Sunday, December 26, 2021

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.



Sunday, December 19, 2021

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.

Sunday, December 12, 2021

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.





Sunday, December 5, 2021

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.