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What Makes a Cat So Special?

That is the question I am frequently asked. Why design cat fabric? Why cat dolls? Why cat cartoons? What's the deal with cats?

"Because I lie next to them and think 'Oh, you are so beautiful!'

To me, they're magical and heartbreaking and mysterious and loyal - yes loyal. They're athletic and funny and purr and cuddle. I look at them and my heart warms.

"What could I possibly do to make you better? I can't."

The quotes above could have come from me but they come from a man named Kevin Richardson, also known as The Lion Whisperer. If you love cats, you'll recognize yourself in his words.

This is my cat Rudy.

Beautiful photo of a long haired, ginger color cat with incredible green eyes.

He had a rough start in life and we adopted him at 18 months of age after he was turned out of his home. He has freckles on his lips and long silky tufts of fur sprouting from between his toes.

Closeup of Rudy's paw with long silky tufts of furr.

We call him Bloomer Boy because when he darts out ahead of us in an excited, full-throttle run, he looks like he's wearing baggy bloomers. It delights me. Every. Time. When I have a moment like that, when I get out of my head and my heart smiles and I feel love for this creature, how can it be anything other than perfect and a gift?

Below is an incredible video featuring The Lion Whisperer. If you're short on time, try to watch the first 3-5 minutes. Other than a few minutes of time he spends with hyenas, the video is all about lions.

A few minutes spent warming your heart will do you good!

Richardson will admit he has been clawed and bitten often. It is the nature of lions to scratch each other and they regard Richardson no differently. He is not dissuaded by these dangers. In an interview, he mentions,

"Obviously one realizes the danger when working with animals of this caliber, I've weighed the pros and the cons, and the pros far outweigh the cons."

He warns about following in his footsteps, however. All the pictures of his adventures do not portray his years of experience and bonding.

"People like to take things out of context. They don't know the relationship I have with this lion."

As a rule, Richardson only interacts with lions he has been with since their birth. He also differentiates his work from those of zoologists interacting with completely wild animals they have not raised, or that of trainers whose animals are required to perform on stage day after day.

Richardson hopes the media attention of his movies will raise public awareness and educate them on the need to protect and conserve Africa's animals.

NOTE: Facts researched via Wikipedia.org and their excellent detail to footnotes and linking to articles!

For more information on Kevin Richardson and his cause, please visit:

http://www.lionwhisperer.co.za/

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The Chairman's letterhead complete with his photo and pawprint.WARNING: GPS REQUIRED FOR FOR THE KREATRIX

Kreatrix and I are going insane. She has been swallowed up by her computer. See:

Catberry_KreatrixInComputer

She's spending massive hours on marketing courses and social networking lectures and spending NO time, zippo, nada on my minions for World Domination.

The only way I can talk to her is by calling her on the phone.

The Chairman Soft Sculptured Cat Doll uses a cell phone while seated at a desk.

I've been planning out our upcoming posts. And now my competition, CLIENTS, are calling begging for her attention.

And then I find her reading this:

Michael Hyatt's best selling book Platform: Get Noticed In A Noisy World.

 

We have dual pane windows, people! What could possibly be so noisy in our world?

So then she tells me it's a metaphor for how crowded the internet is and how distracted people are nowadays.

"We've got to be able to find our tribe so that we can have fun together here at Catberry Tails."

Huh? Seriously. Huh? Talking cat dolls and Magnificats aren't a big enough draw?

Extreme closeup of the Chairman's face.

"No. We've got a lot more work to do so we can build an online community."

So then she tells me she may only be able to blog twice a week for a short time. She is going on a very brave journey inside the internet to personally find our tribe and bring them back here!

My reaction?

The Chairman's smile has been replaced with a displeased look.

Then she gave me an assignment.

"We need business cards and revisions to our blog. Plus we need to make a lot of dolls and learn how to do Ecards."

I'm making a large donation to the curse jar in anticipation of rough times ahead.

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The Chairman's letterhead complete with his photo and pawprint.

Our Crazy Cat Lady has turned into some kind of voodoo soft-scupltured cat doll maniac!

The pressure of her back being thrown out and carried off by the garbage truck has just been too much!

I offer up Exhibit A:

Remember meeting Opie the Magnificat the other day?

Opie the Soft sculptured cat dall stands about 18 inches tall and is made out of recycled mens' suits.

Well get a load of this:

The head of an orange soft-sculptured cat doll with pins holding fabric in place.

Uh-huh. Kreatrix was sitting with a heating pad on her back and sticking pins into this cat head.

I offer up Exhibit B:

Orange soft-sculptured cat doll head propped on top of an empty large wine bottle. Pins are holding fabric in place.

Now correct me if I'm wrong, but is that, or is it not,  a WINE BOTTLE? And the little kitty's head is just jammed on it with pins sticking out. I...I...I ask you, is this right?

The Chairman posing with the cat hold on the wine bottle. The Chairman is frowning.

...oh lord, here she comes. Gotta go.

Kreatrix here. I've just read the above and am going to post it as is. I see I need to have a discussion with The Chairman and explain a bit about how I make the Magnificats. Sorry he had to see the head on the wine bottle but a wine bottle is actually good to use for two reasons:

  1. The head fits perfectly and firmly on the bottle neck thus allowing me to sculpt with fabric.
  2. It's best if the bottle is empty.  :-}

The Chairman just hollered from the back room:

"Soft-sculptured cat doll! Soft sculptured cat doll!"

Apparently those are our intended keywords for our lovely neighbors the search engine spiderbots who will be dining upon our content after I've posted this. And if you're confused about spiderbots and what they mean to us at Catberry Tails, please go here.

Thank you for spending a few moments with us!

 

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The Chairman's letterhead complete with his photo and pawprint.

I'm here with the Kreatrix. Say hello, Kreatrix.

"Hello Kreatrix."

Very funny.

"Thank you."

At least your humor is returning.

OK, so the number one thing you should never throw out is your back. Don't do it!

See those glasses down there at the Kreatrix feet?

Eyeglasses are on the floor by the Kreatrix feet.

Tell 'em what you said after you dropped them.

"They might as well be in Egypt."

She can't bend over and get them! Do NOT throw your back away EVER again!

The Kreatrix will tell you the second thing you should NEVER throw out:

"A cat."

That's it?

"Or a dog. Don't do it. Don't set them out, abandon them or hurt them. Ever....Or else."

Or else what.

"Watch this Oscar-nominated animation and you'll see why. It's one of my very favorite animated shorts from Canada. It's called The Cat Came Back."

Yah. Watch it and don't throw out a pet or we will come get you because we know where you live.

"No we don't...not all of the readers."

Oh.  What about one of your spaceships?

"I'll work on it."

WATCH THIS OR ELSE!!

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The Chairman's letterhead complete with his photo and pawprint.

"Hellooooooo. Kreatrix? Are you in there?"

Extreme closeup of soft-sculptured cat doll, The Chairman.

Ginger and I are reporting to you from the Kreatrix' giant cat bed. We're staring at her right now but her eyes are closed.

Two adorable soft-sculpture cat dolls sit on the bed staring on their human.

I almost don't recognize her from this angle. She's usually standing and VERY tall. She appears to be resting comfortably with some assistance from a cool little bottle next to her cat bed.

This morning she was taking down the weird tree thing you humans put in your houses this time of year and then she screams this:

"AHHHHH! OH CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE! OH COW DUNG! OH STEAMING PILE OF HORSE POOH. OH, OH..."

I don't know the meaning of the word she said next or I would have put in a suitable family-friendly substitute for it too. Of course, I immediately thought of this:

Cat piggy bank with bills, credit cards and coins over flowing.

Yup. The curse jar. But I'm assuming this would not be a good idea at this particular moment. The pain is still too fresh. All in good time.

Anywho, she grabbed her back and limped to the bedroom where she has remained.

I'm trying to understand why you humans would ever want to throw out something as useful as the human back. Is there a special bin you put it in for recycling?

Now, instead of working with her on my car or world domination or my cool vintage imac thing, I must stay here and try to figure out how to get her back out of the garbage can.

I'm gonna wake her.

"HiYA! HOW'S YOUS DOIN' THERE KIDDO?"

The Chairman, cute soft sculptured cat doll, waves his paw in front of his human.

But soft! She stirs!!

"Come closer little Chairman. I think the medicine has kicked in.

I lean in. She whispers

"I'll share a  trick with you from my home planet."

She holds my paws to her head and WE DO A FREAKING MIND MELD!

Wow!!

The Chairman appears in very psychedellic colors.

The Chairman in psychedelic colors.

Is this really how I look? I asked the Prof (her male human). All he did was pick up the little bottle and shake it at me.

Humans. Now I'm off to go fish her back out of the garbage and google how to reattach it.

 

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The Chairman's letterhead complete with his photo and pawprint.

Confession: I Have Prototypes and Magnificats in My Family Tree

Again. More drama on the home front. Turns out I got some "interesting" family history. Sheesh.

Everything was all neat and tidy and humming along until I found this on the floor:

A cloth body part for a cat doll. Very rough. A prototype.

Melvin the-real-life-cat was carrying it around in his mouth. I asked the Kreatrix what it was and she got all weird.

I said to her:

"Lady, you are giving me a bad case of the howling fantods. Explain yourself!"

That's right. I used a FANCY WORD! Go look it up. Some of us are improving ourselves.

The CEO and Kreatrix got all whispery and gathered us together for an emergency meeting. She got two baskets out of the magic closet in her studio and set it on the floor.

A pile of trial and error body parts for dolls are heaped in a basket.

We rummaged through it, the pieces all looking oddly familiar. Dude whispered what we were all thinking.

"They look like....body parts."

I was about to perform peristaltic pyrotechnics on the rug but the Kreatrix pulled me close and said very quickly:

"I had to practice building all of you, sort of trial and error, and what you see here were the first attempts. These even came before the CEO!"

The Chairman is looking up at the Kreatrix while he touches a doll part.

So. The curtain is pulled back on the wizard, huh? I let out a little growl and exclaimed:

"And you just toss them to the cats like they were cheap little toys! Well... I never!"

The CEO gave me the stink eye and said to the Kreatrix.

"It's time."

The Kreatrix left the room and quietly returned with this spectacular cat thingy and set it on the floor.

A beautiful, tall soft sculptured cat doll made out of an old suit.

Kreatrix looked sad and walked away. The CEO explained:

"When Opie, the real-life magnificat, went to live with the wise ones, the Kreatrix was so upset she closed herself away and built this homage to him."

Wally joined us for the story because he actually knew Opie the Magnificat!

Wally sits next to the CEO and the beautiful Opie doll.

"She was very determined to create something of beauty, just like she was with us. And beauty takes time. So suck it up little man and apologize to the Kreatrix."

I later learned that Melvin kept breaking into the closet and stealing the pieces. Maybe in 2014 I will learn not to jump to all the wrong freaking conclusions!

So here is Opie the Magnificat!

Head shot of beautiful art doll. His features are folded and sculpted from an old wool suit.

Opie the Magnificat full body shot. His patchwork spots are made out of darker men's suit material. He stands about 18 inches tall and his tail wraps around to the front of his body.

Opie the Magnificat's feet and tail.

Ginger didn't seem to have much problem with all of this. Girls! She latched onto this prototype.

A miniature version of the Opie style doll but it has no eyes.

I said

"GinGin, it has NO EYES!" but she didn't care.

So sometimes skeletons in your closet turn out to be beautiful things and throwing howling fantods is a waste of really good energy.

All hail Opie the Magnificat!

A beautiful photo of the real-life Opie.

And for your spiderbots looking for something to eat on this blog and barf up on Google, here ya go: Opie the Magnificat is a soft sculpture cat doll. That's right. A soft sculpture cat doll.

 

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The Chairman's letterhead complete with his photo and pawprint.

But If You Try Sometime, You Find, You Get What You Need

The Kreatrix kept singing those lyrics every time I grumbled about my car machine. You know, this one:

Beaten up child's electric car with potential.

Apparently a human named Rolling Stone sang this song so I googled him. Lo and behold, this popped out at me:

RollingStoneLogo

It's got to be a sign!!!! Remember this:

Classic Einstein photo in black and white with his tongue out.

Immediately I assumed Mr. Rolling Stone must be a genius so I figured I'd listen to him and try to work on my car machine. And while I was scrubbing it I found something.

AND GUESS WHAT?????? I GOT WHAT I NEEDED!!!

TA DA:

The Chairman cat doll poses with a glass of milk in a cuplholder in his car.

A Cup Holder! Awesomeness.

And since I was so excited about my car machine that comes with a cupholder, I let the Kreatrix put a traditional Happy New Year's costume on me.

The Chairman dressed in a diaper and a two-thousand fourteen banner.

Why, humans, why? Is this really necessary?

You all go and enjoy wearing your New Year's costume and we'll catch you back here on Friday.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

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The Chairman's letterhead complete with his photo and pawprint.

So Santa is Really a Man Named Mr. Craigs List

Remember my Christmas wish list?

Remember this?

Beautiful, muscle sports car.

Well, thanks to Mr. Craigs List, I got this instead. I beg of you, why?

Beaten up child's electric car with potential.

I called an emergency meeting with the World Domination Squad and the Kreatrix.

She tells me:

“Find your inner Einstein and use it. I know he’s in there somewhere.”

Oh, man. Why does everything have to have so many steps involved?

So I look up Einstein and here is what I found:

Classic Einstein photo in black and white with his tongue out.

And this quote:

"His great intellectual achievements and originality have made the word "Einstein" synonymous with genius."

You humans really confuse me. Does this mean she’s a genius?

Miley Cyrus with her tongue sticking out.

Personally, the little genius known as The Chairman has a bone to pick with Mr. Craigs List.

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The Chairman's letterhead complete with his photo and pawprint.

THE CHAIRMAN'S WISHLIST

Dearest Santa,

I understand I am supposed to tell you what I want for the day you call Christmas. Please understand I am now using a keyword for our neighbors, the spiderbots: Wish list, Wish list, Wish list. Bam! Done.

I have prepared the list below complete with explanations as to why I want them just in case you need to know. All good reasons, rest assured.

AND, if I may add, I’ve been mostly a good Real Stuffed Cat.

The Chairman's wishlist includes a convertible muscle car, a leather jacket, a bank, a royal throne, a cat bed, a gavel and a large tuna fish.

  1. Self-explanatory. Look at it. Think of the impression I will send since I am Chairman of Catberry Tails. I will be unveiling my manifesto at the beginning of the New Year. Good stuff.
  2. Self-explanatory. Goes with the car machine thingy. Does the machine need a key? If so, please make sure it’s included.
  3. A bank. Do you know humans’ walk in there and just leave their money? How cool is that? I could use some money right about now.
  4. I’m thinkin’ a throne would help me establish authority with the World Domination Squad. Notice the cool cat claw feet and big cats on top of the chair. Nice touch. Swoon.
  5. I’d like a bed for my cat. My cat makes me soooo happy I could cry.
  6. Again. Authority. Saw a show on TV in which a man wearing a bathrobe slammed this thing and got everyone’s attention. Very cool he could do that still decked out in his bathrobe.
  7. Tuna. Great for distracting the RLC’s (Real Life Cats).

By the way, I really, REALLY like Ginger. All she wants for Christmas is to see you come down our chimney. Do NOT disappoint her. Just sayin.

Ginger and the Chairman are wrapped up in Christmas tree lights.

Love

The Chairman

P.S. This is Melvin. I did this to him on the computer. He doesn't know.

Melvin, the real cat, wears a Santa hat and beard.