It's Pet Appreciation Week! Meet Bast!

In honor of National Pet Appreciation Week, I will introduce you all to my pets. I will start with Bast, since she is the oldest.

This is Bast, named after the Egyptian goddess. She is a 1999 model. She was rescued from a neighbor who wasn't quite sure she really wanted a kitten at the time, and didn't know what to do with her. She was so small, she fit under my husbands beard :)

Bast, in her tub in the studio where I work. She supervises.

Bast has overwhelming mothering skills (needs). She must take care of everything. She has slowed down over the years, but early on, no matter what I brought home, she had to be with it, clean it, sleep with it, and more than once, even tho she has been spayed, she put on a bag, meaning, she dropped milk and expected to be nursed. The funniest was when we brought home a mastiff puppy, that was 3 times the size of her, and Bast brought on a bag and would lay on the puppys face. We were entertained more than once by this. As of recent, Bast has taken to my new chicks, and feels the need to sit with them, and clean them. The chicks are not happy.

When she was younger she was a great hunter, and brought home rewards for me daily. Now she would rather lay on her back in the yard and soak up the sun rays.

She is more of a dog than a cat. I would attribute this to her raising so many puppys. Where the dogs are she is as well. If the dogs are romping in the yard, she is not to far behind them. If the dogs are being lazy on the couch, she is with them as well. At night when I go to bed, she follows the dogs up the stairs and goes to bed with them. She loves to go for rides in the truck, and will look out the window as we drive. When the weather is nice, she will be a cat, and stay outside at night to do cat things. I think it is for her to keep her cat 'card' and not loose standing with the feline society.  I have a litter box for her, but it is rarely used. She goes to the door, and meows to be let out to do her business. She comes when she is called. I am told by many that cats do not do this, I find this hard to believe. Do your cats come when called?

Here she is in the recliner with Pup




Snuggled with Newd Ogg




Making sure Leigh is comfortable




And here with Comet - her most favorite that she has raised. It is hard to separate these two.





This is my little girl Bast :)

"Conversations with Zeus" Acrylic Painting

9x12 Acrylic on Canvas board.


Zeus - yes the same Zeus in the Because of Zeus Fund. He haunts me still, and most likely will for a long time. It isn't a bad haunt - although I will admit, sometimes when I fell asleep in my recliner, I did jump awake, I could feel him staring at me, with his big eyes wide open, and ready to pounce.

It is a good haunt, and we have invited him to do so in the house. I see a shadow run across my peripheral vision, and when I turn to look nothing is there. I respond with "Hi Zeus". Something will be moved from my work bench, and I KNOW right where I left it (especially if it was in a plastic baggie) and I will find the baggie on the floor, or in another room. I respond with "Damnit Zeus" so yeah, I invite his playfulness still.

It is a way of me working thru my grief even after a year of having him put to sleep due to his sickness.

I painted for him. A painting I will frame and keep for myself. An odd sized canvas, that I had no ideas I even had,  that no frame fits, and I have to have it custom framed. A bit of Zeus - you bet :)

It is in his colors, oranges, yellows, dark browns, creams and of course the crimsons.


I went round and round with myself while he was living in my house. Round and round with how do I deal with a feral cat? How do I deal with a cat who suffers from so much brain damage? How do I keep this cat in the house and trust him? Do I put him out and let him become feral again? Will that be what is best for him? All of that torture I wrestled with daily is represented by the circles.

I used water on the painting, causing it to run - representing my tears

Oh and the crimson, yes that is the blood that was shed so many times due to that cat, and his freak outs he would have. He would snap, like cats do, and go from zero to sixty in an instant .I was always in the way when that happened, and I always suffered from it.

I had made a promise to keep him safe, and I did, until the end.

I miss you buddy