Busy January! And Spunky's Story

Above are two photos of Spunky's mom - a pure-bred King Charles Cavalier who managed to mate an unacceptable partner - one we guess was probably a terrier of some sort, since Spunky has many terrier qualities! Spunky was a rescue puppy.

We've had a busy, exciting month with several family members visiting from New England, each for several days. Things are just now settling down and nearly back to normal. Yesterday, we took Spunky in for her annual exam. Spunky will be 10 years old in April, and she's been showing signs of vision problems, so we were anxious to have her eyes examined. Did you know there are dog opthamologists around? Our closest one is in Pittsburg, but that wouldn't have helped with Spunky since she's been diagnosed with glaucoma. There's only eye drops to keep the pressure down in the eyes to help maintain the sight for as long as possible. Already today, her eyes seem to have improved, although I suppose that could be wishful thinking! But her pupils are no longer dilated all the way all the time, and her eyes aren't watering as much as they had been. I thought that was due to her severe allergies. Now I know it's related to glaucoma.

We also learned that Spunky has high blood pressure - as in twice the normal rate. So she's now on 4 new medications, added to her allergy meds, chronic pancreatitis meds, and pain meds for arthritis.

And this is our Spunky - she appears a tad windblown, probably because she was! Her fur coat curls up wildly when she gets wet! But she has the nose and tracking abilities of a terrier.

All this is relatively "normal," given she's 60 in dog years. She's not nearly as playful as she used to be, but her main interest remains food of any kinds! She was great with the twins while they were visiting - they tried to get her to play with her squeaky toys, to no avail. But Spunky enjoyed all of their attention and petting, to be sure!

Meanwhile, I have a commission to paint 4 cat portraits on one sheet of paper... a challenge, to be sure! An artist may get 3 out of 4 portraits perfectly, but have trouble with one of the four. It's not an uncommon dilemma, so I accepted the challenge and have prepared the drawing, which was posted earlier on the blog.

Today was the day when I'm able to return to the studio to paint. I've set aside my bird fiber art pieces so that I may complete this request. It's for a special person who is gifting it to another special person - which is all the more a challenge to do it WELL!

Here's 4 Cats - step 1. I have an acetate sheet cut to cover the parts of the painting that I'm not working on. That will protect the whole painting from accidental splats of color, smearing, and anything else that might fall on the page.

All four of the cats are now in cat heaven, so this is a remembrance piece full of meaning for the recipients. But it's impossible to take current photos of the models! We're relying on old photos collected over the years of all the family cats. It's a thoughtful gift, to be sure!

4 Cats - step 2. The black cat is down, but incomplete. Final details on all the cats will happen much later!

I'm hoping that the recipient doesn't read my blog... and I'm choosing to post the progress and avoiding putting it on my Facebook page, to guarantee that. Hope I'm right!

Here's 4 Cats - step 3. The first two cats are blocked in with some details.

And this is where I stopped for the day. 4 Cats - step 4.

I'm hoping tomorrow to work throughout the day so I can send photos to the client for any changes that are required to capture the essence of each family cat. Today was fun and I hope tomorrow goes as well!