Everyone's Art

2009-05-03T17:17:00.001-05:00

Of course, Roo had to investigate the new gallery citizens and find out what was going on. I watched as she came up to the trap and sniffed and rubbed against the trap. Little Squad Car was still feeling a bit under the weather, but she got up and went over to where Roo was rubbing against the trap. She rubbed against Roo through the wire and they both started purring. Roo stayed close to the trap most of the day and I imagine most of the night.

When I came in the next day, I checked the trap and little Squad Car came up to the wire and tried to rub against me. I stuck my finger in and she rubbed against it and started purring. I opened the trap and Squad Car came out and started exploring with Roo just like she had been there all of her life. Within the hour, I had both of them on my lap purring and snuggling together.
In the following days, those two had a ball. Running, fighting, chasing each other and playing with the new cat toys I purchased for their enjoyment. I now had two gallery cats. They sleep together, clean each other, and play like there is no tomorrow. Life is good.

2009-04-30T17:50:00.001-05:00

Back to the cats outside the gallery. I tried for another four days to trap Squad Car. No luck, she just would not get into the trap. The other problem was S1 and S2 would get into the trap to eat the food and just wait for me to release them. It was like their own private feeding compartment.

Momma Kitty, S1, S2, and Squad Car all got back together and became a happy family again. Roo was considered an outsider and treated badly by the family. No bonding going to happen here. She had lost some weight and had no companionship with any of the other cats. Then a stretch of cold and wet weather set in and Roo started looking really weak and sickly. The family would huddle together in their secret place under an outbuilding but would not let Roo join them and share the warmth.

I was feeding Roo separately from the other cats because they would run her off and then eat her food. She was starting to trust me and I started petting and scratching her while she was eating. One cold morning, I snatched her up by the scruff and took her back to the gallery. I let her go free in the gallery and of course she found a good hidey hole and stayed there for a couple of days. I put a small litter box by her hidey hole and some food and she started to adjust. In about three days, she was out and about exploring her new digs. I would just sit and watch her as she explored and adapted to her new surroundings. Five days after she came into the gallery, she came over to me, rubbed against my leg, and got into my lap. We were buddies from then on. I did have a new gallery kitty.
Next Update======
Back to Squad Car and her distrust of the traps. A lady had dropped off a trap and I was going to bring it to my trapping neighbor for her to use. The trap was in the gallery so I thought to myself, “this may be the day Squad Car succumbs to a tasty can of sardines”. Sure enough, the trap and the sardines were out there about twenty minutes, and Squad Car was snared. Success at last!!I took her to my vet and had all the nasty procedures done and she was back at the gallery the next day. I wanted to keep her in for a couple of days because she was so small. The weather was still cold so I fixed the trap up with some nice soft towels, food, and water and put the cage in a low light warm place in the gallery.

2009-03-26T20:09:00.001-05:00

The trapping was about to begin. Momma Kitty, Leena, and Roo I caught by the scruff of their necks and carried them to the waiting cages in the gallery. Three cats in one day, what a deal. S1 and S2 were a little more wary and it took two cans of salmon to entice them into the trap. So, I now had five cats to be transported to the vet and get their medical needs taken care of (neutering, spaying, shots). Squad Car would not enter the last trap, so I called it day and my trapping neighbor hauled them to the vet the next day.

I left Squad Car alone for the next couple of days. I think she was very lonely with everyone else gone to the doctor. I did not see her at all for the next three days. The weather stayed warm so she was not going to suffer from the cold.

On the fourth day, I got all of the trapped cats back at the gallery. They had been kept for a couple days in a protected place so they could heal and recover their strength. By this time they were ready to get back to the wild, or so I thought.

I released Momma Kitty, S1 and S2 but Leena wanted to stay in the gallery. Of course everyone scatted and ran for their favorite hideouts the minute the cages were opened. Not Leena. She came up to me and rubbed against my leg and started purring almost as if saying “I don’t belong with them, I belong with you”. I took her into the gallery and she was happy as a bug in a rug. Explored for a while then got up in my lap and went to sleep. I thought I had a new gallery cat. After her nap, I fed her some good wet cat food, and from then on, I had a new master. After about a week in the gallery, I took her home and introduced her two my three cats at home. So, she now was a home kitty. I will talk more about Leena later and what happened at the house with her. Right now, all I can say is if she was a diplomat, the Middle East would be at peace right now.

2009-03-25T19:40:00.001-05:00

Let me give you a description of the all the felines occupying the storage building behind the gallery. Momma is a small black and white cat with a very serious expression all the time. I guess I would be serious if I had to take care of three of my kittens and two strangers. Two of her kittens are almost one hundred percent Siamese. Blue crossed eyes, the great coloration, and they talk a lot. One male and one female. The third kitten in her litter is the runt. She was about half the size of the other kittens and was having a hard time with cold and wet weather. She is black and white just like her mother but not very serious.

The forth kitten is a strange mix. She has some Siamese in her but does not have the typical coloration. Her eyes are very light blue and not crossed and her coat runs from white to tan to light brown. A very striking and beautiful kitten. Of all the cats, she was the most friendly. Came right up to me and rubbed up against my leg and purred like crazy. Wanted to be friends with any and everyone.

The last kitten is gray with black spots and is going to be a very large cat. Her paws and claws are huge. She was a little standoffish at first, but after a couple of dishes of good cat chow, she warmed right up to me. I could pet her, but no picking up was allowed.

The dilemma was if all these female kittens get pregnant! Talk about your population explosion!! I had to do something to prevent being up to my knees in kittens.

My neighbor across the street is a cat trapper. She had become involved in trapping, spaying or neutering, and getting feral cats adopted. What a blessing for me. Well, she gave me a few lessons on trapping and supplied the traps for the great cat trapping expedition that is to follow.

So that we can keep the scorecard straight, I named the cats. Momma Kitty, S1 and S2 for her Siamese kittens, and Squad Car for her black and white kitten. The two cats from the different litters are called Roo and Leena. Roo is the gray spotted cat, and Leena is the Siamese mix. I named her Roo because she can jump like a kangaroo. Leena is a good Russian name and also she leans against just about anything and purrs. So, now we know whom we are talking about in the commentary.

2009-02-27T18:33:00.000-06:00

Back to the storyline. Someone dropped off a momma kitty and her three kittens behind my gallery about six months ago. I first noticed momma kitty peeking in my back window and making some really pitiful meows. She took me back to her kittens and they were in bad shape. It was cold, wet, and they were hungry. Of course I made the first mistake everyone warns about, I fed them. Then two days later two more kittens showed up from an entirely different litter. Abandoned by their owners, they found momma kitty and move in. So now there are six cats all needing attention.

2009-02-19T19:22:00.000-06:00

Sales have slowed down because of the economy and what is just happening in the world. I am hanging in there just as many, many others are doing. Things will get better and art will be needed once again. I do framing and give lessons in pastel so that has helped take up some of the slack in lost sales. Don’t get me wrong; I am still selling art but not as many high dollar pieces as before. I am painting a lot more 11x14 and 8x10 paintings then I used to paint. They are selling, so that is what needs to be done. Just takes a little longer to make the rent and utilities.

If you do go to my web page, you will see on the “Contact the Gallery” page a picture of my two gallery cats, Roo and Squad Car. I would like to tell you how and why this two little critters came to be my gallery cats and the trials and tribulations of raising two kittens in a gallery filled with art and loose pastels.

We already had three cats at our house. So, I am not a newcomer to the wonderful world of feline psychology. Thank goodness!!! However, if you are a cat person out there, you know that just like snowflakes, there are no two cats alike. They may be the same color, the same size, make the same noises, but their little brains are randomly programmed by some entity who has a very strange and wondrous sense of humor. More later.

2009-02-18T20:22:00.000-06:00

All kinds of good news!! I have finished my new web site (www.galleryatspicewood.com) still the same URL as before. I added lots of new art, ways to buy the art, and lots of other good stuff. Check it out. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed building it.

My youngest daughter started the site but she is a busy person now that she got her Phd in Information Sciences. The very first doctor in the family. So I took over the website and started from scratch. I had worked with HTML many years ago, but a lot has changed since then. CSS is a wonderful tool for a website.

I went with Etsy to sell my art rather than the larger and more famous commercial web sites. I found Etsy to be really easy to use, set up, change, and link to my web pages. I highly recommend using Etsy. If you have not been there yet, www.etsy.com will get you there. Almost all of my art is available for purchase on Etsy with many payment options. The main perk is they are user friendly. I like Esty a lot.

I got rid of all the earlier blog entries and this is a new beginning. I want to talk about my gallery and what is going on in my life with respect to selling art.

First Post - Tenative

2008-10-07T16:56:00.001-05:00

This blog is under construction. If you have any helpful hints, guidance, or suggestions, feel free to tell me. Thanks, Chekov.