Feline Happy...

It finally happened, a cat chose us! We went to the animal rescue sanctuary last week, and wandered amongst the mud, kennels, runs and myriad of animals, everything was there, including chickens, rodents, dogs. We were met by the ‘meeter and greeter’ cat Boff, a tailess tabby who did a good job of showing us in. Then a nice lady took us to the first run. Boyfriend tried to make friends with a very scared looking fluffy tabby, but I was determined to stick to my rules: One cat only. Short haired. Friendly. Absolutely no neurotic, grumpy cats coming home with me. Most of the other cats in that run were nervous wrecks or spoken for, so on we went to run two. “I’m afraid all the cats here are in pairs” said the nice lady. “There is that little black cat” said the owner, passing by, “it’s very friendly.”

Out came the little black cat, pausing to stretch its back legs in a totally unconcerned manner before allowing us to make a big fuss of it. Perfect. When a dog wandered past the run it took a quick swipe at it with its paw. I liked it already. But there was bad news: “I am afraid the owners handed it in because it is pregnant” said the lady. “Don’t worry, we can re-home any kittens” she added. Easy to say, much harder to get a sobbing teenager to part with a litter of adorable kittens I thought. Then suddenly some luck. “Wait a second,” said the nice lady, peering at the backside of the cat... “It’s a boy!”

Well, the vet confirmed it; a boy, and already neutered. What luck! The animal centre had called him Snake for reasons unknown, green eyes perhaps, but Boyfriend and the Teen have re-named him Gimlet. His somewhat bloated stomach has since been diagnosed as a very bad case of worms, and he has had a tablet to get rid of them.

Gimlet has proved to be adorable, even tempered, affectionate and if not exactly a lap cat, then certainly a sit next to people whilst stretching out to take up half the sofa cat. The first evening he was with us it was like he had gone to cat heaven, after living in an outdoor run with minimal contact he found himself in warm house, with new toys and 3 humans making constant fuss of him. Even concerted efforts by boyfriend to tickle his feet and endlessly wind him up have failed to turn him into a psychopath.

All week I have been trying to take photos of him with limited success. He is so black, the sofa is black and he automatically shuts his eyes when the flash goes off which looks like this:

In the midst of all this cat fuss, final touches on the studio are happening, although very slowly due to bad weather, and boyfriend working long hours. But the new workbench is finished!

It is already proving invaluable, firstly to finish the pastel dogs portrait I have been commissioned to paint by one of my students,

and today it is covered with equipment I am preparing for teaching a one day mosaic course tomorrow, (weekend, what weekend?)

And finally on the art front, I have just received the first copies of my illustration work from the paper models company. Big Ben! It’s so tiny and cute, I will give one to the teen to assemble, she likes that sort of thing...