ROCK KATS

How about some more kitties? Yesterday Cleo was sleeping so peacefully in the window that I had to take a few pictures and then Chip decided to visit which kept Cleo interested for a few minutes until Chip was batted away and Cleo continued his nap in peace.

Ah, this is a fairly good picture of my cat rocks so maybe I'll tell you about them.

For years and years, every summer when I'm in the States I seek out the various art and crafts fairs that are so common in Southern California. Usually the city fences off a few blocks of city street and local artists come and sell their wares amongst produce stalls, minstrels on the street corners, and delicious aromas mingling between the tents. I love these craft fairs and will often buy a little something whether I need it or not just because I can meet the crafter and know that the object is probably one of a kind.

One little booth that I ran into at various fairs had all these wonderful ROCK KATS that were hand painted by the artist. I absolutely fell in love with these and would stand in front of the tables delighting in the different colors and expressions on the "cats" faces. The artist said that she and her husband went to the river a couple of times of year and she would choose rocks that seemed to lend themselves well to the rounded nature of sitting cats. Then she would spend the year painting each rock (the eyes shine in the dark!) and her Saturday mornings and sometimes Friday evenings would be spent quietly manning her Rock booth at various fairs. She didn't seem so interested in selling her cats as in displaying them and she said she grew attached to each one. Oh, I wanted a ROCK KAT but who ever heard of taking a rock back to Japan especially when weight was so limited for my luggage?

(A picture of the artist's business card that I've saved all these years. I checked the Internet and she doesn't have a website though it looks like she is still actively painting rocks.)

Of course I relented and bought the little rock first (it doesn't weigh all that much) and then a couple of years later bought the larger kitty rock. The artist had some lovely large ROCK KATS that were the actual size of a cat and I have seen them being used as attractive doorstops in a local book store. I'd love a large ROCK KAT like that, but the weight!!! I am satisfied with my two ROCK KATS and many of my guests ask about them. You can see that Cleo thinks the world of them too and often cuddles up between the ROCK KATS like a mother hen.

As if I don't have enough cats as it is!