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Palette knife cat
Story and Painting by Lehan Winifred Ramsay
George is disappointed again. The big black dog has caught him and put his jaws around his neck and shaken him, and George is lying on the ground waiting for him to stop. Some pieces of black fur have been caught up by the wind and are flying away. George has unblinking eyes and a limp body. He is not injured, just a tiny bit, but he is very disappointed. I have never seen a cat express such disappointment as George.
He wasn’t much bigger than George when he arrived, this dog. Now he is ten times bigger. George started the play but now it hurts him and the dog doesn’t understand that. The dog likes George. He thinks that’s what you do with cats you like. George likes the dog. That’s not why he lies there though.
When the dogs eat their breakfast George goes to the back door and prepares for the walk. He watches out the window and considers which direction we will be walking in. If he is confident he goes to the left or the right and waits there. He is not always right. George wanders along with us, sometimes ahead and sometimes behind and if a car comes he lingers in their path so they have to stop, and when he is happy with the way things have gone he moves to the side of the road. Every day during the walk I scold him, and every day after the walk I thank him for being still alive.
I made my first painting with a palette knife. It is not a picture of George. Actually I think it is a picture of me. It looks much more like me than it does a cat. Hunched up, claws out, frowning in concentration.
I really don’t want George to look disappointed. I don’t want his neck to be broken by the dog, or for him to die under a car. But it’s not my ability to change what might happen. All I can do is remember to look into George’s unblinking eyes every day and say thankyou.
Window Dresser's Arms, Pig & Whistle 
Sugar! You really got me with the opening paragraph, LWR. Inspired and enjoyable.
Poodles are bred as hunting dogs. Shaking is instinctive and an effective way to injure and kill prey. His name reminds me of the days when females used to go around saying ‘sugar’ all the time. As in, the poodle has given me a cut over the eye. Sugar! The poodle is killing that kitten. Sugar!
Cats are seasonally out of favour in this household during January. The cat is a semi-longhair, and by then we’ve had enough of it shedding white fur everywhere. This year it’s particularly out of favour, as, although I applied Revolution, the last time I went to top it up I found the cat was crawling with fleas. As I was about to go on holiday, and it was due for a check-up anyway, I had to take it to the vet to be washed and de-flead. Then get the house sprayed on return, but not before flea bites appeared on feet and ankles.
The wet summer in Sydney this year is great for anyone starting or rescuing a garden, but fleas and cockroaches are breeding like … vermin. I can’t remember what poison the pest exterminators use but it is cat and people friendly. I got them to put down rat baits in the ceiling and sub-floor as well, since I had a problem a few years ago. They pointed out the red-back spider webs before they sprayed around the house. Now I think about it, since the were in some gardening products I had stacked to be used soon, perhaps I owe the cat for raising the priority of the pest exterminators.
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Yes I was concerned about the killer instinct when he was younger and keen to try new experiences. He had ten kittens running around him and that was scary. He was pretty good with them considering how fond of cat poo he is. Sometimes it’s a really good idea to have something around that needs a lot of love and attention. Also important in times of stress to have sugar handy. Poodle as medicine. He did good work; I’m grateful to him.
Hokkaido doesn’t have fleas or cockroaches. I weigh that up against the long winter and heavy snow when I consider relocating. It’s a serious plus.
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Nice painting Lehan, you are very talented indeed
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Thanks Hung, I appreciate it.
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Why are you all at home on your computers? Isn’t it warm and sunny over there? Shouldn’t you be in the Nature?
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Raining on and off in Adelaide but decidedly cool. We are having these cycling changes from high temps to cool and back so that is sleep provoking every couple of days. 🙂
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Same here, ‘Shoe. Weird days. Wet, dry, humid, but still managing to outflank the day and get in our swims. Some nights are great for a snooze. Others shockers. Ah the consolations of the bottle…
Heading up the coast for a week. Weather forecast not great. A bit of sun and decent surf would do….
A mate of mine lives in South East Qld. He said they have a bit of flooding but the rivers in his universe are sort and the flooding doesn’t last. Last nightr they got 1/3rd of a metre. Cop that 30 cm of rain in one night.
I guess we’re getting off light.
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I don’t keep and ‘don’t like’ per se the practice of keeping domestic cats. I deal with my prejudice every day although I am particularly sad to see so many of my contemporaries who managed whole progressive lifestyles on the premise no cats would be introduced into native forests do keep cats and did introduce them into those environments or kept them after their rescue. So many ‘accidental’ cats, tho’. 😦
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‘Shoe, I am well known as being a dog man. And until now I have never owned or wanted a cat. But FM has two cats so I have had to adapt. It’s an uneasy accommodation on both sides. I’m opposed to the idea of cats – bad for the environment – indiscriminate killers – the day they have a seeing eye cat, or a snow rescue cat or an explosives / drug-sniffing cat I might reconsider. They know I don’t like them and they suck up so badly it’s actually amusing. But from domestic experience I have had to accept that these creatures may in fact have some diminutive personalities. Usually rooted in naked self-interest. Fall off your horse and rover will run 20 miles to get help. Felix will wait until you pass out and then eat your eyes. Not prejudice – Unshaken belief.
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Okay George. You know what to do.
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I remember hearing about the huge wild cats that lived in national forests. I like cats. I’m sure if I lived in a place with a lot of birds I’d regret the damage that cats do, but it’s mostly cats that are our natural environment these days. They’re better than people. Much more polite, especially George.
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George is different. George is not a cat. George is a serious underdog.
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I’ve never been particularly fond of cats and they’ve never been particularly fond of me. We had a big tortoise shell called Pooky when I was very young. Pooky would always sit on Dolly’s lap but never on mine. Killed it for me and cats for all time.
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And is that why Dolly, according to you Waz, has an even better choice in music?
Is it Pooky’s fault? You might have to look for ways to resolve this issue. Try first by buying a packet of Friskies and feed the cat next door during the night.
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Buying a false Pooky’s love is a sure fire way to a broken heart!
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Dolly in a Box can do something surely without Waz standing forlorn by the neighbour’s front gate with cat food in one hand … and a BIG cage in t’other by real sounds?
It just might be cats don’t come easy to Warrigal, Gez.
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Shoe, I have never had my own cat, but I have housed several in my place, thy have been cats that I have inherited from various family members on the move.
The last cat, (a Daughter’s cat), came to the farm, and stayed on the farm, the new owner was happy to keep her.
We have always had plenty of dogs, living in the city or in the country.
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Cats have mind’s of their own H. The cat stayed on the farm. As I understand it a dog would have arrived by shank’s pony the miles removed and the more the better having rolled in mud and poo. 😉
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It’s a simple truth that small cats are not as smart as dogs. Even the big cats don’t quite make it. Having evolved as solitary hunters they have lacked the evolutionary pressure to both larger brain size and greater cognitive ability that living socially brings to most of the pack/herd animals. Dogs have gone even further. Their brain size and cognitive ability have grown even greater due to the requirements of living in a pack with division of labour, just like us.
While a cat purring in your lap is no doubt a great comfort to may, for mine it just can’t match the look in your dog’s eyes that says I understand, I’m more than happy to do it and I’ve worked out how.
A cat can be your companion but a dog can be a genuine friend.
Of course all this is just my own rather biased opinion. I wouldn’t want to offend any cat lovers.
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You didn’t have a hand in naming it Pooky did you? Cats don’t forget those kind of things. Perhaps you also stuck something up its nose once.
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No it was named after this charming little adventurer from one of Dolly’s favourite bed time books.
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I supposed so, Waz. I had Pookie books. Gee, that was snotty of Lehan to suggest Pooky’s name was a cause of offence. 😉
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You can only be too careful with cats. They take offence at things that seem quite innocuous to us. I take care not to squeeze George in front of people. He sulks for days.
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Especially rabbits.
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I don’t say thankyou to all my cats, mind you. It’s just that George is reckless, and I’m pretty sure each day that he’s going to die somewhere. Every time I see him linger in the path of a car I think about how it’s going to feel to see him dead. He’s living a pretty brave life for a cat, going into other cats territories and crossing many roads. So as he is a warrior all I can do to ward off the inevitable pain is be appreciative of that. When I do that I think of all the women in the world whose partners are warriors. This must be how they deal with that.
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Leahan, in some weird fashion your cat has a human face, it looks disappointed and a little frightened…
Another addition to your possible Animal Book, of paintings and anecdotes. Good picture, nice story, again.
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I love the bunched paint. SUGAR! The poodle. LOVE it! And your reply to Gez is as packed as the story with info about the heart of your home. Thank you, Lehan.
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“Some pieces of black fur have been caught up by the wind and are flying away.”
That is classic.
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Is ‘that dog’ the one who once hurled himself against you? What’s his name and ten times bigger than the cat? Has he stopped growing? When the dogs eat breakfast. How many dogs are there? No wonder the Germans walk around in their underpants.
It’s a compelling story on par with the painting. It’s all in the eyes you know.
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Yes, that’s Sugar the Standard Poodle; he was one year old yesterday, he has stopped growing but his brain has not yet caught up, so George still has to spend a lot of time perched in high places. There is another dog BD; he’s a shiba/german shepherd brown dog, they fight like alligators. There are four cats. They are all quite interested in guests, they mill around like pirhanas.
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I guess by weight he’s eight times bigger than the cat.
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