There has been a clowder of fabric pet portraits and pet memorials on my design wall this fall/winter. What’s a clowder? Clowder: a group of cats.

Over the 16 years that I have created custom pet portraits and memorials, the overwhelming number of customer requests have been for dogs. However, these past 5 months the number of furry felines I made into pillows or canvas mounted cat art has definitely been a clowder’s worth.
Whether it was a memorial wall hanging, cat pillows for birthday presents, or special Christmas presents, each of these creations delighted the recipient and gave my customers a special warm feeling of gifting a one-of-a-kind pet portrait.

Paul

In creating fabric pet pictures, there are certain aspects that are critical in the creation process of a cat portrait. These are:

• • • Capturing the correct essence of “cattitude”
    • Blending of fur
    • Representing their ever-changing eyes

Here’s how I intertwine these concepts into my pet portrait art:

Cattitude

Frequently I receive multiple photographs for a pet portrait. This allows my client and I to determine the best reference photograph for the personality traits or look of the cat that they want portrayed.

Below are four enlarged photos of Wispa, a recent pet portrait commission. While I received others, these four photographs struck me as the best possibilities. I’ve written the message I interpreted from each photo below.

Far left: the head tilt says “Hey there! Are you going to play with me or what?”

2nd: Paws on chair arm clearly state “We both know who’s queen of the house, don’t we?”

3rd: Eyes down and sitting posture speak of her intention “I’ll pay attention to you after I’m done fluffing myself”

4th: Straight on view whispers “Stare into my eyes and you’ll come under my spell”

My customer narrowed it down to the two on the left. In our email exchange, I spoke about the artistic differences between them. The first one would show off Wispa’s fluffiness on her face and chest area in greater detail, a more intimate pet portrait; the second would project a majestic, yet casual nature. As seen at the beginning of this post, she chose fluffiness.

Just to be clear, any of these photos would have made an amazing pet portrait pillow and surprised the birthday girl to no end.

Wispa’s final reference photo

FABRICating CAT EYES  

As mentioned in two previous blog posts, ( Making a Pet Portrait: Cooper’s Memorial Pillow  and  Their Eyes Speak: Different Techniques for Fabric Pet Portrait Eyes) I talk about how eyes are critical to capturing the essence of any beloved pet. Often this is where I begin laying out the fabric since the eyes then frame the rest of the creation process. 

Shakespeare’s close-up

With solid color eyes as with Shakespeare, an eye itself is usually three pieces of material and thread painting for the eye sparkle. The surrounding eyebrows and eye-circle fur can be just one piece or several appliqued one on another.

The marbling effect of cat’s eyes is captured by finding a scrap fabric that has lines within the pattern or painting that look on fabric. In Paul’s eye below, the tiny vines of green material give just enough contrast to create an impression of marbling. For Iris’s eyes, I painted her eyes and used fabric marker to achieve the depth within her eyes. Both have eye sparkle: Paul has thread for his and Iris uses white acrylic paint.

Iris’s eyes

For memorial portraits, the connection between the cat and owner is often the aspect that my customers choose to emphasize. Being able to look into those adoring eyes and feel warm memories come flooding back can be such a powerful healer. In The Art of Remembrance:Pet Memorials in Fabric, I speak of how healing from pet loss is a journey and creating a pet portrait memorial can be a part of the healing process.

WHISKERS

Some of the recent cats had whiskers that were longer than their faces. It just made me laugh each time I looked at their photos on the studio wall!

Whiskers can be created with thread or fabric markers. I usually do them with thread, just to emphasize the texture.

In Iris’s portrait above, the whiskers are several strands of embroidery thread. I’d like to say it was because I wanted to emphasize the color difference against the dark brown face. That, however, would have required forethought. Nope, this was simply that I forgot to thread paint the whiskers with regular sewing thread.

My options were to either 1) rip open the seams, sew the whiskers on, and resew as a wall hanging or 2) sew the whiskers without disassembling the completed portrait. With my customer’s permission, the whiskers were done with embroidery thread. This was an “oops” that, in my opinion, turned out for the better in the overall design.

Here’s a close up of Gabby’s whiskers. Created with sewing thread, these were done with free motion quilting, a technique where the material is guided by one’s hands as opposed to the feed-dogs of the sewing machine.

The Queen of Whiskers in this round of cat portraits, however, is Wispa. If you compare her pillow at the top of the blog and reference photo, you will see that I didn’t even approach the number of whiskers she has.

Fabric Fur

With cats whose coats are solid, colorpoint, bicolor or tricolor, it is usually easy to find corresponding fabrics. For me, it’s a question of whether I search the Fat Quarter totes first or the Big Lengths totes first. Even some of the tabby cats can be simple to create.

It is the tabbies where the overall color is blended onto a different color background or “field” and the torties and torbies that require a deeper fabric search.

Gabby

As you can see with Gabby, the patterns of the fabrics lend an air of patched fur and give that depth or field. In this portrait, I also used fabric markers to create some black fur lines as well as the dots on her snout.

Here is Iris’s portrait. While she wasn’t created recently, since she was included in this blog post, Iris deserved to have her full portrait to be shown here. The red is a velveteen fabric, soft like the blanket in her reference photo. It just sets off her piercing eyes perfectly.

Via (my cat) and I hope you sign up for the monthly newsletter where I share studio updates. As Head Supervisor, she even has her own section now.

Preparing for an art show is like getting back on a bicycle, except since it’s been 32 months since my last show, I had to: take inventory, redesign the booth layout, order what I needed, put fresh covers on the matted pictures, rewire some wall hangings with stronger wires, cut and drill holes in new flat hangers for other wall hangings, and redo all pricing tags (since I couldn’t find the old design shape).

And that’s before the grid walls…

Decisions: the grid walls

This year’s addition of cloth covers for my grid walls is an investment to achieve a gallery look for the booth.

Decision 1 – what color/ colors? With the help of my crafter friend and my daughter, I went with pewter for the display panels and black for the featured panel.

The photo below (to the left) shows one of my trial runs minus a sign talking about Evening Song Farm CSA as my inspiration. At each show one of my bigger works will be featured on a black cloth background. What About Me?, my climate action piece, is the first one.

In the right photo, you can see two bags of matted pictures and the larger canvas ones in the distance. They don’t get loaded up until the day of set-up.

Note my assistant, Via. She decided to bat a bottle cap around. I reminded her that those are her toys and she should be cleaning up after herself. I was ignored.

Decision two – Even though the previous themes for each gridwall panel are the same, what to hang on each one? There are new pieces as well as ones from before. Multiple versions of the possible layouts were made. The final ones are tucked away on my clipboard. I learned years ago that this makes the set-up go much faster … then I’m not having to make decisions on the spot.

Once that is done, the totes are packed accordingly. Extra inventory is packed and a list of what’s inside each one is posted inside the lid. This prevents the frustrations of “Now where DID I pack that piece?” when someone asks if I have XYZ with a different background color.

Fortunately my show preparation/packing list didn’t need much tweaking. Hand sanitizer and masks were two additions… a sign of the times.

The car is fully packed!

Setting up for the first show

You wonder why you’re doing this when:

• You are placed 15 feet away from the music stage and there’ll be bands all day long.
• It’s been so long since you set up your tent and it’s hot and it takes you an additional hour and you’re not even done.
• Getting the bungie cords through the gridwall covers takes so long that you just attack/slice more of the sewn openings to get it done quickly.
• 9 feet on paper does NOT match 10 feet on the ground.
• The sides of the tent billow like sails while you’re trying to set the tent up.
• You wake up at 4:15 AM the day of the show and can’t get back to sleep. Oh, and the show goes from noon until 7 PM.
• You get there 3 hours early the day of the show because you never finished the night before.
• There’s no breeze for most of the first day and it’s 89 degrees F and your booth faces the afternoon sun.

You do a happy dance because:

• You got moved away from the stage.
• You have the location of everything already decided and it’s all in one tote and product placement is a breeze.
• You like the way the booth looks and it’s not even all finished.
• A fellow crafter you haven’t seen in 2+ years pops by your booth and his booth is diagonally behind yours.
• You see your friend for the first time in 32 months and it feels like it was just last week. (Of course, that could be from talking on the phone 2-3 times a week.)

Inside of booth with featured panel in the middle

Not all shows are the same

So craft shows are a unique entity unto themselves. Some have only crafters who make their own product; others allow people who assemble pre-made things. Some have just crafters with a small food section; others have the vendors and a food court. Some add additional attractions to bring people in – petting zoos, bands on stage, beer tent, etc. Each draws a different crowd.

Even shows where a crafter/artist has been before, things like the weather, economy, world events, or other things happening in the nearby towns affect who attends. One year you could have a buying crowd, the next a strolling crowd. As a vendor, one never knows.

Since shows are a way for people to find out about my custom pet portrait and pet memorial work, I never determine “the real success” of a show until the end of the year when I find out how many custom orders came from a particular show.

Don’t get me wrong, I do a huge happy dance inside when I sell my works at shows. Seeing how much the person likes that particular piece is always so gratifying and affirming. I love knowing I’ve covered all my expenses and more. And at this time, shows are also a strong marketing strategy.

Here’s some of the new Faces collection and the Spirit Animals collection on the new shelving unit. Looks like Calvin, the Crafty One, and Tom-Tom, the Pouncer, made their way off the shelf and over to the adjacent panel.

Notes from behind the scenes

Going to the bathroom at a craft show or getting lunch at a food stand is a developed art form. It involves finding a nearby vendor to “cover your booth” as well as timing it perfectly (looking for that lull in the crowd traffic) and then hoping there isn’t a big line ahead of you at the porta-potty or food truck. And when the stars align, you can get there and back before another customer shows up.

Wind is not an artist’s friend at a show. A slight breeze, yes, for that can certainly cool you down. However, the gusts that grab your tent top and sides and turn them into sails are not welcome.

There is a learned skill to holding onto a truss or side pole with all your might to keep the booth from going slightly airborne. Even with heavy weights, tents can lift. I bring four or eight 5 pound weights to go at the base of the legs, stakes to pound legs into the ground, 4 concrete-filled PVC pipes with rope attached to tie onto the tent at the corners, and, in case of strong wind forecast, dog screws with 4 ratchets to attach at corners. Not that I use them all each time; however they’re there if I need them.

Rain and dew aren’t a vendor’s favorites either. Besides the fact that rain keeps crowds away, it’s a matter of protecting your art as rain hits the side of the tent and roof. Some sides are completely waterproof. Mine are not, thus requiring plastic to go behind the panels when there’s moisture. On those cool late summer/early fall nights, dew forms inside a tent requiring everything to be covered with plastic or tarps at the end of the day.

But the most challenging thing for me is when it’s raining hard during a show and the rain starts coming into the tent. Clear shower curtains clipped to the front tent trusses and weighted down with clamps have worked the best for me. There is an opening for people to come through and they can still see what is being sold while the clamps prevent the curtains from flailing all over.

This event was held on a recently mowed field. There were crickets everywhere! One or two came home with me.

What makes it all worthwhile

At my second show, I was so moved when two different former clients came up and talked with me about how touched their daughter and wife were with their holiday (2019) gifts. Here are those portraits…

Kitchie and Tanner

Other tidbits

There are certain things that are constants and require no thinking at this point in my career: insurance, a shopping app, and a packing list.

I use SQUARE for my transactions. I find it simple to use and even with my sometimes wonky phone, it worked like a dream this past show. An investment in a battery pack is invaluable so that you can still process sales if the phone runs out of battery.

I have ACT insurance. Prior to moving to Vermont, I only had a rider on my homeowner’s insurance. At one Spring Marketing Conference sponsored by the Vermont Crafts Council, there was a couple who shared what had happened to them. Their studio had burned down completely. Listening to them talk about the help and support they received as a result of having their insurance policy through ACT just convinced me that this was an investment I needed to make. I chose to get annual coverage because that way it was on auto-pilot. I didn’t have to remember to apply for insurance for one show and then the next and I had that backing all year. Besides, it ended up being less expensive.

A packing list is another necessary tool. I was able to pull up mine from 2019, tweak it a bit and use that to be sure I had everything I needed. With the exception of the phillips head screwdriver I left on the kitchen table, everything made its way to my first show. Even had extra tent stakes, electrical tape, and string to lend to other vendors who needed some supplies.

For the following three shows, my routine was basically the same. It definitely was an advantage that I had been to two of the shows before.

Olivia at her first show. I decided to bring her even though she is still a WIP (work in progress).

I’m currently unpacking from my last show. The next one is in 6 weeks, which gives me plenty of time to go through my winter-themed inventory and make whatever is needed for the November shows.

What has been so satisfying has been sharing my art with others in-person once again. Being able to describe the how-to to interested visitors and watching people’s reaction when they go through my Look Book of completed pet portrait and pet memorial custom orders is always invigorating as an artist.

“Good morning! I was looking for a class to take with my mother-in-law… in early March and didn’t know if you were offering one?! It’s her birthday and it’s been some time since both of us have dusted off our machines.”

Back in early 2019, I received the above email and thus began my first pet portrait class. 

Emails flew back and forth as we ironed out details. I talked about my teaching style. While they would work from a photo, they would be layering instead of piecing and they’d make their “pattern pieces” from the enlarged photo or freehand. Since some people feel they cannot sew without pre-printed pattern pieces, I make a point of explaining this. Sometimes a student’s feelings of “I can’t do this” are so overwhelming that while the individual may have a great vision, they just can’t make that first experimental cut into the fabric.

Leah was thrilled since she had always wanted to try fabric art and was happily discussing possible pets for her portrait. The more emails we sent back and forth, the more excited she got. “… (this) out of the box opportunity was just too great to pass up!!” She shared that her mother-in-law might be a bit hesitant as to whether or not she could do this new art form. I said something to the effect of between the two of us, she’ll be fine.

Their photos enlarged and pinned on my design wall, waiting for them when they arrived.

Pet Portrait Class Preparation

The list of supplies and tools for the day was emailed. I requested the photos they were considering as reference photos ahead of time so I could see if there was anything that might be too advanced for a first attempt.

“So as you are thinking of what photo you’d like to recreate in fabric, try to first pick one that “speaks to” you. It could capture a certain look of your pet or just have a special memory. The clearer the picture is, the easier it will be to work with… however, we can work with ones that aren’t that clear if we have other photos to reference.”

Knowing their choices prior to class day allowed me to get the photos enlarged. I pulled out class material from years ago when I was teaching Beginning and Intermediate Fabric Art Quilts at Saratoga County Adult Continuing Education, reworked some of it, and into folders it went.

Betsy and I had a number of emails discussing her reference photo possibilities. Irises, sunsets, or her Mickey. While she wasn’t confident that she could make a black cat out of fabric look anything like her Mickey, I had enough confidence for both of us, so Mickey it was. The fact that Mickey was transitioning through that end-of-life time of his life added a poignant dimension to the whole process.

“So, just something to be aware of, as you choose colors for your picture when you are here with me, go for what speaks to your heart/ soul. It’s okay to cut fabric up, put it down, and if something isn’t right, take that fabric off and cut up something else. And then something else… and then go back to the first one. I call it ‘auditioning’ the fabric.”

The day before Betsy wrote: “She (Leah) is so much fun and we have a great time when we are together. This class will be so much fun with the 3 of us!!!” It’s nice knowing one’s students are excited before we even start.

Fabric Art Creation Day

This mid-February day began (and ended) with no snow, so that was a joy. Leah was coming down south 3 hours and Betsy had to come over the mountain, which can be treacherous in winter storms. The day began with setting up their machines, followed by information about different techniques, and then the making began. Pet portraits can be made as wall hangings, mounted on canvas, or as pillows. They both chose to make theirs as wall hangings.

Similar to what is in my blog post, Making a Fabric Pet Portrait: Cooper’s Memorial Pillow, the second copy of the enlarged photo was cut out in muslin for the base. Each part (ears, jaw, face, mane) was also cut out to be the pattern for that particular area.

What always is interesting to me is to watch the approach individual students take when they begin to add color on top of that muslin base. Some approach it with abandon, quickly rummaging through their fabrics, choosing what feels right quickly and cutting away with the scissors; others lay out all the material choices around the base, move them around a number of times, step back, make some changes and even then, hesitantly make that first cut. Both styles were present in this daughter/ mother-in-law pair.

Leah worked on her horse, Moon. She had initially written to me: “I have an old man (27 years young) black (graying though) horse who I’ve owned for 22+ years and was thinking of maybe doing something of him. I didn’t know how difficult doing a BLACK animal would be though.” I had sent them photos of different completely black animals I had done and I suspect that helped move the needle. She wanted to have it be whimsical and magical as this gentle creature exudes that essence. Her material choices reflect that vision.

Note how the fabric choices portray the fanciful nature of her horse

For Mickey, I recommended that Betsy start with the head and eyes first. Often just having a complete face cut out allows students to go forward with more conviction and confidence.

We talked about how to get the shine in his coat from different black fabric, how to show the contours of his body through patterns in the material, and how taking a photo of the work helps one see what sometimes is missed with your eyes.

The first draft of Mickey pinned. Notice how the pattern in the face material adds depth to his face.

Both Leah and Betsy worked diligently through the morning. Leah and I had previously arranged to have a luncheon meal here due to the fact it would save time and it was Betsy’s birthday weekend. Leah brought soup and bread; I made salad and had some cupcakes from my daughter, Fancy Pants Cakes. The food break served them well, and then they continued their cutting and Leah began sewing her art piece.

Leah sewing her pet portrait, and Betsy practicing the machine applique stitch.

Since Betsy wasn’t sure what she wanted to do for her background, I had her practice the blanket stitch on a flower shape that I had left over from my previous classes.  

Creating the Pet Portrait Background: Six Months Later

I received an email from Betsy wondering if she could come over to work with me on the background for Mickey. She had some ideas, yet she wasn’t sure whether or not the colors worked well enough. So over the mountain she came with a basketful of material and Mickey, the fabric Mickey, that is.  

Betsy spoke of how during these months she had received compliments from friends and co-workers on her portrayal of Mickey. A number of them had encouraged her to finish it. “It’s going to be amazing!” they said.

Betsy knew she wanted her cat to be outside on grass with a soft sky in the background. She auditioned a number of grass materials. We dug into my scrap drawers and fabric bins to add to her sky options.  

Watching Betsy cut out the strips for the sky brought a smile to my face as there were no patterns for the layers of the atmosphere, just freehand cutting. She was doing what six months ago seemed impossible and doing it well. Most importantly she felt good about her progress. 

Mickey in the grass at sunset.

A Finished Pet Portrait: Mickey at Home

Almost a year from when we had the class, I received the photos below.  Mickey was finished and had his place of remembrance and honor in Betsy’s new house.

Musings on Fabric Art

I know how challenging it can be for people new to art quilts and fabric collage to overcome the mindset gremlins. I have been there.  

There was a time in my art and business journey when I had convinced myself:

I couldn’t put colors (fabric) together correctly.

Without any formal art training, my work would never be good enough. 

I wouldn’t learn to create pets that look real enough.

I couldn’t paint eyes or noses.

I couldn’t do Instagram, create a monthly newsletter, or write a blog.  

What I found out over time:

I can combine colors together well when I listen to the fabric speaking to me.

I can view fabric with different eyes, seeing shapes within patterns and colors.

My skill set improved through practice and the many portraits I created.

Practice works. 

I enjoy writing/sharing my art journey, observations, and techniques with others.

A joyFULL art piece is as valuable as one that is technically correct

When you create from the heart, it all falls into place.

These days when there is something new for my business, my phrase is “ I haven’t learned how to do that YET.”  And when those “You Won’t Ever Be Able to Do That, Martha” gremlins come marching up to my door, I invite them in, acknowledge the fear and doubt that surrounds them, and send them on their way gently with a “Oh but I will. I will learn it over time. You don’t need to protect me from failure. It won’t be perfect at first and I will keep improving the more I do something.” 

I can hear the Pinterest gremlins in the distance. I am armed with my “I haven’t learned Pinterest, YET” shield.

How Do You Create The Pet Portrait Eyes?

“They look so real” and “It looks as if his eyes are following me when I move to sit in his favorite chair” are some of the comments I’ve received on custom pet portraits or pet memorials over the years. 

My creation process for animal eyes over time has gone from solid black fabric blobs to two layers of fabric, thread “eye sparkle,” and now painted eyes. Let me share some observations and tips from travelling the pet faces pathway.

Multi-Fabric Eyes Have More Life than Solid Colored Ones

In a previous post Making a Pet Portrait: Cooper’s Memorial Pillow, I mentioned how I use enlarged black and white copies of the reference photo as my patterns. For the eyes, in the beginning years I would cut out the whole eye, pin that to black fabric, and cut out an eye. I would either attach it with a blanket stitch (looks like a ladder with one pole missing) or zigzag stitches.

As you can see, from when I first began making portraits, the animal doesn’t have that extra spark with this technique.

Both the dairy cow and Beckett below have two-tone eyes. Adding fabric around the eyes also helps them stand out. If you look closely, the cow has a bit of eye sparkle done with a fabric marker.

Create The Animal’s Eyes First

The other thing I used to do was create the whole animal and then add the eyes. Looking back, that made it more challenging for folks to provide the best feedback to me when their beloved pet wasn’t looking at them. While I knew my vision and what it would look like, my client often couldn’t see it. Crumb, below, illustrates this point. It’s hard to give feedback on the face colors when there are no eyes as a reference point.

Right around this time was when I also started consistently adding eye sparkle, using thread and a zig-zag stitch. Again, Crumb shows you how it’s done.  

Give Yourself the Gift of Grace in the Creation Process

My experience from 2017-2019 was that there were times when a pet’s eyes turned out well and there were times when they were simply outstanding. I wanted that outstanding level to be more frequent.

I learned that working on eyes in the morning produced the best results, as that’s my most productive time. I extended the process over a day or two if necessary to allow for observation and reflection time. Referring back to the original color photo on the computer for specific intricate details helped tremendously. And I learned to keep searching for the right eye color fabric because it’s here in my fabric stash somewhere.

Several of the artists I admire paint eyes and I thought about doing that for two years. Why so long? When I first started my business, it took me several years before I could accept the fact I was an artist. In my world, an artist had to have formal training, be able to draw from scratch and in a medium like paints, and, well…. the artist is/does list was very long. I kept thinking I had to go to a class with an expert animal fabric artist or painter to learn how to do painted eyes, and then COVID hit.

The #100DayProject, organized by Joanne Hawker, was a perfect opportunity to work on art for 100 days. While I made only 26 animals/animal eyes before gardening season started, I definitely developed confidence in painting eyes. Those creations rested at the top of my design wall for over a year.

This year I did the same challenge and allowed myself the grace to:

• Only work 20 minutes a day instead of finishing a whole animal each day
• Concentrate on the process, not the product
• Have fun, knowing I can do this.

So how did I do it, you ask? I traced the eye shape onto muslin fabric and with the photo on my left, I put small blobs of acrylic paint on a paper plate and slowly mixed them together, attempting to match the many colors in each eye. When it was close, I painted the part of the eye on the fabric that had that specific color. In some cases, I’d let it dry before adding the next color; in others I’d let it bleed into the bottom color a bit.

The trick for me was to keep walking away and coming back as that seemed to give me the best perspective on the detail coloration. Most of the painted eyes you see in this post took 2-3 days to come together, with maybe only 5-10 minutes each day. I think that had more to do with my slow developing confidence in the process, rather than anything else.

The Process That Works for You is the Right Way

This for me is the greatest learning from my 86 days (so far) of learning to paint eyes. I finished my first commission with painted eyes; I truly like how Deery and Fauna look.

I may use paint eyes from here on out; I may go with my tried and true fabric method instead. I likely will offer clients the option of fabric or paint.

The most important thing is that something I thought I couldn’t do (paint eyes), I discovered that yes, I can do it. The bonus is I really, really like what I’ve done.

Two Different Techniques: Fabric or Painted Polar Bear Eyes

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you may have seen the Polar Bear, one of my WIPs (works-in-progress). Originally I had done her eyes in fabric and then I tried painting them. Here’s the comparison.

Different techniques, different effects.  What’s your preference?

Triple New News 

There a number of new things that happened at The Quilted Jardin this month!  

This blog post outlined the first bit of news – that folks now have an option of painted or fabric eyes for their pet portraits or memorials. 

The online store launched on May 6th with the following collections:

• Pet Collection
• Veggie Collection
• On the Farm Collection (farm animals)
• Birds of a Feather Collection
• Special Pieces (covered bridges, custom sunflowers, and more)

The monthly drawing for choice of a free 8″x10″ nature-themed matted fabric picture or set of 3 nature-themed cards is beginning in June for email subscribers only. 

Sign for the email newsletter to learn about upcoming happenings, be entered for monthly drawing,  and hear when special subscriber-only discounts happen.  

When my son was 10, we decided it would be a good idea to adopt a cat. My only condition was it had to be litter trained already. We found a no-kill shelter 25 minutes away and headed off. I should have known when the sign on the door said Two for One Special – Today Only I was in trouble.

The shelter looked like a home, with the cats hanging out in an area up three stairs. Nursing moms and kittens were in cages, and there were at least 20 roaming free. Then the hard part… deciding which one would come home with us. The petting and the purring, the looking, the petting. He chose Orphan, a male tabby.

And then he saw HIM and started laughing. An orange and white cat sitting on the toilet (lid down) in the bathroom. Think 11-year-old humor. “Mom, he’s just like Mac!” (deceased grandparents’ cat). The spitting image, along with the same semi-aloof (but not really) attitude of “Well, took you long enough to get here. Now are you taking me home, or what?” Greater forces seemed to be at work here, as we both needed that connection with his paternal grandparents. I couldn’t say no. Niles came home with us also.

Sometimes the Animals Choose Us

Fast forward some months. My son wanted a cat to go back and forth between his dad’s house and mine. Long story, but back to the shelter we go. There was a calico cat, Sprinkles, who approached my son for petting and even semi-wrapped herself around his neck when he sat down. Of course, she was our choice. The staff said this was the first time Sprinkles ever willingly went near a male human; she’d usually scoot up to top of cat tree when approached.

I share this story with you to remind you of the gift to our lives of an adopted or rescued pet brings. Whatever their lives were before, these three cats were bedrocks and lifelines over the years for myself and my son. It was Niles who was featured in my first pet portrait ever. Snuggling with Sprinkles helped my son journey through some tough preteen and teen years; Niles was my comforter and neck warmer as I went through chemotherapy and radiation. And Orphan, well he was our hunter, leaving us “gifts” on the kitchen floor.    

We may rescue an animal from a shelter, yet they often also rescue us.