My Painted Willow

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!
Here's two Halloween Cards featuring my cats!
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WCB: Filters and my Cats

I was playing with a picture of China Cat and Willow that I had set at the indoor incandescent setting. It wasn't supposed to be set there as I was taking their picture in the screened-in porch with natural daylight. But I had forgotten to check it before I took their picture. Pictures turn out very blue when that setting is used outdoors. So the first picture here is the original out of the camera with no changes. The program I have is Photoshop Elements 6 and I played around with the filters until I got the colors to look more realistic for a daytime outdoors picture. Since I was having fun so far, I decided to try making their picture black and white. I'm not sure that this was the best picture to try making black and white though. So I used the filter called Poster Edges and I kind of like it... Weekend Cat Blogging is being hosted this week
by Samantha, Mr. Tigger and Mom Chandra at As The Squillion World Spins.

Easy Like Sunday Morning

It's terribly humid out already this morning and expected to get up to about 95 degrees. Both cats generally go out in the screened-in porch after breakfast until the air conditioner turns on and we shut the porch door. While inside China Cat has been using my rocking chair in the living room as her favorite morning nap spot for the past week.
Willow usually naps under the dining room table every morning but this morning I found her on the foot stool by China Cat.It occurred to me that I probably had another picture of the two of them in that same spot.
When Willow was little she used to sleep in the chair with China Cat,
but I was surprised to find this picture of them in almost the same positions!
This was taken in August of 2004 when Willow was about 6 months old.
Since then China Cat's belly fur grew back and Willow just grew!And here is how they used to fit in the chair together. For all the other cat activities this weekend, check out the following:
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The 200th Friday Ark has boarded at The Modulator
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Weekend Cat Blogging is being hosted by Amar and Luna over at Catsynth
and July 19th was the 2nd Anniversary of Catsynth!
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Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos is being hosted by
Samantha & Mr. Tigger at Life From A Cat's Perspective
They have an optional theme of Christmas in July!
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Carnival of the Cats is being hosted by
Rocky, Fracas and all the rest at Artsy Catsy

My eyes are on you...

Our backyard is usually full of birds, bunnies, squirrels and chipmunks. This time Willow spotted some bunnies on the other side of the bushes.She carefully kept her eye on them until they hopped away,
while China Cat was snoozing away the afternoon.
It's time for Weekend Cat Events
around the Cat Blogosphere!

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Last night the Friday Ark was boarded at The Modulator.
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Weekend Cat Blogging is being hosted by Kashim and Othello.
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Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos is being hosted by
Mr. Tigger & The M-Cats Club
with an Optional Theme: Father's Day Edition
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The Carnival of the Cats is being hosted
at Mind of Mog.

PhotoHunt Theme: Emotion(s)

The theme this week is "emotion(s)"
and not surprisingly I have pictures of cats today!
Alice is my daughter's cat who is looking very curious. China Cat and Willow are being emotional in a bit of an angry sort of way. But of course they also love each other.
As always, you can find more Photohunters here!
photohunt

PhotoHunt Theme: Bad Hair

The theme this week is "bad hair" and as usual, I wasn't sure what I was going to photograph. Sometimes I really do have Bad Hair Days but I didn't want to torture anyone with that!
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As luck would have it, Willow helped me out this week. I walk every morning around my neighborhood for exercise and always wear a hat to keep the sun off of my face. I left my hat in the chair in the living room when I came in and clearly someone thought it was a good thing to nap upon! It's "bad hair" because it certainly does not belong on my black hat. I asked Willow if she thought it might be her white hair on my hat...
She looked at it... She sniffed it... Now clearly she is in total denial by looking out the window
and pretending it's not her hair.
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So there you have it - bad hair when it's on my hat
but good hair when it's still on Willow!
She is a pretty girl but she sheds a lot!
As always, you can find more Photohunters here!

Porch Kitties found a Bunny!

I went out to the porch and found China Cat and Willow looking very intently at something on the other side of the screen. They didn't even notice me. I usually try to see whatever they are looking at and sometimes I don't see anything! But today they found a bunny under the bush right outside of the screened-in porch.That bunny had no idea that there were two cats watching it very intently. Willow actually could not see the bunny from this angle.
But she did see a squirrel that she became very interested in watching.China Cat turned around and continued watching the bunny... Here's the bunny who just continued eating grass,
never realizing he/she was being watched!

Here's the Weekend Cat Events:
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Weekend Cat Blogging #151 is being hosted by Katie & Puddy
at A Byootaful Life.
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Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos is at Pet's Garden Blog.
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Carnival of the Cats #215 is being hosted by Diamond Emerald-Eyes
at House Panthers.

Easy Like Sunday Morning in the Porch

Spring is here today!
It's already 65 degrees and
China Cat and Willow are enjoying the sunshine! Nothing like a nice nap in the sun with a friend! ~~~~~
For more Weekend Cat Events, check out the following:
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Weekend Cat Blogging is being hosted by Cece
at Mind of Mog
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The Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos is at the Cat Blogosphere.
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Carnival of the Cats #214 is being hosted by Aloyisius at Catymology.

Happy Groundhog Day!

Uh oh, Punxsutawney Phil said 6 more weeks of Winter!!!!!

Happy New Year's Eve from Willow & China Cat!

Dressing up my daughter's cats...

We went over to visit with my daughter and son-in-law
and I had to bring over the Santa and Elf cat costumes.
Unlike my cat Willow, you can put anything on Alice!
It's true, Willow's antlers were not really on her head!
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So we started out putting the Elf costume on Alice. Her other cat is Kara
and she usually hides anytime we are visiting. This time she came out and was very lovable. She was awfully cute in the elf collar too!
Alice just sat there and watched. Alice looked quite angelic in the Santa collar! It's time for the Carnival of the Cats and it's being hosted by the King of the Carnival of the Cats, Laurence Simon. This will be his final time so make sure to check it out here.
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Weekend Cat Blogging is over at the Tuxedo Gang's Hideout and hosted by Samantha Black and Tigger.
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The Bad Kitty Cat Festival of Chaos is over with Zed Monster and Megan at Bad Kitty Cats Journal. There is an optional theme of New or Old.

WCB Christmas Edition

China Cat and Willow participated in Secret Paws this year. The cats that were their Secret Paws live in Wisconsin and California. And the cats that sent presents to China Cat and Willow live in South Carolina and Texas. This was our first time participating and it was a lot of fun!
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Here are some of the gifts they received! China really liked laying on her hammock
while Willow just kept investigating everything! They received feather toys, catnip mice and a catnip banana,
among other toys! Willow also loves smelling the tree - so far she hasn't knocked any ornaments down! Merry Christmas! ~~~~~
Katie and Puddy are hosting Weekend Cat Blogging
at A Byootaful Life,
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Astrid, Kashim & Othello are hosting Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos
(with an optional theme of family or friends) at The Catboys Realm
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and the Carnival of the Cats will be hosted by Missy & KC
at The Cat Blogosphere (with an optional Christmas theme).

RAMS GAME DAY 9: Rams @ Saints

HUGE UPDATE:
We are Winless No More!!!!!
Rams - W37 Saints - L29

at Maybe today will be our first win of the year?????
As usual, I am ever so optimistic!
GO RAMS!!!!!
Thanks to Zoolatry NFL and their National Feline League
for the Cat's Rams Graphic!

RAMS NO GAME DAY: Rams have their BYE week

Rest up boys.
Next week we'll be down in New Orleans,
battling the Saints. Thanks to Zoolatry NFL and their National Feline League
for the Cat's Rams Graphic!

Wicked Halloween

I was having problems getting China Cat & Willow
dressed up for Halloween.
I wanted to enter them in Skeezix's Halloween Contest
but Willow was impossible
and China Cat was not really going for it either.
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So this became their entry for the contest.Happy Halloween!

PhotoHunt Theme: Practical & Weekend Cat Blogging

I kept thinking about this week's theme (practical) all week
and I couldn't come up with anything.
Until this morning, at 5:39 a.m., when I woke up
and I immediately had my idea for "practical"...
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We had been installing a new sink and vanity in a bathroom,
with lots of snoopervision from Willow.
Naturally, when you are working with water,
you don't want it to spill all over.
So, a very practical way of keeping that water
where you want it is in a container.
So, here's to my practical container! And, to Willow's snoopervision! Also, Weekend Cat Blogging is being hosted by Samantha
over at the New Tuxedo Gang Hideout.