Kat Johnston

Tag: Cat

  • Sketch: Missy Pen-Pen, and ‘Yay, I got my Parchment… ohhh…’

    Kat Johnston Sketch: My darling miss Pen-Pen with her fishie treats… I love my cats.

    My darling Miss Pen-Pen, how I do so adore her. She’s the little sumo-cat of our household, and isn’t afraid to throw her weight around if needed. She truly is a queen, speaking up when she’s ready for a snuggle and somehow -you- haven’t given her one yet. She does have a tendency to get demanding at times.

    A sumo for a queen… now that is an interesting thought, is it not? Its like the daughter of a 1950s mob boss that everyone compliments and so forth, even though in reality she’s no drop-dead gorgeous bombshell: she’s twice the size of a house and happy for it. So long as the situation didn’t change, she’d never have reason to doubt other than what people have told her either, would she? While not exactly entirely true, you get the picture. My Pen-Pen is a queen and a sumo to boot.

    Onto an entirely unrelated matter… I got my parchment yesterday! I’ve now officially got my little piece of paper saying ‘Look world, this person has actually completed a Masters of Arts and Creative Industries Management, and she’s done it in such a competent manner that we’re willing to say she somehow knows what she’s talking about. Yay her.’

    It’s kinda a funny feeling: I have it done, completed, finito, and there’s nothing left to do. I’m not sure if anyone else feels that the receipt of a piece of paper to say ‘Really, I know what I’m talking about,’ is as anti-climactic as I do… but it does tend to feel that way to me. You finish your course, you wait almost five months, and finally some small woman comes a-knocking at your door and says ‘Sign here please.’ You do as you’re told, you open it, and this piece of paper really isn’t all that more impressive than the last one (I’ve done this three times now).

    Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to have it – but it’s almost as if finally getting it is mocking in nature. ‘So,’ it says to me, in a wheedley little voice, not unlike that weasel little tell-tale in the school yard most of us have doubtless encountered. ‘So, it’s been almost five months since you have completed me, and what have you done? Hmm?’

    Here am I, wide-eyed, stuttering out an ineffectual response. ‘Well, I, umm, I was waiting on you before, you know, I, um, got started on anything? Or something like that?’

    The parchment snickers knowingly, a gleam to it’s silvered seal as it glints in reflection of the somewhat dim fluorescent bulb. It’s almost an accusation. ‘Ohhh, but you have me now,’ says he, ‘You have no excuse left! What are you going to do, hmm, what are you going to do?’

    With a barely uttered grunt of disgust I glare at my parchment, and fling it in a drawer with the others. That’ll teach it to have a go at me!

  • Sketch: Magnificent Mogs

    Kat Johnston Sketch: Is there anything more magnificent than a pair of moggies? Kittens… full of teh cute.

    We’re building on the post of yesterday now… yesterday’s picture looked rather much like a Lolita to me (one of my cats), that I had to do a Penny too (uhhh.. the other cat). Penny does not look quite right on her own though, when there isn’t a Lolita around to try and pounce on her tail.

    You see, Penny is what we would like to refer to as a ‘sumo’ cat. Lolita, now she is the ninja. I’m not sure if ninjas and sumos regularly get along, but these two cats have never really been the cuddley type with each other. Ohhh, they play, they skip around the house chasing each other one way and the next… they’ve even been known to form rather effective two-cat hunting parties when it comes to cornering a quick-witted lizard. But they’ve never really been close to the point of snuggling.

    What is Lolita’s favourite pasttime? Bugging Penny. What is Penny’s favourite pasttime? Sleeping… oh, and bugging Lolita. It all tends to work out in the end.

    Oh, on another little note, I’ve decided to split up the Sanu stuff from this blog, and move it over to its own little area at http://katjohnston.com/sanu. While I believe that it wasn’t doing too bad over here, giving it its own space will hopefully allow me the freedom to expand on some Second Life issues there without boring… well… the rest of you! If you want to check it out, just skip over at any time and take a peek. KatJohnston.com will return to its regular content of sketches and random thoughts.

  • Sketch: Box kitteh sez ‘I iz live nao? Wheee! Kibble Plz?’

    Kat Johnston: Box kitteh… Is she alive? Is she dead? You’ll only know if you ignore the ‘do not disturb’ sticker!

    Lord I am tired tonight… and I’m not even entirely sure why. I guess that some days are just long, and when they are, they bear down on you, making you feel worn and weary. That aside though, I’m very happy with my sketch today! A little while back, I did a picture with a scrawled cat… it was the last thing drawn on the sketch and honestly, my favourite part of it. So today, I had another peek at that sketch and thought, ‘yup… I’m going to try this again.’

    I did-so, and today’s picture is the result. It is by little wonder that my picture reminds me so much of my darling Lolita, a little tortie cross who is one of two apples of my eyes. Penny, being the other, is not currently pictured.

    You see, each night before he goes to bed, my dutiful husband does a round of the house. He makes sure that the doors are locked, that the air-conditioning is off (if indeed it were on on the first place), and so on and so forth. One of the other things he does is check to make sure that both cats are around and safe. We have indoor-only cats, and although there is very little chance that they have somehow performed the great escape, it never hurts to check.

    One evening, he does his regular rounds, calling out to the cats to make sure that they are safe and secure like the rest of us. ‘Lolita!’ he calls, ‘Lolita, baby-girl, where are you?’

    This goes on for a couple of minutes… then a couple more. After which, he comes racing down the stairs. ‘I can’t find Lolita!’ he cries, his eyes wide and gripped by a certain paternal fear. ‘Come help me look!’

    Thus, I join the search. From high to low, from top to bottom, in every perceivable nook and cranny we search to discover the missing feline. She had me quite as mystified as she did James. With a rising panic I realize that it does indeed seem that our magnificent moggy had finally discovered a special secret way known only to cats to teleport from one part of the room to another, but further, how to do it to the outside.

    How would she survive? She had no opposable thumbs, no pre-prepared sachets of food designed ‘for pet consumption only’ strapped to her bluish back. She had, of course, wrestled a gecko or two in her day, but that was nothing when put beside the territorial neighbourhood tom.

    With a sigh of resignation and no small measure of puzzlement, we were almost ready to admit our defeat. Our cat had somehow escaped, despite all odds of both means, opportunity and brain-matter. ‘One last time,’ murmurs James. The search begun anew.

    A bare few minutes later, I hear an exuberant cry. ‘She’s in here! I found her! Come look!’ he bellows, motioning frantically, as I approach the downstairs door. There, curled in the bottom of one tall box, lay our cat, quite content to nap while all around her we scramble in search of her. She had not only jumped into the box – she’d pulled the lid closed after her, effectively sealing her off from view in a place we would not think to look. I mean, we know she liked boxes… we just weren’t quite sure she was smart enough to work out how to put up her own little ‘do not disturb’ sign!

    If you’re curious about the title of today’s post, and don’t get it straight away, perhaps you haven’t heard of Schrodiinger’s cat? Go check it out. It’ll boggle your miiiind.

  • Sketch: Mew? Tuna Plz.

    Kat Johnston Sketch: ‘Mew? Tuna, please,’ says the kitten to the crowd, ‘I’d like my dinner now.’

    ‘Mew? Tuna, please,’ said the kitten to the crowd, ‘I’d like my dinner now, if you would be so kind.’

    No-one had expected this. No-one for a moment had even an inkling that the Feline Alliance would so quickly overcome the opposition of the human factions. Truth is, cats had been priming the homo-sapiens for thousands of years into a state of somewhat-subservience. It wasn’t really too much of a leap to make that final move to quash remaining rebellion within the midst of mankind. No-one can resist cute kitten eyes. Especially not me.

    With a reluctant sigh and a downcast gaze, I crumbled, fetching from the glistening counter-top the very last sachet of premium ‘Tasty Tuna Delight Kitty Chow with Hairball Control’, tipping it into the spoilt feline’s dish and setting it on the ground beside me. Lolita had won yet again. Dinner was early tonight.

  • Cotton-buds everywhere, no culprit in sight.

    Kat Johnston – I have an inkling that a certain little somebody might be to blame for cotton-buds being scattered from one side of the room to the other.

    I have a feeling a certain little someone (who will remain nameless… *cough cough* Lolita *cough cough*) is responsible for the current state of my bathroom. You see, I went and had a nice little nap, awoke, and during that time, somebody had strewn the entire contents of a packet of 400 cotton-buds from one side of the room to the other. Not one guilty party seemed to want to own up to it though.

    Lets just say that this little picture is my way of drawing what that certain someone might look like if they were human and trying on the ‘oh, wait, there are cotton-buds everywhere in the bathroom? I am just as shocked as you are, and further, I cannot believe that you thought that I might be responsible for this absolute travasty!’ type look. Lolita nails the look as a kitten just fine… and she wouldn’t acutally look like that as a human, I think… but it still gets the point across. It really doesn’t matter how incredibly naughty she is – our Lolita gets away with it every time.