WCB

Weekend Cat Blogging #385: Halloween Black Cat Edition

We at CatSynth are excited to be hosting Weekend Cat Blogging Halloween Black Cat Edition. It has been a tradition for us since we started this blog back in 2006!

Black cats like Luna are sleekly beautiful and elegant, but still face challenges from old superstitions, especially at this time of year. Black cats often have the most difficulty getting adopted in shelters, and some of the posts from groups like Black Cats in Need of Rescue/Adoption on Facebook can be heartbreaking. Yet because of the superstitions and potential abuse around Halloween time, some shelters suspend black-cat adoption in October.

But this weekend, we want to celebrate black cats, and indeed all cats. So if you would like to participate, please leave a comment below, leave a comment for us on our Facebook page, or tweet us @catsynth.

Our friends in Texas Samantha Black,Clementine and Maverick are doing their best to be “spooky” this weekend as part of their Photo Hunt Challenge.

Over on our Facebook page, fan Hans Blieb contributed a few black cat pictures, including the cute one above. He also reminds us that nothing is spookier than a wet cat.

Also in the scary department, we were offline for several hours yesterday due to problems with our webhosting service. But as you can see, we’re back online now and ready to continue with the round-up. We will be accepting entries through Monday because of the delay.

It wouldn’t be Weekend Cat Blogging without a visit from our friend and black cat extraordinaire Jules. He joins us from Birmingham, Alabama and never misses a weekend that Luna hosts.

Meanwhile Tillie and Julie, our friends from Nova Scotia, remind us that black cats rule! They list many of the wonderful traits possessed by black felines, and encourage everyone to consider giving a black cat a home. We also think both Tillie and Julie look a lot like Luna.

Another from a fan on our Facebook page. Mickle Boulevard submits this cute feline photo with the caption: “What’s a router? If not for sits then why iz it warmz?” That’s indeed a good question.

The Cats at Wildcat Woods have some adventures for Halloween, including a pumpkin carving contest, and this photo of Minnie posing with a pumpkin.

At Animal Shelter Volunteer, Oracle is enjoying a relaxing Sunday and he is ready for adoption! Very cute. The cats and people at Animal Shelter Volunteer are in Connecticut and in the path of the oncoming hurricane. Stay safe, everyone!

And we close our black-cat and orange edition of Weekend Cat Blogging with a nod our own black-and-orange World Champion SF Giants!

Weekend Cat Blogging: The Return of the Fog

After a week or extraordinarily blue skies and warm days and nights in San Francisco, our regular scheduled fog has returned this morning, bathing everything in bright grey-white glow:

Luna is enjoying looking out the window onto the patio, contemplating something.

We actually quite like the fog here, as long as it doesn’t get to cold. But this morning does have a melancholy quality to it is well. Like the fog, it might dissipate during the day, or it might not.

Weekend Cat Blogging #384 is hosted by Jules at Judi’s Mind Over Matter.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat from their new home in Texas.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Angry Birds

Luna is spending a few minutes playing with her newest toy, a gift to her from recent visitors to CatSynth HQ:

For those who are not familiar with this particular critter, it is the original Angry Bird from the mobile and web game Angry Birds. It’s a rather silly but fun game, more in the style of arcade games than those really annoying “casual games” that were all the rage in the tech startup world and now thankfully on the decline. We don’t play a lot of computer games these days, though Luna did have fun with her toy.

I think Luna prefers the real angry birds that she sees through the window, especially the big fat city pigeons.

Weekend Cat Blogging #382 is hosted by the late great Meowza at iMeowza.

Meanwhile, Ritzi will be hosting Carnival of the Cats tomorrow at iInfidel.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator

Weekend Cat Blogging: Luna and Kitty Grass

With a major performance safely behind us, and a whole week until the next one, this weekend is an opportunity to catch up on enjoying simple things. For Luna, that means enjoying some kitty grass.

Luna loves her kitty grass, as we have posted before. But’s been a while since we featured it here on CatSynth.

We recently found that one of our local grocery stores is once again carrying the Rosy’s, the brand of kitty grass featuring a cat that looks just like Luna. As if it was made especially for her.

This photo was taken with the “Foodie Pak” lens, film and flash presets on the iPhone Hipstamatic app. Although it was originally designed for photographing delectables from urban food trucks and late-night pop-up stands, we thought it would work well for a feline treat.

On the topic of food and cats together, Weekend Cat Blogging #381 is hosted by the tabbycats in Vienna Kashim, Othello and Salome at PaulChens FoodBlog?!

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

And the Friday Ark is on hiatus this week.

Weekend Cat Blogging #379

Here we see Luna rolling around trying to be extra cute. This is a nearly daily ritual now, where she tries to convince me to stay and play with her instead of going out to whatever it is I am going to. She is hard to resist.

This photo was taken on the iPhone with Instagram, not nearly as versatile as Hipstamatic, but convenient for instant sharing. Especially with cat photos, it’s the camera (or camera app) that one has on hand that counts.

Weekend Cat Blogging #379 is up at Mind of Mog.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up tomorrow at Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat, where Nikita and Elvira are getting ready to move from California to Texas.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Behind the Camera

For years, we have been showing Luna in front of the camera for Weekend Cat Blogging. This week, we feature Luna behind the camera:

She was understandably curious about this odd setup in her favorite perch at the top of the stairs. It was in fact part of a more complex photo project I was doing, and the top of the stairs was the perfect place to frame the subject with floor as a backdrop.

You will have to wait for a future Wordless Wednesday or see my Open Studios events in September and October to see what was in front of the camera.

Weekend Cat Blogging #378 is hosted by pam and all the cats at Sidewalk Shoes.

The Carnival of Cats will be hosted this Sunday by the Three Tabbycats in Vienna, Kashim, Othello and Salome.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator. This is the 400th edition, quite a milestone!

Weekend Cat Blogging: Luna, Modernist Cat

For Weekend Cat Blogging, we have a photo of Luna once again posing with our modernist decor at CatSynth HQ. Don’t you think she would make a great model for Dwell?

As with most shots of Luna, this one was by chance. She sat down on the corner of the Le Corbusier-knockoff sofa and I managed to grab the iPad and snap a photo of her. No effects or processing, just a straight photo.

Luna also gave us a bit of a scare last weekend. I got home from one of my performances to find her quite sick with some sort of stomach problem, scary enough that we went to the emergency vet for the first time. (Whenever one sees red associated with one’s cat, it’s a major warning sign.) Fortunately, she seems to have recovered well and is back to her normal self. I still don’t know what happened, but I am grateful that she is fine now.

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

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

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator

Weekend Cat Blogging #376: South Berkeley Cat

I encountered this cat in south Berkeley yesterday, as I was unloading my equipment for the Reconnaissance Fly show at the nearby Starry Plough bar.

This cat was quite friendly and greeted me with a tiny voice. I of course had to set the equipment aside for a moment to play. A passerby saw us and said “Too friendly!”, to which I replied “there is no such thing.”

Despite my invitation, the cat did not join us at the Starry Plough for the performance later that evening. But the show did go quite well.

Weekend Cat Blogging #376 is hosted by Vincent at Judi’s Mind Over Matter. We’re wondering where Jules is – he looks a lot like the cat we are featuring this weekend.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat. Our friends Nikita, Elvira and Keeril are preparing for a big move, and we wish them well!

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Black Cat Appreciation Day

August 17th is Black Cat Appreciation Day. Many websites are celebrating with photos and stories, including House Panthers, as well as The Cheezburger Network (home of LolCats), and even Daily Kos. The Cheezburger Network site has information on how this tradition got started, and a musical tribute. We join in the celebration with photos of Luna.

Black cats have a particularly elegant and sophisticated appearance, there is something inherently “modern” about them. And many of the black cats of met have had the sweetest personalities. I knew that I wanted a black cat, and was very fortunate to find Luna.

Sadly, many black cats continue to have a hard time finding adoptive homes, and seem to be particularly vulnerable in some municipal shelters. And while cases of abuse of black cats because of superstition are fortunately rare, the superstitions do continue. This is my favorite counter-statement ever!

Yes, we at CatSynth are Marx Brothers’ fans 🙂

This post will also serve as our Weekend Cat Blogging contribution. Weekend Cat Blogging #375 will be hosted at iMeowza.

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 #374

We at CatSynth are happy to be hosting Weekend Cat Blogging #374. If you would like to participate with your feline-related blog post, you can so so by leaving your name and link in the “linky widget” below. This is the first time we are actually trying this process for leaving links, so if it doesn’t work, please leave a comment instead.

This is going to be a another busy musical weekend, so we will likely not get to producing the detailed round-up until later…and that time has come, so let us continue.

Samantha, Clementine and Maverick are having some early morning fun. It looks dark, so it must be very early. But they are ready for the brighter part of the morning and invite everyone to come join them in play.

Wow, that is a lot of white kittens. All of home look quite a bit like Truffle and Brulee. And this is not an accident, as they welcome a special visitor this weekend. Follow the link to find out who it is.

The Cats of Wildcat Woods had a fun weekend. In addition to a brand new computer (which is usually fun unless it doesn’t work), they got to visit with Marg of Marg’s Animals. Marg is a regular supporter of our Wordless Wednesday photography here at CatSynth.

At Animal Shelter Volunteer, Maggie and Milo are enjoying a relaxing Sunday together. They are among the many wonderful cats at PAWS looking for their forever homes.

The inline “linky widget” was an interesting experiment this week. It seems like participants did not immediately see their links show up, though they are there now for me – and thus we have an actual WCB round-up. Please do let us know if you see them or have any other feedback, as we evaluate this feature for further use.