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Tag: Luna

  • Weekend Cat Blogging: Hallowe’en Black Cat Edition

    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

    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

    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.

  • Weekend Cat Blogging: Luna and Apple

    The influence of Apple and Steve Jobs extends deep into this site and into our lives at CatSynth HQ. For today’s Weekend Cat Blogging, we look at a few of the many photos of Luna with Apple computers and devices:

    This last photo is one of our many taken with the Hipstamatic app on the iPhone.  Indeed, most of the photos, even those not taken with an iPhone, are processed on a MacBook or Mac Pro.  Nearly all of the writing is done on a MacBook, and occasionally on an iPad.  The technology of Apple has become ubiquitous, even down to blogs featuring cats.

    Weekend Cat Blogging #331, is hosted by pam at Sidewalk Shoes, where Smudge says Happy Fall to everyone.

    Carnival of the Cats will be up tomorrow at Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat.

    And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

  • Carnival of the Cats 394

    Carnival of the Cats 394

    We welcome everyone to Carnival of the Cats #394, a weekly round-up of cat articles from a variety of blogs. New participants are always welcome; and you can find out more at the official Carnival of the Cats site.

    Many cat bloggers are marking LIVESTRONG Day, to recognize those who are currently fighting cancer and to remember those who have lost their lives to these terrible diseases. So we are dedicating this week’s Carnival to that effort. Cancer is complex and diverse and affects felines as well as humans, and we hope we continue to find ways to help people survive.

    And so let us begin with the round-up.

    Cats love resting in the sunshine. And the cats at The Second Half are no different. Above, we see Ed getting a little solar action. Follow the link to see Lizzie in the window.

    At Gattina’s My Cats and Funny Stories, Arthur has not been feeling well of late. But he is on the mend and feeling like a king. And as such, he is regally demanding to be served chicken, liver and mortadella. We’re glad to see he is doing well!

    Catsparella introduces us to The Cats of Disneyland. Inspired by an interview with Ryan Gosling, the article discusses the presence of feral cats at the Anaheim theme park, and the complex relationship as out-of-side rodent control (and the obvious irony of this for Disney).

    If you can’t get enough feline news, Nikita and Elvira are launching the World Mews Repurrt. “We consider it our mission to bring you the news that possibly no-one but our fellow Felines, and their Humans, could give a fig about!”

    Our friends at Animal Shelter Volunteer are marking LIVESTRONG Day by honoring family members who are battling cancer and remembering their human and feline loved ones who have lost the battle. We love their graphic for today!

    Samantha, Clementine and “honorary cat” Maverick are also marking LIVESTRONG by hosting this year’s slideshow. We encourage readers to check it out. We thank them are their Mom Chandra for all the effort putting this together.

    Cokie is a self-described “Bohemian cat blogging from his Hollywood Boulevard apartment”. We’re always happy to hear from more urban cats.

    That’s the round-up so far. We will continue to post new entries the end of Sunday US Pacific Time. Thanks to everyone who participated.

    Although not officially participating this time, Mog of Mind of Mog and coordinator of the Carnival of the Cats is also recognizing LIVESTRONG Day in honor both human and cat family members who have lost the battle with cancer, and we wanted to give her a mention here today.

  • Weekend Cat Blogging #330 and Photo Hunt: Covered

    This week we are reaching back into the archives once again for our combined Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt. This week’s theme is covered, and we have photos of Luna covered by a glass surface.

    She quite enjoys sitting under glass during the daytime. It’s a way to experience the sunshine and feel “inside” at the same time.

    Weekend Cat Blogging #330 is hosted by Mind of Mog.

    Photo Hunt 285 is hosted by tnchick. The weekend’s theme is covered.

    The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted here at CatSynth tomorrow! If you would like to participate, you can use the Handy Carnival Submission page™ or leave us a comment below.

  • Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Yellow

    Today’s combined Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt is on the theme Yellow.  So we reach into the CatSynth archives for this photo of Luna with a yellow lens effect on Hipstamatic, taken in August 2010.

    I don’t particularly like doing re-runs on the blog, but this photo seemed perfect and I am a bit pressed for time this morning, with preparations for San Francisco Open Studios next week and a meeting for another upcoming project.  So it will have to do.  It’s also surprising to see how far things have come in one year, both with the app and my ability to use it.  Many of the recent Wordless Wednesday pictures have also used the Hipstamatic.

    Yellow is also the color of the LIVESTRONG campaign, in support of those who are currently fighting cancer and the memory of those who have lost their lives.

    Many in the cat-blogging community participated in an event the first week of October last year, and will be doing so again this October 2.

    Weekend Cat Blogging #329 is hosted by Kashim, Othello and Salome at PaulChens FoodBlog?! We send them our thoughts this week for the recent loss of their beloved dog, Ben.

    Photo Hunt #284 is hosted by tnchick. This week’s theme is Yellow.

    Carnival of the Cats will be up tomorrow at Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat. Next week’s COTC will be hosted right here at CatSynth!

    And the Friday Ark is back at the the modulator.

  • Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Wooden Cats

    For this week’s combined Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt on the theme “Wooden”, we present some wooden cats:

    We also reach back into the CatSynth Archives™ for this photo of Luna enjoying some sunshine near a wooden table.

    In an environment I like to think of as dominated by glass and chrome, wooden objects and surfaces abound. Indeed, many of my acoustic musical instruments are made of wood.

    Weekend Cat Blogging is hosted by Billy Sweetfeets, who is also hosting Carnival of the Cats this weekend (we pulled double duty recently ourselves, so good luck).

    Photo Hunt 283 is hosted by tnchick. This week’s theme is Wooden.

  • Weekend Cat Blogging #327

    Fellow black cat Jules at Judi’s Mind of Matter is hosting Weekend Cat Blogging #327, so we’re ready to participate with recent photos of Luna.

    Yes, more fun with Hipstamatic on the iPhone. It’s a fun and unforgiving form of photography – you are pretty much limited to what you get from the capture. The standard digital manipulations would destroy the overall retro quality of the image.

    Weekend Cat Blogging #327 is hosted by Jules at Judi’s Mind Over Matter. And they have cheezy fish!

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

    And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

  • Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Drink

    For today’s combined Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt theme of Drink, we both dig into the CatSynth archives and present some more iPhone Hipstamatic experiments.

    First, from the archives (all the way back to 2007), we see Luna enjoying a drink of water:

    And some experimental photos of cat figurines and a modernist shot glass.

    I tried two different settings. I like the black-and-white film simulation, but I also wanted a color version to bring out the blue color of the glass.

    And one more of Luna today wandering by my morning cup of coffee:

    Weekend Cat Blogging will be hosted by Kashim, Othello and Salome at PaulChen FoodBlog?!”

    Photo Hunt: Drink (#279) is hosted by tnchick.

    The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted tomorrow by When Cats Attack!

    And the Friday Ark is at the modulator