I originally posted this last Saturday around 1 pm, but it was only up for about 10 minutes before something else was posted, It’s just lovely, and it didn’t nearly get the attention it deserved, so I am re-upping this post from Mike in Oly. ~WG
Mike in Oly
I was chatting with Watergirl about pets we have had and lost and shared with her some of the art work my husband and I had commissioned to remember them by, and she suggested a pet post to share it with all of you. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
We’ve had 9 cats over the 25 years we’ve been together. Each one a unique personality. I have art work for 8 of them. Still looking for an artist for my ginger boy, Junebug (aka Bugsy). We have two residents currently – Pearl (16) and Marley (13).
As hard as it is to lose them, it would be harder to never have these fuzzy little balls of sunshine in our lives. The love and joy they bring is worth the grief of their loss. It’s a small price to pay, I think. Hope you enjoy the art and stories. -Mike
We’ll start with this wonderful painting of our first two cats, Chewie (dilute tortie) and Tuck (B&W tuxie). Chewie was my husband’s cat. He had rescued her from a dorm when he left college not long before we got together. She was a crazy little thing. All floof and nonsense. She acted more like a dog than a cat and would follow us everywhere, running all about chirping and gurbleing. She had a full range of sounds and not one of them was a classic meow. She was loaded with personality, very people oriented, and was a master of sneaking into your lap to curl up without you even noticing it was happening. She lived to be 19, even dealing with kidney failure for the last six years of her life. There will never be another like her. So special.
Tuck was my first kitty. We got him when Chewie was about a year and half old. A friend had rescued a mother cat and her newborns and passed him on to me when he was just 7 weeks old. At the time I was young, new to cats other than the farm cats I grew up with, and did not know this was too soon to leave momma. He was so tiny and adorable, and he followed Chewie everywhere, much to her displeasure. However within a year they were curling up together for naps and he remained devoted to her. We lost him at age nine when he disappeared into the night. We lived in the country, and it had been a very long and hot day. We got home late and I let them out of the sweltering house to cool off for a bit. Somehow he got out of the fenced back yard and did not come in that night. I never saw him again. I searched for him for days while the hot winds blew unrelentingly. It just broke me and I was a wreck for months after. I hope he found his way to another farmhouse and was taken in and had a good life. But I’ll never know.
My friend Sharon in WI created this painting for me called ‘The Flower Arrangers’. 2004, 24×36, acrylic on canvas. The vase is one of mine and the flowers were from my garden. I love her folksy impressionist style. I treasure this painting and have it hung prominently so they are always with us in spirit.
Furry Friends – Mike in Oly – Remembering Our Family Pets Thru ArtPost + Comments (46)