Babu and Muji

Well here we are on a late summer day with all the potential that comes of being alive.
It is a quiet day with the windows closed to keep the stifling humid heat out - and the cats get bored.

Babu wants to play.

This is the routine.

 

There are so many ways he tells me.

For a cat, he can be quite eloquent

I get a lot of arm taps,

and sometimes my cheek

He is always gentle; never claws out

and tries to tell me with meaningful looks and purrs and myow's 

what I already know

pul-leeze play with me

His sweetness charms me.

I've learned a lot from Babu.

Though he can be annoyingly catlike,

I've learned how dense I can be as his communication is usually subtle and quick,

He only amps it up when I'm not responding

I've learned to respect his intelligence, and after all, play is the way we all express our true natures.

Now Muji comes in, never one to miss some love and attention,

he gives his head a ghostly shake. 

He inspects my camera strap

a sober little guy, 

Muji doesn't have the predator instinct like Babu and I often wonder how he would ever fend for himself outdoors where he'd love to be.

He much prefers cuddling

though he is learning to bat and jump at the mouse on a string that Babu loves so well,

"copy cat"-ting Babu's behaviour.

When Babu is exceptionally bored, he plays at taking Muji down like a gazelle, 

grabbing him by the neck and forcing him to the floor

Muji, in his sweetness, tolerates this predator play from his "little" (Babu's not so little anymore) "brother" (adopted)

I've never had a more loving animal than Muji

who also taps my arm, my cheek, the top of my head

for attention and love.

I'm a big fan of Cathy Cullis ever since I discovered her work at least 7 years ago. She has a big following now.  This piece is my interpretation of her gouache Tudor women, mine done in coloured pencil on that cheap kraft paper in my sketchbook.

Then a complete switcher-oo as I'm wont to do. The idea of groundless figures came to me and I used this format for exploring more with composite subject matter and colour. All done in coloured pencils save for some white Sharpie paint pen, I used a combination of pencil brands.  I became quite smitten with my old "light green" Eagle Prismacolor, a blue turquoise that I used to outline the figures. Waxier and more lush than my modern day pencils, it quite surprised me with its longevity as the name changed in 1969 and I'm pretty sure I got them well before that.

"Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant...Making your unknown known is the important thing."

                                                                                                 Georgia O'Keefe