Underwater Women and Why Animals Rock

Ok, Here is my 3rd video. It's about animals, and understanding and emotions and so on and so forth and I really need to go to sleep now because I was awake for 30 hours now.

"Don't Take my Manhood Away"

I have posted a while ago about my 2 cat-friends. What I didn't mention is that Cuteness has been castrated while Monkey hasn't. Cuteness was born in the wild, but he and his 2 brothers were captured by a local "Humane Society" and butchered. As a result he and one of his brothers, Boss, developed psychological as well as physical problems. The other brother, Barron was OK more or less, in a sense that it didn't effect him as drastically. What happened to Boss and Cuteness however is as follows: the scar is way too large, and the surrounding area gets inflamed from time to time. It hangs like an extra flab of skin and is reddened. Boss, although liked having his tummy scratched would sometimes remember what was done to him and go into a complete craze mode trying to protect himself and his organs. Cuteness gets visibly upset whenever there is any talk about testicles around. He understands perfectly well what happened and does get upset when he is reminded of it. 

When we found Monkey, he was in a very bad shape, but his organs were all in place. Thanks to that he is developing really well, growing fast and has huge paws. We never had a problem with his behavior, or grooming. He knows we love him, he loves us and he doesn't want to upset us by making a mess. 

Both of my cats are staying at home because there are too many crazies out there who would try to hit a cat on purpose. I try to make their life indoors as fun as possible by giving them things to climb on and play with. 

So, here is a question, why am I told that I need to cut Monkey's balls off? 

Now, here is exactly what happened. We went to a pet store, and there were these tiny kittens there. Now, first of all, the store was PETCO and it's known for it's mistreatment of animals, which is why I ended up getting only what I needed ASAP and calling it a day. So, this lady sees me and Vincent looking at the kittens and says that the only thing is that the kittens aren't "fixed" because they are too young. Vincent tells her that we are against butchering animals and she gives us a whole lecture about how there are too many cats in "Humane Society" being killed every day because cats just keep on reproducing. Here is the question: can you call it "humane" if they kill animals there? And is it ok for us humans to tell other animals if they can have children or not? How many humans want to have kids sometime in their life? How many suffer because they can't? Why can't we assume that animals can have the same feelings? I know Cuteness is very happy we have Monkey because it's the closest to being a father he can get. He teaches him how to fight, how to hunt, all the things fathers would teach their kids in the wild. Infertility isn't where it stops however. Cat's can't even have sex. They can't develop properly, the way mother nature intended. Heads of male cats don't grow to the proper size if they are castrated. Hormones aren't produced ether, which leads to a whole array of problems. Medically, there is only one benefit for this practice, it reduces chances of mammary cancer in both males and females. The side effects are many however: increase rates in many types of cancer, hair loss, CCL rapture, obesity, increase in adverse reactions to vaccinations, psychological problems, inability to develop properly not to mention possible death during the procedure. 

I live by the rule, don't do to others what you wouldn't want to be done to you. I wouldn't want someone to take my reproductive organs away from me as long as they are healthy. If I have ovarian cancer for example, that's a different story, but if I'm healthy, I want it intact. I would never want anyone to take my ability to have sex away from me ether. If someone thinks there are too many creatures like me to take care of, don't take care of me then. Let me out in the wild where I can fend for myself. Honestly, I don't see why instead of killing animals, shelters don't just let them go in the woods. Cats can hunt, and they will not overpopulate because there are predators out there. In the area I live in, we have coyotes and cougars, bears, gray owls, and many more who would keep the population down the good old natural way. You know, the way that actually gives cats a chance at life.

Anyway, after talking to this lady, I really wanted to cut her uterus out and cut her husband's balls off, because I really don't want people like her to reproduce, but do I have a moral right to do it?

I talked to many people who view other animals as a lesser beings. Most of them happen to be Christians (not all Christians are like this, but for some odd reason, many are) and their thought process is that humans are special because god gave us the ability to love. Animals however love because it's an instinct, not god's gift. Because of this thinking these people think they have the right to do what ever they want to the animals. They don't want to understand that animals have feelings. That you can stop your cat from acting all crazy by simply loving it and talking to it.

I know my opinion on this matter isn't a popular one, but think about it, would you want it to be done to you? In fact it was done to people in the past, not that long ago. There was this notion that some races shouldn't be reproducing, as a result, many black women got procedure like this done to them. We can all look back now and shutter at the injustice and horror of such acts. People who were doing it viewed blacks as lesser beings, dumb, unable of complex thought, wild animals... They were viewed about the same as many now view cats. It took us long enough, but we did figure out that every race of humans is capable of complex thought and emotion, that we are all equal. How long will it take until we look at a cat, exchange the loving looks and understand that they too can feel? 

Palm Trees, and Monkeys. Painting of a Beach

In one of the art teams on etsy we have these challenges. We pick a topic and try to paint it. This time the topic is beach/ocean. Well, I must admit, this was actually challenging. Mainly because of all elements in nature, I never got special attachment with the beach. I lived most of my childhood ether close to the forests or mountains. We had rivers and lakes, but they were small and never inspired that great of an ow in me. I only saw sea for the first time when I was in my teens. The earlier memories were much more important to me as far at loving elements in nature goes. Plus, I'm really not "painting the beach" kind of girl.

After thinking about this challenge for a few days, I finally figured out how to combine this topic with my painting style. I finally cracked it, I'm doing it and I'm loving it. This picture shows it as it is so far, I have to put another day into it before I can say I'm done, but so far I think it's going well.

Now, here is how I managed to get this to the point where I can actually enjoy doing it. First of all I needed to figure out how to do it in abstract, more importantly my style of abstract. I googled "abstract beach" images and saw how other people did it. This started bringing me in the right direction. I figured out what I wanted on the painting plus I got the boost of confidence that I can indeed do it. Then I remembered all those cartoons I watched when I was little and how small islands were depicted in them. This helped me develop it further. Now add a simplified version of my crazy lines and here it comes. Beach painting that is my very own and that I can relate to. Now I just have to finish and hope I wouldn't mess something up in the process.

The whole time I was painting, Monkey wanted to be close to me. After trying to get comfortable on the drafting table where I was painting, he figured there was too much water and paint, plus I was moving things around too much. He changed his position by switching to the table just an arm length away and of all places, he went ahead and fell asleep on the printer.

-Monkey, can you print out last month expenses?
-Mew, give me catnip

Oh, and the spiders... I hate spider... For some odd reason they seem to like the idea of moving in with us though. Killed one of them myself (after screaming like a little girl) and Vincent killed the other (after I screamed like a little girl.) Now, this is how the conversation went between Vin and I after I screamed
-Vincent, there is a spider in the bathroom, can you kill it?
-Nah, it's going to keep the flies away (he has a thing against killing things, even spiders)
-No, it's going to keep me away
Anyway, after threatening to spray the spider with chlorine so that it would die a terrible and painful death without me getting near it, Vincent agreed to catch it and release it outside. Killed it in the process of catching though.

Don't forget about the giveaway btw, it's still on at http://artofarmadavolya.blogspot.com/2011/05/giveaway-of-painting-joy-and-my-first.html

Apocalypse update: Good news, it cooled down a bit over here. It was so much nicer today, I didn't even have to turn on the AC. Though I still have to water the plants myself :(
Darn, this end of the world is very sneaky, you can't even see it coming.
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Update: 3 spiders... 3... One of them snack up on me while I was typing the blog post for From the World of Art. My arachnophobic mind can't handle it. Perhaps this is the way the world will end... it'll be huge aggressive spiders... they will scare us all to death...
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Another quick update, there is another giveaway I'm sponsoring. If you would like one of my Ancestor's Spirit paintings, I'm giving away the largest, the most expensive and the one I like the most. It's an $80 painting, so don't miss out

Monkey and Cuteness

I haven't posted a new post in a week now, so I figured since I don't have any new finished pieces done, I'll share photographs and stories about my two best friends, Monkey and Cuteness. First about the names. I have a habit of giving names that describe a cat in some way, it actually isn't even done on purpose as names often end up changing as the new personality traits emerge.

Monkey, when we first found him, was often referred to as little one or little lion, because he was so tiny, not to mention starved and he kind of looked like a tiny lion. Once he got healthier, we got to see his wild side. He is a very funny guy who does crazy things, like hiding his head ostrich style. He makes funny faces, especially when he is in his crazy mode. I slowly started saying that he monkeys around, called him monkey boy, little monkey and slowly he became the Monkey cat. By the way on the photo above he is yet again trying to stick his head into the floor. His behind is sticking up, but that's ok, because if he can't see you, there is no way you can see him... He tried this trick on Cuteness, it didn't work.

Oh yes, and Monkey loves sitting in boxes. For some time he kept on getting into this box I used to dry my paper mache in, so I took a picture of it and he looks like a hobo who had way too much to drink. Box being all dirty from the wet paper made it that much more believable.

Cuteness used to go by a different name as well. His original name was Rocky, because he used to box when he was little. He would get up on his hind legs and swipe 3 times with his left paw and one strong swipe with his right. This name never stuck though, probably because Cuteness didn't like it that much. He is a very sweet cat, who, if he was human, would probably be a poet. He kisses me all the time, and I don't mean licking, he actually kisses. What he does is he parts his lips a little bit and touches my chick or forehead with his lips. That often is very scary as well as sweet because his teeth go past his lower jaw and I can feel them every time he kisses me. We first started calling his Cuteness about two years ago. He would always answer anything along the lines of cute, cute face, cuteness, cutosaur and everything else cute. He usually responds to Sweetness as well. I remember one time he was all bundled up and half asleep, I said "cute face" and he immediately popped his head up and said mew that sounded like a happy and adorable "yes, that's me"

Cuteness is a survivor though, he is a fighter when he needs to be. He was attacked by a coyote once and that fiend didn't realize how dangerous a cat can be. Granted Cuteness is not your average cat, he is 40lb by now and he climes trees so fast he might as well be running on a flat surface. After this coyote attack cuteness came home with some bruising that seemed to be from the teeth. Patches of coyote fur were stuck between Cutie's claws.

There was another battle as well, with an owl. The owl was gigantic, 6 foot wing span and all. Cuteness decided to climb up yet another tree and when he got to the top he realized he wasn't the only one up there. The owl liked the idea of sitting on a tree as well. Owl figured it might as well have a snack, but it couldn't get Cutie on a tree, not owl's hunting style. Owls usually grab it's pray when they swoop down, tree branches wouldn't allow it. Cuteness on the other hand needed the own to be on the ground so that he could pounce it, the owl wasn't stupid enough to get down. Cuteness ended up circling very close to the tree trunks so that the own wouldn't be able to swoop down at him and after a some time the owl figured Cute is too smart for him and flew away.

Now the craziest battle Cute almost gotten into while trying to protect me was with a bear. I live very close to the woods and small bears often wonder around after dark. One of them came to sniff around the windows. All I heard was a soul ranching growl of my sweet cat friend and Cutie's claws trying to get through the window screen. I honestly never heard a cat growl like that, I got goose bumps from hearing it. Who needs a guard dog when you have a cat like that?

My husband wasn't around to hear the super growl, but he got to hear it more then half a year later, when we got Monkey. Monkey was terrified of Cute in the beginning and kept of hissing and growling at him. All cuteness wanted is to be friends, but his size was too intimidating for a tiny kitten. Monkey would try to swipe at Cute to keep him away and it would only result in Cute hitting back, which wasn't helping. One of these days when Monkey yet again growled at Cuteness, Cute decided to teach him a lesson and gave the killer growl. Monkey shrank back, trembling. My husband was shocked at how intimidating such a sweet cat can sound. If you would hear the growl and not see who it is growling, you's think it's a mountain lion or some other kind of large wind cat.

Cuteness and Monkey are friends now, playing together all the time and keeping each other safe. Well, Cuteness is keeping Monkey safe I should say, Monkey is too crazy and reckless to let him protect anyone.

I feel very lucky I have such good friends, and that's exactly what they are, friends. Not pets, because they have more freedom in this house then I do, not kids, because they discipline me (with claws in the hand if I don't hug them long enough), but friends. Well, monkey used to be a kid when we just got him, but that's because he needed a protective maternal figure, and figured I'm the best he can get. Well, as Cute is sleeping by my feet and Monkey in the box with photographs, I guess I should follow their example. It is 2:30 am after all.