black cat

Weekend Cat Blogging with Luna: Under the Glass

Luna under the glass

We’re in the midst of a heatwave in San Francisco, and CatSynth HQ gets exceptionally warm on these days. It’s on warm sunny days like this that Luna is especially of fond of napping underneath glass tables.

It’s been nice featuring Luna three times in the past week on the blog, but hopefully I will have some time for other posts as well, including getting through the backlog of music and art reviews from the past month or so.

Carnival of the Cats will be coming to Pet’s Garden Blog this Sunday.

Weekend Cat Blogging with Luna: The camera that you have

It’s always about the camera that one has on hand, especially with cat portraits that are in the moment. When Luna jumped on my lap for some affection the other day, the only camera I had was the iPad.

Luna on lap - iPad Photo

It is lower resolution and optics compared to the iPhone or my DSLR, but pointed correctly it still captures Luna’s features and essence.

This morning, I happened to have the DSLR on hand, and Luna was quite well posed. So it was time for an impromptu photo shoot.

Luna closeup portrait

The photos were a good reminder of what the good camera and lenses can do and the “iThingies” cannot. Here, one can control the optics to get a particularly rich and detailed portrait. Of course, it helps that Luna cooperated by staying relatively still, only moving her head into different poses like a professional model.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at Life from a Cat’s Perspective.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging with Luna: Gotcha Day Report

As regular readers know, last Monday, June 10, was Luna’s Gotcha Day. Thanks to everyone who sent her warm wishes. She certainly enjoyed her day.

luna_bluefish_roll_c

We also made a special dinner that we could share together. These fish cakes, from the book Meow Chow are both quite delicious and safe for cats:

fishcakes_c

Luna was quite excited by the aroma of the fish cooking. And then it was time for her to enjoy her share:

luna_fish_dinner_c

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday by Nikita and Elvira at The Opinionated Pussycat.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Happy Gotcha Day, Luna!

Today, June 10, is the eighth anniversary of Luna’s adoption, otherwise known as her “gotcha day.” We woke up to find this wonderful graphic waiting at The Cat Blogosphere:

luna_sphynxing_c

After eight years, Luna continues to make every day a delight I certainly hope I do the same for her.

AC and Luna

We will celebrate this evening, but in the meantime, please join me in wishing Luna a Happy Gotcha Day!

Weekend Cat Blogging: Luna and the Blue Fish

Luna still loves her blue fish toy. She carries it around like a teddy bear and cuddles with it. Here is a short video of her play with it – stick around for the end to hear her voice.

If your cat has a favorite toy like, we’d love to hear about it.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted by Ritzi at iInfidel.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging with Luna: Modular Synth

Luna and modular synth

Luna sits down to relax near the modular synth. The purple Monorocket case is completely packed with modules and a mess of wires that are the result of improvised patching. Fortunately, Luna seems to show no interest in the wires, but is more focused on her toys, such as the blue fish (one of her favorites).

The modular is currently set up in the living room for practicing ahead of my duo performance tomorrow night with David Samas. Apropos of Weekend Cat Blogging, the theme of the performance is leopard print. You can see a video of our past performance below and read more about it in this post.

Amar Chaudhary and David Samas at Turquoise Yantra Grotto, April 5, 2013 from CatSynth on Vimeo.

Carnival of the Cats will be up tomorrow at Mind of Mog.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator. Our modular synth contains modulators 🙂

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Lazy Cat?

For this week’s Photo Hunt theme of lazy, we have a photo of Luna napping in an extraordinary sun patch.

Luna being a Lazy Cat in the Sun.

While Luna may be able to enjoy a lazy time this weekend, I do not have that luxury. Both today and tomorrow are filled with band rehearsals – three rehearsals for two bands, including preparation for an album release next week – plus stops at an art exhibition and a cat video festival in Oakland tonight. Yes, a cat video festival. There are all of course rewarding experiences and I freely chose to commit to them, so I’m not complaining. But I do sometimes think there is wisdom in the path of the “lazy cat.”

I did hesitate to write this post because of the pejorative use of “lazy” to describe cats. It’s not uncommon to hear cats’ propensity for napping described this way, and I read frequent unfair comparisons to dogs. But domestic cats fill the roles they were bred for, and do so quite well. There are working cats, on farms, in wine cellars, and even at one of our neighborhood arts institutions, SOMArts. The role of the house cat is to provide companionship, an important social and emotional function. Luna does this spectacularly, as do many of the other cats I have met though blogs. And it not a role without risks, as companion animals are especially vulnerable to abuse (sadly, so are humans in domestic situations). So let us honor the “lazy cats” and maybe learn something from them about being in the moment.

The Saturday Photo Hunt is up. This week’s theme is lazy.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday by the Florida Furkids.

And the Friday Ark is on hiatus this week, but will be back on May 17.