little thing. That's 'little' in the affectionate, diminutive sense; obviously not literal. He was in the midst of a face-off with Persistence when I took this picture-- looks like he's afraid I'm going to jump on him.

Friday Cat Blogging

Today, a little anecdote providing evidence that Vindaloo, bless her heart, is just not as smart as Ballyhoo.

They each eat different foods, and we try to ration them out to them a couple of times a day. Thing is, Ballyhoo loves to eat Vindaloo's food, and will shoulder her out of the way and tuck into her bowl with no resistance from her if we don't stay to monitor the situation. Last week we tried putting his food on the floor and then feeding her up on a small table a couple of feet away, the idea being that maybe he wouldn't find it worth his while to jump up there. Well, we did this for several days. Vindaloo never did figure out that her food was now being served on the table. We'd feed him, put her food in her bowl, show it to her, and put it on the table, and she'd just look confused. We kept having to pick her up and plunk her down in front of it. By day 3, Ballyhoo was jumping up there and helping himself (so much for our plan), but poor looloo never did get the hang of it.

Ok, she's cute, but when a food reward for a simple action fails to result in learning...well....

Friday Cat Blogging

Vindaloo, being immensely helpful on Thanksgiving. She was, er, keeping my strawberry plant warm. Believe it or not, the plant survived this treatment. (I admit that it is a delightfully Vindaloo-sized planter, why she only so recently figured out that this plant afforded sitting-upon is beyond me).

Whenever I have a show, I seem to be unable to blog for a week or so afterward. You can consider me back now that I've had my mandatory break.

Friday Cat Blogging

The philosopher is off this weekend to, of all places, Nebraska, where he is philosophizing. Who knew they had such good taste in philosophy in Nebraska? Of course, you might not have guessed it about Indiana, either, yet here we are. Anyway, the upside to his absence is that I get to decide which of the foods I love but he dislikes I'll have for dinner while he's away: it's a tie between sauerkraut and bratwurst, cabbage and smoked sausage, or collard greens, black eyed peas and ham. Mmmm. Decisions, decisions.

Good news, cat fans: I finally caught the cats in the act of being cute again. Here's Vindaloo, disturbed in the midst of her afternoon nap time. She's in her favorite spot, as you can tell from all the cat hair on the sofa (sigh).

Friday Cat Blogging

I know, it seems like every other day here is Friday Cat Blogging. It's an anchor that provides some discipline to this enterprise. I'll do the obligatory kitty picture, then add another post not about cats soon. Really.

I have no stories to tell about the cats this week. They resent their strict feeding schedule. Vindaloo has taken to nesting on my computer desk. Ballyhoo is making some progress on his book. He likes to work on it out on the deck, under the bench.

Friday cat blogging

I'm back! And slowly getting back into the swing of things. I'm not very quick at recovering from travel. I never did give my friend the calligraphy piece I made for her-- I didn't have any appropriate packaging for it, and didn't have time to acquire any before the wedding. I'll ship it to them eventually (but not before taking a picture of it for here!).

One of my stops on the visit was with my mom in Florida, and her cat, Hunter. He's so named because, um, he hunts. A lot. Which is bad news for the small fauna in the vicinity. He's also a very snuggly fellow. As you can see.

What doesn't come across well in these photos is just how BIG he is. He's even bigger than Ballyhoo, who usually elicits "Wow, that's a BIG cat!" from people meeting him for the first time. Hunter is enormous, with very short hair, and muscular. He's reminds me of a greyhound (except, he's a cat.)

Friday cat blogging

One of the things to remember to do when working with resin is to cover the pieces up until they're cured. They stay sticky for a long time, and the last thing you want is bits of dust or small flies or who knows what getting stuck on them. So I cover the tray I the pieces are on with an extra one of my display frames (a picture frame with screening on the back that I can hang things from), and cover the whole thing with a towel. It's been working pretty well, until the last three days when it seems that SOMEONE has decided that that little towel-draped platform in the back of the dark garage is just the perfect place to hang out, watch for bugs to eat, and get away from the pressures of everyday life.

So far two of my frames have had the screens pulled away from the edges form the weight, and I've had to sand the heck out of a few pieces to remove the grid impressions.

I think I know who did it. The only question is, could she have thought of this herself? Or are both cats in on it?

(Actually, the real question is, where can I move the trays to now that this behavior is becoming a habit...?)

Friday Cat Blogging

Our Vinda Lou, she is so elegant.

Audacious! I just listed this pendant in my shop. I'm really happy with how the lettering turned out here (it's on my favorite paper, one that always makes my lettering snappier somehow).

Speaking of audacity, take a look at this. It's one of the neighbor's cats-- he isn't very friendly or endearing (won't let anyone within 10 feet of him, and is Ballyhoo's archnemesis), but here he is, lolling about on our front walk. Why was he lolling about on our front walk? Because he had just finished trimming my catnip plant for me, rather severely. I don't begrudge him that, really, but I did have to move the plant to higher ground.

Friday Cat Blogging

Ballyhoo, waiting for birds.

Actually, he's never been much of a hunter-- he's definitely in the lover-not-fighter camp, and that includes fighting random small wildlife. Live and let live, he says. He does get excited when he sees birds--makes those funny little noises as ardently as the next cat-- but he never goes so far as to encroach on their personal space.

In other news, I've been playing with resin. Among other things, I made this nifty plant marker. You can't really tell from the photo, but the paper is completely encased in resin so as to render it impervious to the elements. I'm kind of excited about this idea...and there are plenty more where that came from. Jewelry for your plants? Oh, I think so. Stay tuned.

Friday Cat Blogging

As promised, cat blogging. Better late than never. It is Friday here yet.

Vindaloo finds this position very comfortable for some reason. She'll just flop out on her back in the middle of the room. I still find it hilarious.

Sometimes, she will look at you. Just lay there and stare, wondering what you're giggling at.

A mysterious and deeply silly cat, our Vindaloo.

Friday Cat Blogging

It's thundering so hard the ground is shaking. I'm gonna make this a quickie and shut the computer down!

For your cat-viewing pleasure, I give you Ballyhoo, who was out on the deck helping me pot up some of the plants I bought last week. He's very helpful this way, as you might imagine.

Big yawn!

Meet Ballyhoo.

This is Ballyhoo, my bestest #1 kitty pal since 1998 or so. We like this picture because it looks like the one he'd use for the dustjacket photo if he ever got one of his books published. He writes poetry, though, and frankly it isn't very good, so I'm afraid there isn't much chance that he'll get to use this photo in that way. I keep telling him to try a different genre. I think he may be working on a mystery novel now, but he won't let me read it (I can't even find it! Where on earth could a cat hide an entire novel?! I have no trouble finding his hairballs even when he tries to hide them, so I find the whole thing mystifying. Apparently I underestimate him.)

Ballyhoo and Vindaloo like to hang out in my light box. Sometimes they move in when I'm in the midst of taking photos of jewelry. Of course.

Vindaloo is not a writer. She meows at birds and eats crickets she finds in the garage.

Vindaloo

Cat #2, Vindaloo. So named because she is very spicy. She likes to jump into my lap when I am varnishing things. I've learned how to work around her.