This may not be the last time I comment on cats, so I’m relying on your hiatus from felines to maneuver me over to another worthy thought trajectory. But for now cats. More specifically — painted cats.

My original problem with applying tempera, gauache (what you will) onto the cat physique stems from a story my mother (an avid cat lover since she was a little child) often re-told whenever I inquired about her feline centric histories. You see, Elif, after a brief stint in the Eastern Slovak (almost Ukraine) countryside she spent most of her adolescence in urban Bratislava. There she happened upon cats (of the homeless marauding kitten variety) and promptly adopted them into her turn-of-the-last-century flat. Keeping an indoor/outdoor cat in this environment was not a task for the faint of heart — the cats (having been born in the streets) insisted on returning to urinate/defecate/hunt on this hallowed ground while returning home for the essentials of non-rodent based food, sleep and warmth. And so, in this manner, she acquired a snow white cat. And grew to love this cat. And patiently tolerated its comings and goings. Until one day — when the cat came no more. So she searched the shared play-yards, the coal laden basements and the many stairwells that adjoined her building eventually coming upon a slumbering blue cat. The cat was her beloved. The slumber was permanent. The culprits were some neighboring boys who thought it cool to paint her cat with oils. Needless to say, when the paint dried it embalmed the cat in an unbreathable suit of color. And thus the painted cat died.

This is indeed the original problem.

Re: the painting of cats, my roommates and I have a longstanding tradition of hippie-fying our felines. We’re the ones who have to look at them all day!
(http://a142.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/15/l_15079bcd14a6164b0cd5724e060cf3cd.jpg)

Elif! I am so loving all this cat coverage! Great direction.

Emily – they’re making a movie about that lion! Hollywood has really run out of ideas. Well, they say there are only two stories in the world; if that’s the case the “journey” theme is going to be wrung dry on the big screen. Yawn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adYbFQFXG0U