Luna

Weekend Cat Blogging: SF SPCA Holiday Windows 2011

Each year, the San Francisco SPCA teams up with Macy’s in San Francisco to feature adoptable pets in the holiday window displays at their main store in Union Square.  And we at CatSynth present some of the cats that are featured in the windows and available for adoption.

The windows featured a theme this year that appeared to me as a series of gears and old machinery.  It turns out that the theme is in fact “Make a Wish” and the machinery represents a “wish factory”.  Clearly the wishes here are for loving homes for all the adoptable animals.

The program is always popular with visitors to busy Union Square.  And it has been quite successful, placing many animals in homes and raising funds for the San Francisco SPCA’s many other programs.

The holiday windows continue through January 1, with different animals rotating through each day.  If you are in San Francisco this holiday season, I encourage you to check it out.  Those who aren’t going to be in the area can still enjoy the displays via the live video feeds.

You can find out more about Macy’s SF SPCA Holiday Windows at this website, including hours, volunteer opportunities, and donation information.

Weekend Cat Blogging #341 is hosted by Billy Sweetfeets Gingersnap.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday by the always hard-working Nikita and Elivra at Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Light Stripes

For Weekend Cat Blogging and the Photo Hunt, we preset this photo of Luna with stripes of light.

This was once again taken with the Hipstamatic on the iPhone, using relatively simple lens and film effects that bring out the light.

Weekend Cat Blogging #340 is hosted by Pam at Sidewalk Shoes, with help from Coco.

The Saturday PhotoHunt has a new home. This week’s theme is Lights. Thank you to tnchick for hosting over the past years.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this weekend by Samantha, Clementine and Maverick at Life from a Cat’s Perspective.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Homecoming and Birthday

Both Luna and I returned to CatSynth HQ this week after our respective sojourns. And just in time for her 7th birthday this past Wednesday.

Luna received this birthday card from a close friend of ours in Canada.

It’s been a very busy week since returning, with both a curated show and a performance, a major application due, and a pair of shows next week as well. But we took time out to celebrate. Here Luna is enjoying some yummy food. Often she dismisses such offerings, but on this occasion she devoured it with abandon.

And then of course it’s time for play:

Good food and play. It’s just a normal day for a house cat (except for the card).

Weekend Cat Blogging #339 is hosted by Meowza.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday by Samantha, Clementine and Maverick.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Two

For our combined Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt theme of two, we present a pair of Hipstamatic photos of Luna. A single pose, but two sets of lens and film effects:


It’s a sleepy morning for us, after I recover from two music performances over the past two days, and Luna basks in some sunshine after a wet and rainy Friday.

This weekend also marks the 400th Edition of the Carnival of Cats. That is quite a milestone, and we are happy to help celebrate! It is hosted by Mog, we has been the “Carnival Caretaker” over the past couple of years There is a history of the Carnival posted by last week’s hosts Nikita and Elvira of Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat.

Photo Hunt #291 is hosted by tnchick. The theme this week is two.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

11:11 on 11/11/11

At 11:11 on this day 11/11/11, I snapped screenshots of both the iPad and iPhone featuring Luna.

Of course, the symmetry and homogeneity of the date and time is quite attractive, and unique (at least within a given century). The number 111111 is also interesting when you decompose it into primes:

111111 = 11 * 13 * 3 * 37 * 7

I find the prime factorization quite poetic.

We can also factor the date and time together (11:11:11 on 11/11/11):

111111111111 = 11 * 13 * 3 * 37 * 7 * 101 * 9901

Note quite as poetic as the previous example, but still interesting. In particular, 9901 is interesting as the greatest prime factor for any repeating series of 12 numbers. Other related properties can be seen at the site Prime Curios.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Hallowe’en Black Cat Edition

We at CatSynth welcome everyone to the Hallowe’en Edition of Weekend Cat Blogging! It has become a tradition for us, as we have hosted the Hallowe’en edition since 2006.

Luna poses for today’s event in a Hipstamatic photo with shades of orange and green for the season. Black cats are of course beautiful, sleek and elegant. Yet they are often the last to be adopted, and still subject to the (peculiarly American) superstition about black cats and bad luck or the occult. These stories are told over and over again – but one particularly amusing one intersects with another American tradition in October, the World Series:

Early-20th-century New York Giants manager John McGraw was notoriously superstitious, so fans tossed black cats in front of the Giants’ dugout to jinx him. In response, humane societies suspended adopting black cats during the World Series, which is played just before Halloween.

Many shelters continue to suspend adoptions of black cats around Hallowe’en, out of fear of abuse or the situation where people might adopt them as “living decorations” for the holidays only to return them to the shelter afterwards. The instances of abuse are fortunately few and far between in reality.

So this weekend we want to have a positive celebration of the Hallowe’en holiday. We welcome the participation of all cats, including those who have not participated in WCB before, but we especially welcome black cats this weekend! To participate, leave us a comment below, tweet us @CatSynth on Twitter with hashtag #WCB, or leave a comment on our facebook page with hashtag #WCB.

First up, we have a black cat Teebee representing with music gear, submitted by Stefan Robbers via our facebook page. Thanks for submitting such a perfect picture for this weekend!

In addition to everything else that happens in October, it is also the height of college football season, and Truffle is rooting for the University of South Carolina this weekend and decked out in the school colors.

Our friends from Vienna Kashim, Othello and Salome invite everyone to play trick or treat this Hallowe’en. It looks like this trio is ready for some treats.

 

Our friends from Nova Scotia Tillie and Georgia are sharing Hallowe’en photo shoots with us. Tillie’s house-panther photo shoot didn’t go exactly as planned. But it’s still very cute, and has a nice black-and-white contrast. Georgia’s photo shoot came out great!

Our friends in Texas, Samantha, Clementine and (honorary cat) Maverick have some spooky Hallowe’en pictures. But they’re all in good fun, and they wish everyone a safe holiday.

Meanwhile, in Southern California, Nikita and Elvira have a scary song for humans who share their lives with cats. Sung to the tune of “This Little Light of Mine”.

The family of Laura and Taffy are remembering Jet Dragon, their handsome house panther who unexpectedly went to the rainbow bridge last year. Hallowe’en is sad time, as it would have been his birthday. We send them our thoughts.

The Cats of Wildcat Woods are featuring the youngest house panther in their family, Sweatpea who is attempting to escape from under a black wig. They also share the interesting history of the Addams family and its origins in The New Yorker.

Gracie may be gray, but she wishes all the black cats a Happy Hallowe’en and she rests up for the weekend’s fun

Sometimes Hallowe’en means being tortured with costumes. Rusty managed to escape, but his feline friend wasn’t so fortunate.

More costume fun. House panther Carlos is a cowboy this Hallowe’en. It’s clear that he is thrilled by this. In fact, all the cats over at Twinkletoe Tails seem z absolutely delighted by their costumes, as seen in their slideshow.

By contrast, we think that Growl Tiger (GT) has the right idea for how to celebrate today.

Our friends at Animal Shelter Volunteer Life wish everyone a happy MEOW-lo-ween. We particularly like the “Chef Moosey” costume, but also the fact that some of the cats from PAWS, black and other colors, are joining in the festivities. We appreciate the work they do for the cats at PAWS all year.

We will continue to add entries as they come in through the end of Sunday (Pacific US time), so keep them coming. And thanks to everyone who submitted to make this a great holiday edition!

Weekend Cat Blogging #333: Works of Art

Luna contemplates the sculpture Pierced Screen by Joshua-Tree-based artist J Michael Smiley.

She has a good sense for how to contrast her natural shape against stark geometric lines. Actually, given our art and decor, she doesn’t have much choice in the matter.

I bring the outdoor sculptures inside every winter. This month has been rather volatile, ranging from a heatwave to violent rainstorms and now to more typical crisp autumn weather. We were caught completely by surprise with the storms, with both heavy rain and winds. A particularly strong gust of wind one of the outdoor sculptures crashing to the ground.

Fortunately, it was not damaged, perhaps a few scratches but nothing worse than usual wear and tear. I consider the rust sculpture more sensitive to rain, so that one came indoors for storage. Luna has been fascinated by it ever since.

I would like to clean it and fix the rust surface a bit, but I don’t have much expertise in this despite owning multiple rust sculptures.

Our friend Parker of Perfectly Parker has received some very sad news this past week. Our thoughts are with Parker and her family.

Weekend Cat Blogging #333 is hosted by Billy Sweetfeets.

Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging will be here for Hallowe’en next week!

Weekend Cat Blogging: Talking and Heatwave

Luna is often quite talkative in the morning. Recently, she started launching into a long monologue while I had my iPhone handy to capture it.

Of course, she gets some scritches at the end. I am always curious what it is she is trying to say.

It has been quite warm the last few days in San Francisco, and CatSynth HQ always tends to run a bit hotter than its surroundings.

Luna tries to balance lying in the sun while trying to stay a bit cool in her fur suit.

Tomorrow (October 16) is National Feral Cat Day (who knew?).

Alley Cat Allies launched National Feral Cat Day on our 10th anniversary in 2001 to raise awareness about feral cats, promote Trap-Neuter-Return, and recognize the millions of compassionate Americans who care for them.

Events will be taking place around the United States to demonstrate compassion and support humane treatment of all cats. Follow the link to the map to see if there is an event near you. I also like the poster.

Weekend Cat Blogging #332 is hosted by Jules and Vincent at Judi’s Mind Over Matter. Jules is looking very Luna-like in his black-and-white portrait 🙂

The Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at iMeowza.