Remembering Pixie: Caturday Art and Sunday Selfies With An Angel Kitty

Greetings, Effurrybody!

We hope you all had a wonderfully Meowy Chrissymouse, and got lots of noms and treats and prezzies.

Today, as We purromised last week, We shall be commemorating Angel Princess PixieCato (aka Pixie), who was a co-founder of this blog and who flew away to the Rainbow Bridge ten years ago last Fursday, on December 23rd, 2011, after losing her Battle with Kidney Disease.

Angel Pixie came to Mummy in 1995, a few weeks after Angel Possum, because Mummy was strongly of the opinion that little kittens should have other kittens to play with. She picked out Pixie from a litter of four sisters. Pixie's foster Mummy told Our Mummy that Pixie's name was Elsa - but Mummy could see that was a mistake and indeed, as soon as they got home, Possum's new sisfur told Mummy her real name was Pixie. Well, not her REAL real name, of course, not the Secret Ineffable Name known only to each kitty herself/himself - but the one She wanted Mummy to use.

Possum and Pixie loved each other furry much, as you can see from this picture, which Mummy still uses as the banner of her own bloggie:

Possum is the one on the left and Pixie is on the right.

For quite a few years, Pixie and her Big Brofur, Possum, used to post articles of Impawtance to the Feline World, on Mummy's own purrsonal Bloggie. But then they decided it was time they had their Furry Own Space, and so this bloggie was born. 

We have decided that Pixie's pawtrait should repurresent the J-Cats in this weekend's blog hops - the Caturday Art Blog Hop, hosted by the Wise and Beautiful Athena and her HuMum, Marie and the Sunday Selfies Blog Hop, hosted by the Deliciously Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet.

So here is Precious Pixie's Selfie, taken when she was nearly thirteen years young, on June 10th 2008:

We artified this pawtrait with LunaPic's Harsh Lighting filter and then used PhotoFunia to frame it and hang it in a big art gallery, so as to share Pixie's beauty with the whole world:

But then We decided that, since this week sees the last Caturday Art and Sunday Selfies Blog Hops of 2021, We would also make Pixie Our Calendar Girl for the Mew Year, so We artified her pawtrait once again, this time with LunaPic's Dreaming effect at 60%, and put it in one of PhotoFunia's calendars.

Let's hear it for Miss 2022:

And here are the Blog Hop badges:

By the time We write Our next Post, it will already be 2022, so We would like to take this oppurrtunity to wish you all a furry Happy Mew Year - not forgetting to remind you all that that confounded Evil Coronavirus is still with Us (does anyone remember a time when it wasn't?) and that you and your Humans still need to take effurry precaution so as not to catch it - or maybe We should say "not to let it catch you".

Be well. Be safe. We love you all.

Chrissymouse Greetings from the J-Cats: Caturday Art and Sunday Selfies

Hallo, Effurrybody!

Here in Jerusalem, We J-Cats are enjoying sunny, but furry cold, weather. That is expected to end tomorrow, when Winter Storm Carmel brings wind, rain and pawsibly even snow to the north and centre of the country. If you look at a map, you can see that Jerusalem is more or less in the centre of Israel, although in the past, it was officially part of what was named "the Southern District". At any rate, the Weather Prophet on Mummy's meowbile phone says We are in for it tomorrow. We hope the thunder boomies won't be too loud, but if they are, we shall burrow under the blankies on the bed and try to purrsuade Mummy to come and snuggle there with Us.

As usual, We are pawticipating in the Caturday Art Blog Hop, hosted by the Wise and Beautiful Athena and her HuMum, Marie and in the Sunday Selfies Blog Hop, hosted by the Adorably Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet.

Strictly speaking, it is Trixie's turn to repurresent Us in this week's blog hops, but as many of you are celebrating Chrissymouse at the weekend, and We all wanted to send you Greetings for the Holiday Season, We decided that this time, all three of Us would share Our Sunday Selfies with you and then turn them into Chrissymouse Art.

So, without further ado, here are Our Selfies.

Trixie furrst, because We believe in purroper Etikitty, and that means ladycats furrst:

And here she is, all artified and dressed up for Chrissymouse:

Next up, Caspurr:

And here he is in Chrissymouse Tree Decoration Mode:

And last - but by no means least - Shimshi, as Large as Life and Twice As Natural (Just kidding. He's a lot bigger than this).

And here he is as a Chrissymouse Bulb:

And here are the Blog Hop Badges:

            

This coming Fursday, December 23rd, is the 10th anniversary of the Departure of Princess PixiCato aka Pixie, for the Rainbow Bridge. We shall devote next week's bloggie to her, as She deserves a post all to herself. We shall recall tales of Her, and learn all about Her Legacy - which includes this Bloggie, which Pixie co-founded.

Until then, take care of Yourselves and your Humans, and beware of the Devious, Sneaky, Evil Coronavirus, which keeps changing form and disguising itself.

Have a Meowy Chrissymouse.

Be well. Be safe. We love you all.

Messi's Guest Sunday Selfie and Caturday Art

Hallo there, Effurrybody!

This week, We have invited a Guest to join Us for the Caturday Art Blog Hop, hosted by the Wise and Beautiful Athena and her HuMum, Marie, and for the Sunday Selfies Blog Hop, hosted by the Adorably Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet.

Can you guess who it is?

That's right! It's Our Woofie Uncle Messi. Uncle Messi lives with Grandpaw and Step-Grandma. As you can see, he is a furry lucky woofie, as he lives in a big house with a large patio garden (unlike We poor kitties, who don't even have a Catio)!

However, We do have a bloggie, and Uncle Messi doesn't, so We have invited him to share Ours (just for this week). 
He is a furry handsome woofie, don't you think?

And here is his artified self, courtesy of LunaPic's Fairy Art Effect at 80%.

For those of you who are wondering, Messi is a Canaan Dog. His ancestors lived here in the time of Abraham, and even before that.

We thought that a handsome fellow like Messi deserves to have his pawtrait hung in the National Gallery in London:

We think the pawtrait has a kind of 3D effect, because Messi's head seems to be coming out of the frame, towards the viewer. What do you think?

We also thought that since the New Year will be with us in just three weeks, a handsome chap like Messi would make a good calendar pinup!

So, with the help of PhotoFunia, here is the 2022 calendar, starring the one and only Messi.

We are all purraying that 2022 will be better than 2021 (and 2020 before that) - although now that the Evil Coronavirus has mutated into the Omicron Variant, there is no telling what may happen next. In Israel, 55 new cases were confirmed today and the majority of them were people who were triple-vaccinated. So it seems the vaccine does not protect against the new variant. However, despite the rising number of new cases, the number of seriously ill continues to fall, so purrhaps that is a sign that the new variant is less virulent. Maybe the Evil Coronavirus is morphing into something more akin to the common cold. Let's hope so.

On the news, We have been hearing about - and seeing - the terrible tornadoes in the United States, where We have many furriends. We hope and purray that you are all safe. It all looks furry scary!!!

Now it is time to join the blog hops, so here are their badges:

             

And off We go - but not before We remind you and your Humans to continue to observe Due Precaution to avoid the Evil Mutant Ninja Coronavirus.

Be well. Be safe. We love you all.

Shimshi's Poised Pose: Caturday Art and Sunday Selfie

Hallo there, Effurrybuddies!

It is Me, the Mighty Shimshon (Shimshi for short) a.k.a. The Little Purrince, Furrst of My Name, Master of the Queen's Mischiefs and Captain of the Guard!!! It is MY TURN to lead the J-Cats this week, as We join the Caturday Art Blog Hop, hosted by the Wise and Beautiful Athena and her HuMum, Marie and the Sunday Selfies Blog Hop, hosted by those deliciously Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet.

Tonight, We light the eighth and final Hanukkah candle. Mummy hasn't been as generous about sharing the latkes and sufganiyot with Us as We had hoped. Her excuse is that they are furry unhealthy for kitties - as, indeed, they are for Humans too, dripping with oil and sugar and jam and all that. In her defence, it must be admitted that She, too, cut down on her consumption of these Delicacies. Maybe they should make fish latkes and mouse mousse sufganiyot (donuts) instead (mol).

(It's okay, Mummy. If you don't like them, We can purromise you they won't go to waste - heheheheheh.)

Now, with no further ado, here is My Sunday Selfie.

Mummy says I look extremely poised and extra mancatly in this photo.
Do you agree?

We then headed over to LunaPic, where We experimented with several different artification styles for Our Caturday Art.

Furrst of all, Mummy was so furry pleased with the way the Stained Glass effect turned out for my brofur Caspurr, last week, that We tried a similar filter for Me, set at 50%:

Next up, We chose the Beauty effect - at 55%. (We don't want to overwhelm the world with my Beauty, after all, so We didn't go for the Full Monty - MOL.)

We like the way the slight tinge of pink brings out the green of my eyes.

Next, We tried the Dark art effect (Me being a Master of the Dark Arts, MOL), also at 55%:

This one has grey hints - and in some ways, is rather similar to Our final attempt - Grey (at 75% this time):

Let Us know in the comments section which is your favourite.

In her own bloggie later this week, Mummy hopes to write about the concert in which She and her Caterwauling Club appeared last Fursday, together with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, in the Israeli premiere of an oratorio in Arabic and English.  We make no purromises but She usually posts on Fursday.

In other news - the Omicron variant of The Dreaded Lurgi the Evil Coronavirus has arrived in Israel but does not appear to have increased the number of seriously ill. Let's hope that it remains so. As for you, Dear Furriends, We are sure you need no Reminder from Us to continue to take all due precautions and make sure your Humans continue to do so as well.



And now, here are the blog hop badges. 

            

Let's get hopping!

Be well. Be safe. We love you all.

Happy Hanukkah: Caturday Art And Sunday Selfies With Caspurr

Hallo again, Effurryone!

As is so often the case, this week's post is a mixture of Happy and Sad.

We shall start with the Sad - and pay Our Respects to Dad Pete from the Tom Cat Commentary By Timmy blog. Dad Pete was sadly taken from his furbabies a few days ago, and called to the Rainbow Bridge. Yes, Humans do go there too - and when they receive their Angel Wings, they are re-united at last with their furbabies and all their family who went before. So We are certain Angels Timmy, Buddy Budd and Mr Buttons came running to greet him, with angel kitty kisses and gentle headbutts.

We send our deepest condolences to the kitties who were left behind, Miss Fitz, Rumpy, Toby and Einstein and to Dad Pete's human family and friends. Gentle pawpats and healing purrs to you all.

It seems hard to go from that to the joy of Hanukkah, which starts this evening. I, Caspurr, have been dreaming a lot about Hanukkah these past few days - thinking about all the lovely potato latkes and sufganiyot which Mummy is going to be eating (and, hopefully, sharing with Us).  That is why I am licking my lips in this picture, Our Entry in the Sunday Selfies Blog Hop, which is hosted by the deliciously Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet.

We took this picture and turned it into a Hanukkah greetings card for the Caturday Art Blog Hop, hosted by the Wise and Beautiful Athena and her HuMum.

How? Well, as We so often do, We popped over to LunaPic, where We added some Hanukkah symbols (the menorah and a dreidel), and some text. We filtered the whole through the Stained Glass filter at 35% and then added a frame.

And here is the result:

Before We forget, here are the blog hop badges:

          

We must go now. We have to let Mummy rest before her caterwauling rehearsal this evening. It is likely to be an extra long one. She has a concert on Thursday - but We will tell you about that next week. Till then, you must be extra cautious because it seems there is a new mewtation of the Evil Coronavirus which is, pawssibly, even more contagious than the Delta Variant - although nobody seems to know yet if it causes more serious illness or whether the vaccines are effective against it.

Be well. Be safe. We love you all.

And last, but by no means least - Happy Hanukkah! 

The Sultriness of Trixie: Sunday Selfies and Caturday Art

Hallo again, Effurrybody!

As you can see, it is I - Queen Trixie, Furrst of My Name, Empurress of Jerusalem, Israel and the Entire Middle East, Queen of Hearts, Guardian of the Boudoir, Alpha Kitty Extraordinaire.

I am leading my fellow J-Cats on this week's blog hops - the Caturday Art Blog Hop, which is hosted by the Wise and Beautiful Athena and her HuMum, Marie and the Sunday Selfies Blog Hop, which is hosted by the Wonderfully Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet.

This has been a furry sad time for Us lately. It was only after We had uploaded last week's post and began hopping to other blogs that We read of the totally unexpected departure of yet another dear, dear furriend for the Rainbow Bridge - beautiful Tuna (a.k.a. Toona) from the Tabbies o' Trout Towne blog.

We are absolutely gutted at this dreadful loss and send gentle purrs of consolation to Tuna's Food Service Gurl, Laura.

The skywater which finally started falling the day before yesterday was surely fed by the many, many tears of Tuna's friends, both quadruped and biped. Mr. Sunshine seems to have gone into hiding. Mummy has taken out her warm, snuggly clothes. It seems winter has finally arrived.

Last Fursday, Mummy hauled Me off to the V-E-T to get my annual shots and also to check out my teefs and my eyes. I was furry, furry Angry and I let the V-E-T know it! It wasn't Our usual V-E-T, this time - although he has seen Us before. He's the young, good-looking one. Well, I say "handsome is as handsome does"! He put Me in one of those horrible Squeeze Cages so that I couldn't move while he stabbed Me! And he has given Mummy drops to put in my eyes, which have been bothering Me of late, as well as ointment for my gums which are slightly enflamed.
Yes, Good Luck with that, Mummy. Do not expect any co-operation from Moi! I'll make you wish you had a pair of baseball gloves (mol).

Do you like the photo We have used for the Sunday Selfies? It was actually taken last month, but We haven't had an oppurrtunity to use it till now. It is one of My Favourite Pawtraits of Me.  I think it makes Me look rather sultry, don't you?

For the Caturday Art, We tried various arts-fartsy effects on LunaPic. Tell Us in the comments below which is your favourite.

Furrst up, here is that same pawtrait, with the Illusion effect set at 50%:

After that, We tried overlaying it with the Painted filter:

And finally, We combined Sketch2 at 70% with the Painted effect:

So, which do you like best?

And let's not forget the blog hop badges:

          

A few weeks back, We purromised to tell you more about Mummy's mewsical projects. Well, you can read all about them on Mummy's own bloggie. Feel free to skip the bit about the Evil Coronavirus - but remember that it is still with Us, so continue to take all necessary precautions.

Wishing all Our Furriends in the Mewnited States of Ameowrica a Happy Thanksgiving!

Be well. Be safe. We love you all.

Planning Mischiefs With Shimshi: Caturday Art and Sunday Selfie

96Hallo there, Effurrybuddies!

It is I, the Mighty Shimshon (Shimshi for short), a.k.a. The Little Purrince, Furrst of My Name, Master of the Queen's Mischiefs, Captain of the Guard.

How are you all doing?

This is Me in My Our Teleport Tunnel, posing for the Sunday Selfies Blog Hop, which, as you all know by now, is hosted by Our Dear Furriends, the Effur Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet.  Here is their badge:

As an added bonus, here is a close-up of My Beautiful Toesies, dangling out of the rear window of the Tunnel. Mummy just couldn't resist (mol).

As usual, We take it in turns to repurresent the J-Cats in the weekend bloggie hops, so here now is Our Entry in the Caturday Art Blog Hop, hosted by the Wise and Beautiful Athena and her HuMum, Marie:

In this picture, I was comfortably ensconced on the dining table, planning some new and entertaining Mischief. I have to tell you, Dear Anipals, my pawsition as Master of the Queen's Mischiefs is no sinecure.  I really have to earn My Treats!

For the artsy fartsy effect, We used LunaPic's Pen filter at 60%, overlaid with the Homer effect, also at 60%.

And here is the Caturday Art blog hop badge:

And as a special Treat, We created a Puzzle for you, which We haven't done for some time. We haven't yet tried it ourselves, but We are sure you will all complete the Puzzle much faster than Mummy effur could!

96Shimshi Contemplating Mischief on the Table

Before We go, as always, We remind you once more to beware of the Evil Coronavirus which is still sneaking around, and which pounces out on you whenever you think it has finally gone. Whether vaccinated or not, you and your Humans need to take effurry Precaution.

Be well. Be safe. We love you all.

Caspurr's Snoozy Sunday Selfie and Caturday Art for the New Month

Hallo, Effurryone!

It is I, Sir Caspurr the Courageous, the Caspicatious, Furrst of My Name, a.k.a the Snuggle Bug, Commander-in-Chief of the Impurrial Forces, King of the Tigger-Tabbies, here to lead the J-Cats on Our furrst Blog Hops of the New Month - November 2021, Kislev 5782. 

  

The picture above is of Me, guarding the Twin Thrones at the top of the Grand Stairway at the entrance to the Living Room Grand Salon. I don't know what my fursibs were doing at the time, all I know is, I had to guard the Twin Thrones all by Myself! So exhausticating!!!

Anyway, this is Our entry in the Sunday Selfies Blog Hop, hosted by our delightfully Unpredictable furriends, the Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet.

Of course, it goes without saying that We are also pawticipating in the Caturday Art Blog Hop, hosted by the Wise and Beautiful Athena and her HuMum, Marie.

This next picture was taken with Mummy's  Panasonic Lumix camera, which has all sorts of settings including one that allows you to set fancy frames on the picture.  So Mummy did that and then further artified the pawtrait with LunaPic's  Stained Glass effect to make it even more colourful:

We are furry pleased with the result!

Next, here are the two blog hop badges:

                        

And now for the rest of Our Mews. Our Human Uncle D. (Mummy's brovver) is in Israel for TWO WHOLE MONTHS! He arrived from England the day before yesterday and is currently staying with Us. This means he gets to sleep in the Guest Room Purresidential Suite and so WE got kicked out evicted!!! 

We don't really mind that, what We don't like is that nobody asked Our purrmission beforehand.  Of course We would have given Our Impurrial Consent if We had been asked, as We are furry hospitable Kitties and Uncle D. is Family (even though he always claims to not really be a Cat Purrson).  But We think it was furry disrespectful of Our Human not even to ask Us!!!

We are going to wrap up this post now and go and watch Uncle D. It is furry entertaining to have a new Human to watch. Later, purrhaps, if he forgets to close the door of "his" room, We may go and sniff out his luggage (mol).

We leave you with a reminder to continue taking all necessary precautions against the Evil Coronavirus which is still lurking out there. Even if it seems to have retreated for the time being, We must not forget that it is a Sneaky, Sly Bug and you can never be sure what tricks it has up its sleeve.

Be well. Be safe. We love you all.

Trixie's Spooky Sunday Selfie and Caturday Art

Hallo again, Effurrybody!

Are you all ready to celebrate Miaowlloween tonight?

I, Queen Trixie, Furrst of My Name, Empurress of Jerusalem, Israel and the Entire Middle East, Queen of Hearts, Guardian of the Boudoir, Alpha Kitty Extraordinaire,  certainly am!

Oh, yes, I almost forgot to mention, it is My Turn to lead my fursibs, the J-Cats, on the weekend blog hops - the Caturday Art Blog Hop, hosted by the Wise and Beauteous Athena and her HuMum, Marie,  and the Sunday Selfies Blog Hop, hosted by the Deliciously Unpredictable Kitties Blue and their HuMom, Janet.

Here are the blog hop badges:

             

I have noticed that Black Cats figure purrominently in Halloween Art - so I don't even need to dress up for My Sunday Selfie today! All I need to do is be Myself!
Admittedly, you can't see my terrifying Fangs in this picture, but you all know they're there, don't you? And you can't escape my Hypnotic Eyes...

However, I did need a little help with My Caturday Art, so Mummy and I popped over to LunaPic, and fiddled about a bit with the Night art effect, whch We set at 50%:

That spookified My Eyes rather nicely, I think. And then, we used some of their Clipart as an overlay, although We have forgotten the degree of transparency. Though it was probably rather more transparent than any Pawlitician or Government Office anywhere in the world, Mummy says (mol)...

As We have mentioned before, here in Israel, Miaowlloween is not generally celebrated, but since so many of Our Furriends all around the World seem to enjoy it, We have decided to have a Pawty up in the Enchanted Forest tonight, from 10pm Israel time, till sunrise - to which you are all invited.
Which reminds me - last night, We put the clocks back one hour (at least, that was Mummy's excuse for being late with Our Breakfast!!!) and We are now back on Winter Time. Sure enough, right on schedule, this morning, for the furrst time this autumn (in Jerusalem, at least), there was Sky Water.  But don't worry. The Enchanted Forest is called that for a Furry Good Reason, and even if it pours with rain tonight (which it is not expected to do), the Enchanted Forest will remain sheltered and dry.

My Brofurs, Caspurr and Shimshi, helped Me to plan the pawty. Here they are, deep in confurrence about the catering, in this beautiful picture especially created for Us by Our Dear Friend Ann, from Zoolatry:

Isn't it pawsome? Thank you so much, Ms. Ann - and June! We hope to see you at the pawty tonight in the Enchanted Forest, Junie!

And now to other mews. Last week, We mentioned Mummy's latest project with her Caterwauling Club. Well, We can now tell you that on Thursday, Mummy and her friends took part in a jazz concert, to launch the latest single by a brass band called Las Piratas Piratas. Of course, She couldn't film them herself and she is waiting to receive videoclips from people who attended the concert, in the hope of being able to combine them into something that can be embedded in her own bloggie, later this week (she usually posts on Thursday).  In the meantime, here is a link to a short videoclip taken at the rehearsal last Sunday.  Photo Credit to Noam Kuzar and Jerusalemite.TV.

And now, it is time for Us to start blog-hopping, and after that, to have a nice, long Nap before the Pawty. Before We go, We would like to remind you once more that the Evil Coronavirus has not yet been defeated, so it is still impawtant to take all possible precautions to purr-tect your Humans and yourselves.

Be well. Be safe. We love you all.