We've been looking at these painting for many years (haven't we Norm?) and find them fascinating. I'm including a selection of our favourites here. We especially like the one that's a dead ringer for Norman himself! We'd like to thank Peter (Gordon and the all the cats too!) for letting us post them here.

Peters work is described on his own website ..."Working in designer gouache and pastels, mostly from photographs, Peter paints his cats with colourful, intricate and detailed backgrounds". To us, Peter seems to capture the real spirit of these cats, as well as making the works highly decorative. Wonderful!

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Well reader, holiday time's almost over for another year! Norman and I hope you had a good one, whether you were sunning yourselves in a back yard staycation or lounging in the heat on some golden sandy beach with the waves lapping at your toes (or paws).

As for us, we saw a whole host of creatures and critters on our trip around the National Parks of the USA, including (stuffed) Mountain Lions, a bobcat, a herd of buffalo, a wild Osprey and three bears in Yellowstone Park (with not a Goldilocks in sight)..... But a certain feline called Miss Kitty stole the show for us (well, for cat lovers who else was going to get the prize)!

Miss Kitty struts the boards

Well, to get to the point of the story... coming home we stopped off at Universal Studios, Hollywood in California. There was a show on called 'Animal Actors' and who should turn up as a perfomer but one of our own.

I caught the name 'Miss kitty' as she was introduced but that might just have been her stage name. Out walks a cat of poise and distinction who stole the show from the dogs, birds and babboon also in the show.

Here are a series of snapshots of her performance.

Miss Kittys performance in pictures

So, right on cue, Kitty proceeded to walk the length of the stage, jump on to the alligators snout, up on to the bamboo bridge, across the bridge and up the rope to the hidey hole at the top. All, without so much much of a nod from the animal trainers on hand.
[Now, did you ever try to get a cat to do anything!! (except coming to get food of course)].

The animal trainers did though point out that all the animals in the show (including Kitty) had been rescued from animal shelters or had been found homeless on the streets. They had all been looked after lovingly and trained to perform in many of the Hollywood films we knew so well.

At the end of the show the trainers encouraged us to to donate whatever we could to support animal shelters (in our own regions).

I've posted some more creature snaps overleaf.... We hope you like em

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Well, Norman and I just love these paintings....

Dame Elizabeth Blackadder RA was born on 24 September 1931 in Falkirk, Stirlingshire, Scotland, United Kingdom. She trained at Edinburgh University and Edinburgh College of Art (ECA).

Fred on top of cupboard

Her early work was influenced by the Scottist Colourist Joseph Crawhall and her teacher, William Gillies. In 1954 she travelled to Yugoslavia, Greece and Italy after receiving the Carnegie Travelling Scholarship.

Kikko on a rug

She still travels widely and exhibits throughout the world. From 1956 to 1986 she taught at ECA.

Venice Cats

Her signature subjects include landscapes, cats, flowers, still-lifes and portraits.

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Instead of loud miaowing, and even howling, when your cat wants food (behaviour likely to have them sent packing from the bedroom), some cats disguise their cries for attention within an otherwise pleasant purr.

Ahhh, your Mog is sleeping yes?.... or is he secretly planning new ways to get fish suppers out of you? - The jury's out

The result, according to a study published recently in the journal 'Current Biology', is a "begging" purr with a high-frequency element that triggers a sense of urgency in the human brain. Owners find it irritating, but not irritating enough to kick the cat out, and feel driven to respond.

Dr Karen McComb, a specialist in mammal vocal communication at the University of Sussex, said that by employing an embedded cry, cats appear to be exploiting hidden tendencies that humans have for nurturing offspring.

She went on to say that - the embedding of a cry within a call that we normally associate with contentment is quite a subtle means of getting a response – and solicitation (begging) purring is probably more acceptable to humans than the usual meowing,.

McComb, whose usual subjects include African elephants and lions in the wild, began the research into domestic cats after noticing the "manipulative" purring of her own cat, Pepo. "I wondered why this purring sounded so annoying and was so difficult to ignore," she said. "Talking with other cat owners, I found that some of them also had cats which showed similar behaviour."

After testing human responses to different purring types, McComb and her team found that even those with no experience of cats judged the "solicitation" purr to be more urgent and less pleasant.

On examining the frequency of the special purr, she found a peak similar to that of a baby's cry, which gave it a "noisy, slightly whiny quality".

However, not all cats have the cry; the researchers, who examined 10 cats, found it only in those living in single-person households. "We found that cats learn to dramatically emphasise the peak when dealing with human owners that have a one-on-one relationship," McComb said.

Asked whether the cat's special purr is more effective than a dog's bark, or other demand for food, she said: "I think it might be more effective than a dog. If you ask people who own cats what they do when they get up they say they feed their cats. Even before they have a cup of coffee. Cats are very good at getting their own way."

(well this doesn't apply to our Norman for sure!) Ed.
.....but, er, come to think of it...