Presents and Play

A couple of my cousins stopped over this week. One of them brought me an unexpected gift. Her mother, my aunt, passed away this year. I memorialized her on Livestrong Day. My aunt was very crafty and one of her talents is painting. She painted me a beautiful statuette of a mailbox one Christmas. It was supposed to have, I think, four birds on it, but she knew how much I liked cats, so she replaced one with a kitty. She told me though, that the kitty never gets to catch the birds!

It seems she’d been doing paint by numbers for a long time. I’m not talking the little ones you give to children, but the larger, complicated ones. Like anything, depending on the talent of the artist, these can be really sloppy and badly done, or beautifully rendered. My aunt, as I said, was talented.

My cousin found three of the paintings with kitties on them and she decided to give them to me. She had a frame in one, and she showed me that one first. It was a kitty sitting on a birdhouse and I loved it. The second one was three kittens looking out a window at a birdie, kitty TV, I loved that one too.

The third one, she said, she thought was ugly and I didn’t have to keep it if I didn’t want to. Then she showed it to me and I flipped out! My favorite Charles Wysocki painting is called Frederick the Literate. And that’s what she gave me!

I looked into getting a print once, but they are out of my price range. I settled for the calendar with his cat prints, including Frederick. She probably thought I was nuts because I was squealing like a goon! I mean, I love that painting! And it really is beautifully rendered. I love the other two paintings! Love them! But wow, I have my favorite done by my own aunt, that’s just too cool! (Here are other Wysocki Cats) I can’t thank her enough and I can’t wait to hang them!

Leo, while shy at first, came out to see my cousins. And he even consented to play and show off his mighty leaps!