What Happened to Lucky?

It's time to let my blog readers know what finally happened to Lucky. Some might say the story is sad but I choose to consider it a happy ending.

As Lucky came and went erratically, Carl began calling him Part-Time. When he began spending more time at our house, we began referring to him as Half-Time. We finally began joking that he had graduated to Full-Time because he had obviously decided that 5134 Bowers Brook Drive was the place to call home.

He lost the horrible hair ball/skin flap that had plagued him, his coat was beginning to look better as he began to groom himself, he accepted the bed we made for him, and he was curled up waiting for me every morning when I took my coffee to the downstairs porch where I worked toward making friends.

Since I was the bringer of food and water, he finally tolerated my touching his back briefly while he was eating. He moved closer and closer each day until he finally felt comfortable enough to take a nap under my chair while I finished the morning paper. The picture above was taken on such a morning.

We finally decided to trap Lucky in order to take him to the vet for a check-up and neutering. She called an hour later to say he died a little while after she gave him the shot that would allow her to get him out of the cage and examine him.

An autopsy revealed that Lucky was older than we thought. He had broken teeth, an enlarged spleen, a mass in his abdomen and the same heart condition that killed our Tonkinese cat, Sami. Her diagnosis was that Lucky was only a few weeks away from death when we brought him to her.

Strangely enough, I miss him more than one might think. I had gotten used to spending the first part of my day with him. I was enjoying my early mornings outdoors rather than indoors and I was looking forward to the day when, just maybe, he could move into the basement.

Some might say this is a sad ending. I choose to consider it in a different light. Since nothing could have changed Lucky's fate, I choose to think he truly was a lucky cat. He had great food, plenty of water, a comfortable bed, shelter from the rain, and someone who cared about him – things he obviously had not had for a long time. As for me, that one little stray cat brought his own kind of joy to my life.

Knowing that we have done our best to make life better for another living creature is a good feeling. I recommend it.

Painting Live

When I first began taking art lessons all those years ago in Worthington, Ohio, I never dreamed there would come a day when I would enjoy painting from a live model. In fact, I never dreamed there would come a day when I would enjoy painting outdoors rather than painting from a photograph. I now know these feelings are typical of artists who are just beginning to learn their craft.

Here I am, many years later, with a complete understanding that nothing takes the place of seeing things firsthand.

We had a live model at Southern Colours last Friday. She was a beautiful natural redhead wearing a vintage black velvet dress. Counting 20-minute breaks, we had approximately 2 1/2 hours to attempt to capture her image. That's a challenge in itself, not to mention the difficulties of finding a good view and ignoring everything around her; i.e., other artists painting, tables, chairs, posts, windows, and everything else that one sees when there is no backdrop.

What a great experience it was. We were so focused; there was almost complete silence in the room - a first for Southern Colours. When we finished, we stood all of our paintings in a row and applauded ourselves. The applause was for the very act of attempting such a thing and for what we learned by doing so. It was applause for trying to do something that most of us knew in advance we would not be able to do - capture a true likeness in such a short time.

The comment, "Every portrait is a combination of the model and the artist," was never more true. While none of the paintings look exactly like our model, all of them look somewhat like her. Since we knew she wouldn't be coming back, all of us took pictures for later reference. I looked at my pictures this morning and realized, once again, what a poor substitute they are for the real thing but they will be helpful for finishing those things I didn't get around to.

My effort is at the top of this blog, along with a picture of our model. With a little more practice and a lot more time, I might even be able to make it look more like her.

After all, Michelangelo didn't get there overnight.