CRAZY CAT LADY

'Fence Cats' ~ acrylic painting on 45" x 15" canvas

by Australian Artist ~ Lisa Frances Judd

Original for Sale A$600.

On display at The Old Block Art Gallery from 5th May to 3rd June

Prints of this artwork are now available via: Redbubble Printing Co.

I am a self confessed crazy cat lady! Since I was a very young child, I have been surrounded by cats.

My Mother is also a cat lady and over the years she has had up to 7 cats. It must be in our blood because my beloved Grandmother had 11 of them (OMG) and the neighbourhood use to dump their unwanted kittens in our front yard. I have memories of finding some of them in the garden.  I also have many memories of days spent dressing up the cats in baby's clothing ~ bonnets and dresses and wheeling them around the back yard like they were my dolls.  It was surprising that the majority of them were very tolerant of my wanting to play with them.

My first cat was born about the same time I was born and we 'grew up together'.  Her name was Petal and she was a grey tabby. She and I were pretty inseparable. I still remember how devastated I was, when at age 13, she was run over.

Of course, over the years I have had many cats... There was Pebbles a grey and white cat, Meggie a black and white cat (that my Mother fell in love with and 'stole' from me when I intended to leave Meggie with her temporarily (she never left my Mothers house again). Benny a tabby cat who was so very clever. Benny would play fetch with me when I used a small bird ball with a bell in it. I'd throw, he'd chase and pick the ball up and bring it right back to me. He was a great cat but he didn't have nine lives and like my first cat, Petal, he was run over, but at the tender age of 9 months :(

Of course there is always a lifetime favourite.. and mine was Tinkerbell a half  Burmese and half grey tabby cat. Tinkerbell and I fell in love in the pet shop one day when my daughter and I were out shopping.  She was so very tiny and cute and she looked up at me with a look that said "so there you are, take me home now" ~ so I did.

Tinkers, as we usually called her lived a happy, fat cat life and became my little shadow.  Where I went in and around our home, so did Tinkers. When she was 10 years old, my favourite cat got liver cancer and I had to go put her down. That afternoon was and still is one of the worst days of my life. I really loved that cat like she was one of my own kids.

On a happier note... Today I am surrounded by cats again ~ an energetic tabby named Lola who loves to jump into anything ~ a shopping bag, a box, a paper bag, a backpack and even our car. We also have another tortoise shell fat cat called JoJo ~ she is the crankiest cat I have ever met, but when she is in the mood for love, she purrs so loud you can hear her in another room. My husband's cat is Suzie another tabby.  Suzie is getting old and bony, I think she is about 15 now, Anthony has had her long before we met and married.

I know that I qualify as a cat lady because even our neighbours beautiful jet black male cat we call 'Blackie' comes running to me for cuddles and walks right into our house when he feels like it. He and Lola are great mates and play in our front yard often.

They lost the back yard in November last year when I rescued an adorable dog named Miss Molly (shitzu/maltese/jack russell). So maybe I'm going to become a crazy dog lady too - I'll leave Molly's story for another day.

Lisa xox