weekend cat blogging

Weekend Cat Blogging: Halloween and Black Cat Edition

We at CatSynth are proud to again host the Hallowe’en Edition of Weekend Cat Blogging. We also want to take a moment to appreciate the chat noirs, the black cats.

Every year one can read articles both celebrating black cats, and warning for their safety. From the Santa Barbara Independent:

The superstition surrounding black cats cause them to be the target of pranks on Halloween. Therefore, people with black cats should be extra careful about keeping them safely inside on Halloween. The concern is serious enough that most humane societies avoid adopting out black cats during the Halloween season due to the risk of them being harmed.

Superstitions and unfounded prejudice persist to this day – and not just at Sarah Palin rallies. Fortunately, stories of harm to cats on Halloween is relatively rare. But there is more concern for black cats being used as “Hallowe’en props”, only to be returned to the shelter or abandoned after the holiday. But black cats have a difficult time during the whole year, not just on Hallowe’en. From The Cat’s Meow by Kathy Covey:

When you look at the fate of black cats in animal shelters, you’d surmise they were the most unlucky of creatures. Overlooked in favor of their orange neighbor, last of the litter chosen, passed over for the more visible white cat — they make up the largest segment of the Cat Adoption Team’s shelter population.

But Covey then describes the virtues of black cats, and leaves us with this thought:

So all of you who have and love black cats, consider yourself fortunate to be in the presence of such a genetic marvel, the black cat!

So we at CatSynth would like to celebrate black cats this weekend. All cats are welcome to join, but if their is a chat noir in the house, we would ask you to feature him or her in your post. As always, you can leave a comment below, or contact us, and we’ll add you to the round-up over the course of the weekend.

And so let us begin…

Cece comes over trick-or-treating this morning at iInfidel. Looks like he wants in.

Want to see something scary? Check out this baking disaster at Paulchens FoodBlog. Othello seems unperturbed, and is determined to relax this weekend.

Welcome to Pam and Patchouli of Sidewalk Shoes, who are first time participants in Weekend Cat Blogging! Patchouli give us her fake "smile for the camera" smile for the occasion. Please do stop by to welcome them.

Black cats can be very helpful, and Samantha helps recycle bags (that is, after first playing with them). See Samantha, and Tigger, and fall foliage at Life From a Cat's Perspective.

Rosa's Yummy Yums features the lovely black cat Marushka and a tribute to cats from Jules Verne.

Luna's fellow house panther Diamond Emerald-Eyes shares this "fangtastic graphic" with us. She also hosted Costumed Capers this past Thursday, a veritable feline masquerade. We think we spotted a few of our friends there.

Over at Gattina's, Rosie attempts to be scary for Hallowe'en. But being scary requires some serious follow-through. Let's go see if Rosie succeeds, or just ends up being cute.

The handsome black denizen of the The House of Chaos, Loup-Garou, joins us this weekend. He is suffering from stress, which was probably exacerbated by a trip to the vet. We hope that things calm down a bit.

The story over that The House of the (Mostly) Black Cats is more comfy than scary, where Mini enjoys a unique way of sitting in a lap.

It's time to turn back the clock in Stockholm at The World According to Pia. We are also reminded to "appreciate cats, no matter what colour, as well as other animals, as the most amazing, loveable, adorable, quirky beings they are." We at CatSynth couldn't agree more.

We remain in Stockholm for a moment to visit with Klara at Anne's Food. Klara may be the opposite of a black cat, but she is still very cute.

More cuteness, and more than a little mischief, can be found today at Cuisine Guylaine.

Thanks to everyone who participated this week. We will continue to post entries through Monday morning.

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Weekend Cat Blogging: Rest and Play

Well, the shows are now behind us. And so before the busy work week starts up again, we at CatSynth take a moment to relax:

and to play:

Weekend Cat Blogging is hosted this week by Niko and Cloud of The Cats in Maryland.

The Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos is hosted by Diamond Emerald Eyes – you can’t go wrong with an event hosted by a black cat with emerald eyes.

The Carnival of the Cats goes up today at Life from a Cats Perspective.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Don’t forget, the Hallowe’en Edition of Weekend Cat Blogging will be hosted right here at CatSynth!

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Preparing for performances next week.

With two performances coming up, next Thursday and Saturday, we at CatSynth are very busy preparing. Actually, it’s more crisis management. Luna’s serene appearance belies the fact that we at CatSynth are dealing with serious equipment failures. First, the Mr Echo pedal has been having its problems. It was mostly an issue with the power jack, which I was able to repair. But after an evening of fantastic practice and experimentation, it stopped working again. This time the power appears to be fine, but now there is no sound.

In the middle of all of this, our MacBook had a serious hard drive failure – or least that what it appears to be. One moment, we’re happily web browsing, the next a spinning pinwheel of death (SWOD), and after a forced reboot it simply will not come up.

I am of course doing my best to continue preparing for the show. I am shifting the focus to other pieces of equipment, and using the old PC laptop. Although now the PC, which is old and slow under the best circumstances, appears to also have some hard-drive issues.

Oh yeah, and I hear the entire world was having some financial difficulties last week.

It’s a good thing Luna is here for comfort and stability, We will also try and visit Weekend Cat Blogging with Salome and Astrid. And the Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos with Sammy and Miles Meezer. And the Carnival of the Cats at My Big Fat Orange Cat.

Meanwhile, I’m on my way to a local music store, and probably the Apple Store as well, for a little help.

UPDATE: As of Monday evening, the pedal is working again. But the MacBook is out for repair.

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Weekend Cat Blogging: Triste

There is often a bit of sadness and melancholy in the air. Sad news from friends, anxious news in the world. And the first showers of the season add to the effect.

And that happens to be the theme of this week’s Photo Hunt, and the subject of our Weekend Cat Blogging.

It’s a good time to cheer up with a walk, even in the rain.

Weekend Cat Blogging is being hosted by the Cats in Maryland. It is their first time hosting, so please give them a warm welcome.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up on Sunday at the Catboys Realm with Kashim, Othello and Salome.

And of course the the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

We at CatSynth are sending thoughts this weekend to our friend Breadchick of the Sour Dough. We also sending thoughts for Janice of the Criz Cats.

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Weekend Cat Blogging #173: Reflection

This morning we at CatSynth are reflective. When we look into physical or conceptual mirrors, do we really like what we see?

It is in fact a really beautiful morning here. Warm, sunny, the city noises stirring in the background. We will see how that translates into a day…

Pet of Pet’s Garden Blog (home of the “Bengal Brats”) is seriously ill, and facing major surgery. She and the Bengal Brats have been frequent participants in our weekend cat events. We send our thoughts and wishes for comfort and healing this weekend.

Weekend Cat Blogging #173 is at The House of the (Mostly) Black Cats, where napping (and a bit of nibbling) appears to the plan for the day.

Salome is hosting her first Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos. Her chosen theme is LOLcats, we’ll see if we’re feeling a bit more LOL later in the weekend…

The Carnival of the Cats will take place on Sunday at Chey’s Place.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

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Weekend Cat Blogging #171

We at CatSynth are exhausted.

This weekend we need to rest, and recover some of our energy. We also have a lot of things to catch up on. It seems like we do so much, but it’s never enough.

So that is all we have for now. Hopefully we’ll catch up with our music and art posts from last week. Also some of our reviews of books and film. But for the moment, we rest. And catch up on some pets.

LB and Breadchick are hosting Weekend Cat Blogging. Actually, I think it’s just LB this weekend, as Breadchick is on vacation (sounds like a great idea, actually).

The Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos will take place with Mr. Tigger at the M-Cats Club.

The Carnival of the Cats goes on air Sunday evening with Rocky at Artsy Catsy.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Our thoughts are with our friends in Texas and the Gulf Coast. We hope they are safe and dry this weekend after hurricane Ike.

Weekend Cat Blogging #170

We’re in the middle of (yet another) busy weekend here at CatSynth. In addition to the show this evening, there have been other music events and art openings to attend. We’ll have reviews on Monday.

Meanwhile, we’re still out and about enjoying the warm weather here in San Francisco, where summer officially began on Labor Day weekend.

With so much going on, it can be hard to find time to rest. But it’s important to curl up and take a nap now and then:

This might be one of my favorite pictures to date of Luna napping.

Weekend Cat Blogging #170 is being hosted by Othello and Astrid at Paulchens FoodBlog – looks like the cat boys are taking turns at hosting now.

The Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos is being hosted by our friends at The House of the (Mostly) Black Cats.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted by a new site, Counting Cats in Zanzibar.

Meanwhile, the the Friday Ark is where it always is, at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Outside!

We have been having a gorgeous week here in San Francisco. September is our real “summer” season, the warmest, clearest and driest month of the year.

Luna is an indoor cat, but today she was given a special opportunity to venture outside. It all begins with an open door:

All these new sounds and smells from the open portal pique her curiosity. Of course, they’re not entirely new, as she has experienced them through open windows. But this is different, and even a bit scary.

But curiosity wins out, and Luna steps over the threshold into this strange world.

Tentatively at first, she begins to stroll out onto the patio, taking in all the new sights, sounds, smells and textures.

Just as with our indoor habit, Luna’s natural beauty shines outdoors as well, against the plants and artwork.

The way she strolls about seems even more “panther-like” than usual.

Of course, this excursion only lasted a few minutes, as Luna made a hasty retreat indoors for a “shelter within a shelter.”

We are fortunate to have a large private patio with high walls here at CatSynth HQ, an usual feature in this section of the city. Part of the motivation for this outing is simply to share the experience of a sunny day on the patio with Luna, but also to give her a chance to become familiar with it, less frightened and more confident, in case she does get out accidentally; and to let her see how easy it is to find the door and come back inside. The walls are probably too high for her to scale, but one should never underestimate the athletic abilities of cats. I would not allow her out on her own. And I am sure some will question with wisdom of letting her out at all.

Nonetheless, it is a reminder that in life we do sometimes need to venture out and take risks. Not stupid, reckless ones, but at least some. Certainly, our move her was one such move, but it was worth it. And perhaps it is time to start taking more…

We at CatSynth are also thinking about our human and animal friends along the Gulf Coast, Cuba, and the Caribbean, whose weather will be anything but clear and sunny in the next few days and who may be facing evacuation exactly three years after Hurricane Katrina. Stay safe and dry, friends.

Puddy is definitely more confident outdoors than Luna, but this weekend they had even more in common than usual strolling on their respective patios. Puddy and Katie host Weekend Cat Blogging at A Byootaful Life.

The Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos is being hosted by Pet and the Bengal Brats.

The Carnival of Cats will be hosted by Mom Robyn at a crystal and jewelry adventure.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging 168: Simplicity

A simple photo of Luna for a quiet day.

Sometimes she just strikes a perfect pose.

We received “hugs” from a couple of our friends. So we reciprocate:

Mr Hendrix ,the only cat brave enough to read are Carnival of Mathematics posts.

Kashim, Othello and Salome. They had a bit of a scare when Salome got lost the other night, but fortunately she’s back home safe.

And also:

Our favorite Luna look-alike Puddy.

Mickey, Tillie and Georgia

Samantha and Tigger, who are still a little “damp” from tropical storm Faye in Florida. We hope all our friends in Florida were safe during the prolonged storm.

Our “neighbor” Sophia, the “Diva Kitty”.

Weekend Cat Blogging 168 is at a new site As the Squillion World Spins.

The Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos is at its new headquarters.

The Carnival of the Cats is being hosted by Kashim, Othello, Salome and Astrid.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator

Weekend Cat Blogging: In memoriam

It has been a sad week for many of our friends in the Cat Blogosphere. We have decided to go on with hosting Weekend Cat Blogging and dedicate it to those who have gone and to their families.

We start by joining Tesla in lighting a candle in memoriam: