Cat craze.

So the newest craze in cat culture is getting portraits of your cats commissioned in order to prove your undying love and devotion to them.  Without these art works, your cats WILL NOT KNOW you love them!  

Take Brenda here, for instance.  My parents had Bren-Bren immortalized by local textile artist Margaret Butt (yeah, I said it).  Margaret rug-hooked Brenda's likeness onto a chair pad - that Brenda now sits on!  It's the ultimate luxury for little Brenda.  

I mean, look how insecure and sad Brenda looked before we had her portrait taken: 

 She is not certain we love her enough!!!  

But when she saw herself lovingly portrayed in recycled fibres....

She totally knew she was loved.

haha, that wasn't even the photo that Margaret used for Brenda!  She just always looks like that!!  So cute.

Gotta let you COP fans know that the bio-pic about my life, called The Cat Blog, is coming to theatres soons!  I'll be played by Jessica Alba and Tatum Channing's gonna be Kam.  Don't worry - when the bottom falls out of the cat blog boom, I'll work it all out in art therapy.  Happy 420 y'all!  

my protector

i think in every life, there's an animal companion who is sent from god to protect each other, and as soon as they meet, they fall in love and know they're meant to be together.  For me, that animal is Betty.  The Anglin family adopted her from a raver girl who found her under her grandma's porch with a little of kit kits and took her in and tripped on acid with her under the sheets.  Unfortunately her rave carreer got in the way of her cat ownership, but luckily she found a wonderful home for little "Christobel".  I was 17 when we got her, and we just immediately bonded and had a great connection.  I was into Bettie Paige then and re-named her Betty, and the love-affair began.

10 years later, we're as in love than ever.  I had a really hard time moving out of my parents house, because I meant I'd have to leave her.  I felt it was for the best that Betty live where she was happy, well treated, got a lot of love and attention, and she was used to.  She can also play outside at my folks place unlike if she lived with me in my second floor Parkdale neighbourhood.  I miss her every day though.

It's always been hard for me to capture Betty's beauty.  Nothing can convey how gorgeous she is.

Even if I'm gone for many months, when I reunite with Betty, she'll lay down before me and look up directly into my eyes!!! She's definitely one of the smartest cats I've ever met. The intelligence shines through her face.

Betty waits patiently to be let outside.  Great markings!

the face of a model. Nice whiskers!  She loves to hide beneath the porch steps and spy across the street at Fella!

Even though Betty is the ripe old age of 13, she's really really healthy.  This photo demonstrates that she's a lil chubby, but compared to Brenda, she's positively svelte. 

She's extremely loving to humans.

But extremely hateful and violent to other cats. Poor Brenda is declawed (by her former owners - not us!), and she's always getting her ass whooped by Bett Bett.

She loves me.

She crosses her back feet!  Could anything be cuter??

Did you know that the higher a cats tail is, the happier they are?  If it's wagging, they are irritated. If the tail is down, they are scared.  If they wash their face, they are embarrassed. They will often get embarrassed if they don't successfully complete a leap.  It's so cute.  Look how high Betty's tail is here!  She is a happy cat.  She looks like a tea pot and her tail is the handle. 

She loves to show off her beauty.