pets

A Charming Trio

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: It struck me this morning, looking at and reading this card, that the vast majority of the time people used these postcards for quick communication and never acknowledged the card. There are exceptions of course. On the other hand, someone liked the card enough to have kept it, right? It is an interesting sort of thing really.

I do not know the date this card was sent on, only 8:45 survives on the stamp cancellation. The note is to a Milly R. Jones, 64 Angus Street, Roath Park, Cardiff. The message is crammed and a bit urgent, Blaenavon, Monday, Received card shall expect you tomorrow by 8:30 train. Have lost this evenings post so if you do not get this in time come Wednesday same train. Love to all, Mildred. Then crammed at the top, Will send Ada to train. And around the side, tomorrow? Wednesday?

Well, on one hand we know that Mildred or someone in her household had the good taste to acquire this card which would ultimately contain this timely travel note, but of course no thought to it while writing this and getting it off to the post. A thank you to Milly (and her descendants?) for saving it though.

Back of card.

Of course it these three cats that made me buy it, the fluffy white Persian, the handsome all black kit and this little sort of tabby tuxie in the middle. It is a bit hard to tell but I feel like the middle cat is younger than the other two. Someone is off camera doing something which has caught there attention and they stare more or less in unison. They are perched on what appears to be a bit of carpet covering the table. The background is completely indistinct. Virtually invisible unless the light hits it right, at the top it declares, A Charming Trio. (I only saw it after I photographed it!) There is an equally indistinct Rotograph detail at the bottom.

At first I wondered if this was a photo of Mildred’s cats, but now that I see the title and details, clearly not. Meanwhile, I always wonder about the store of postcards people must have kept at the time, reaching randomly into a drawer and pulling one out when needed. Stocking up at the local newsagent with some Louis Wains or getting some photo postcards made for an occasion or just of the pets or farm animals.

The all black cat reminds me of Beauregard and the cat in the middle looks like my Peaches. I have posted about this little girl before – you can find that post here. She’s a pretty little thing and seems utterly content in her abode with four other cats. However, having had a very hard start at the beginning of her life (found in a basement alone where she had been howling for days before someone called Animal Control), she does not trust people at all and you cannot touch her or pick her up. Having said that, she will come to be fed and I find her coming in with the family when we are there and stretching and rolling in the middle of the room – content. But she will hiss at you if you get too close and run off in a huff. She is a cats only cat.

Peaches’s favorite spot is the front window in the living room and one of my neighbors commented on always seeing her there when she walks by. It is her command post and she can see outside and most of the house from there. Deep down, I always knew that the fact that we cannot catch her would be a problem and that arose this week.

Peaches took advantage of a few moments of the open screen door unobserved and hopped out into the yard. Luckily the yard is fenced and, although if she had gotten spooked enough, she could easily have climbed it, it kept her corralled there. It was however a stand-off between humans and cats. Other cats were secured in bedrooms and the door left open hoping she would stroll back in. However, skittish already and disoriented we couldn’t make it happen. We tried luring her with food, which she ate, but couldn’t get her inside.

Peaches this summer. This was the photo I posted.

I joined the local Facebook page and posted her photo in case she wandered out of the yard. I must say there were so many nice responses and some sound advice. It was very nice to see. She became a Fair Haven Facebook celebrity with many likes and reactions.

Day turned to evening and when we didn’t grab her at dinner time it was clear she was likely spending the night outside. I, who was in Manhattan for meetings at work I could not miss, prepared to head down to Fair Haven in the morning. Just as I was leaving the house I got the news that she was inside. A local man had come with a trap but before he could set it up she scampered inside – the desire for breakfast won out.

As this storm batters both New York City and the Jersey shore, I am so relieved she is inside! I guess my feelings about potentially losing her were complicated by the fact that she is a cat my mother left in my care. Although I try to do right by those kitties, juggling two houses and seven cats can be a big responsibility. Hopefully no one else there will test me further in the near future.

Baby Farm Animals

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: This is one of the many books from a backbreaking pile we brought home from Bethesda where we purchased them at a grand and glorious used bookstore. (For last week’s post with pictures have a look here.) The store was enormous; the books were cheap and interesting. Today’s book is one Kim spotted in a pile of kid’s books, all neatly wrapped. His eagle eye spotted that the illustrations were by the genius illustrator, Garth Williams.

Copyright and other info on an inside front page. Joann hit this with a bit of red marker too.

I have written about two books illustrated by Garth Williams before. The first time I wrote about his illustrations was a book I reacquired as an adult called Push Kitty. It was a childhood favorite I had forgotten about and then remembered one day. It was easy to find a used copy on eBay and a real pleasure to see it again. It wasn’t until I looked through it as an adult that I realized that the memorable illustrations were by the same man who did those for books like Stuart Little and Charlotte’s Web. (That post can be read here.)

Messy signature attempt by Joann. I remember though proudly writing my name here!

The second time I wrote about a Garth Williams illustrated book was A Cricket in Times Square. (The post can be found here.) This book with his illustrations remains one of my very favorite childhood discoveries. Garth Williams is sort of the platonic ideal of kid’s book illustrators for me and he was at the top of his game. The writer George Seldon’s story puts it at the top of the list. This book is my (albeit sort of odd) baby gift go to. (I secretly figure it will ensure kids growing up in New York City will want to stay here, while it will plant the idea in the minds of those whose parents were silly enough to move away that they have a hankering for the city. Yes, this is slightly subversive.) All I can say is if you haven’t read it, go right now to Amazon and pick up a copy and you will thank me.

That brings us to this little morsel today. Like virtually all of us I was raised on a shifting and vaguely never-ending pile of Little Golden Books. Having a sister two years older than me and a younger brother, Little Golden Books entered the house aplenty. Strangely I don’t actually remember buying them or where they came from at the time; they were just omnipresent. Perhaps I was just too little to remember. Such things, like many toys, came from variety stores rather than bookstores at the time.

A brilliant bunny illustration.

I have to imagine that Baby Farm Animals was in the Butler family library. According to my copy, the original copyright was 1953 (AI has this wrong and only has the later publication date of 1958, noted in this edition. Additionally strange that a small sticker on the front of the book – defacing it incidentally – identifies this as a first edition. Can’t anyone read?) Anyway, this means that as a small child I was already looking at a much-reprinted book. (Later editions and even brand news ones are easily available right now.) Other, later I assume, editions seem to feature just a single one of the animals on the cover – the bunny or the donkey.

Guinea pigs remain a staple of childhood pet owning I can assure you via my job.

There is however, still a thrill when I look at the gold and black pattern of a Little Golden Book spine. This one sold for a princely 25 cents originally. (Despite the price tag of $8 I paid $4 the other day.) The cover on this edition is an illustration all its own featuring highlights of the animals inside. The puppies are playing tug-o-war with a bit of string and the pig watches the ducklings eat a worm. A kitten is staring off into space at something (bird?) and a baby lamb and donkey are on either side of the baby calf featured at center.

The inside covers are the cheerful yellow print with animals I remember and a spot for This Little Golden Book belongs to…. Joann has attempted to write her name in this one with some red scribbles although she luckily contained herself to that page. Meanwhile someone else has liberally stamped their name and address throughout, James J. Clayton, 1415 S. Olden Ave, Trenton 10, NJ. That just seems odd and I can’t imagine why Mr. Clayton felt the need to do that.

I like that the kitten and puppy are taking a rid here.

Inside I learned that, The Little Golden Books are prepared under the supervision of MARY REED, Ph.D. Formerly of Teachers College, Columbia University. Below that, The pictures in this book are by Garth Williams, whose charming baby animas and simple text never fail to delight children. “Baby Farm Animals” has been a Golden Book favorite for many years. The publishers are happy to preset it now as a Little Golden Book. So perhaps it had an earlier publication life?

Kittens are of course a favorite.

I have favorites in this book which I am showing here. Not surprisingly the Baby Kittens [who] love playing on the farm. At nigh the farmer gives them fresh cow’s milk and they curl up together in the big red barn. I especially like the little tuxie cleaning himself although the gray one playing with a bug is pretty hotsy totsy too. However, for illustrations the rabbit on the next page blows me away. So fluffy and there is a point made about him being friends with the kittens and puppies although I wouldn’t want to put that to a test.

Those ugly ducklings that will be swans featured here.
Baby ducklings and chicks even out the avian lot.

Beyond that guinea pigs are featured – a mainstay of childhood pets it seems although it as a farm animal seems like a bit of a stretch. Ducklings and chicks are on facing pages, all downy cuteness. And it interests me that he has both cygnets and goslings and mentions that one will grow into a swan and the other a goose. (Trumpet of the Swan anyone?) For Pam’s picks, the two pages of piglets are next – bringing us back to Wilbur, the man could draw a sweet looking baby pig!

Ah! His beautiful pigs!

The animals get bigger in size toward the end of the book – a horse, a pony (who won’t grow much bigger…) and ending with a baby calf. The end paper has a list of all the Little Golden Books you could order (with an order number) and I remember pouring over this list and the little illustrations around the edges. Bugs Bunny! Bambi! I wanted them all. (Was it a conscious decision that we didn’t have any of the ones with popular characters? Somehow I think it was more coincidence or unconscious on Mom’s part.)

The fascinating end paper which always captured my delighted attention.

The back cover is very worn and features Giant Little Golden Books. These bigger books offer almost triple the value of a comparable Little Golden Book and cost 50 cents each.

Very worn back cover.

For me although the incentive was definitely Garth Williams, it was nice indeed to have a trip through a Little Golden Book again as well. Simon and Schuster held onto this imprint until it was purchased by Penguin in 2013 and now they continue to produce the line.

This turned out to be a long one so thanks to those of you who made it through!

Tough

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Writing from our New Jersey outpost today – more about that maybe tomorrow. However, I am fresh off a Saturday morning of cat chores – multiplied of course by the number of cats and also with my commute less gets done during the week. There is a day of gardening ahead too – the first of the dahlias is blooming and I have even cut a few for enjoying here in the kitchen.

I tucked a few cards in my computer bag for posts, although there are also a few items that have come with us to live here which I hope to feature in the coming weeks as they get unpacked and are fully available for consideration.

Beau Butler, acting senior cat.

Today, this little tidbit however, purchased at the most recent card sale. I chose it as I am now in a bevy of kitties here in the House of Seven Cats and I am reminded of their pecking order. Although Milty is the oldest of cats here (and male) he is so old that Beauregard, the five or six year old all black fellow, is really top cat for all intents and purposes these days. Beau (and Milty) are fed first among the Jersey kits. (Cookie and Blackie, aka the New York cats, are fed in separate rooms to keep the peace.) Gus, Peaches and Stormy wait to eat after. The older boys also get their pick of the choice sleeping spots. Alas, the feline world is a sexist one.

Milty, true elder statesman senior cat.

In this card we have a fellow who is indeed a tough guy after a fashion. He sports a pistol, knife and has a cig hanging out of his mouth. (Arguably though he has a fluffy kitty tummy being shown!) The newsboy cap pulled over one eye, a kerchief knotted around his neck, here is something of a Frenchmen about him, an apache. His Wanted poster is on the wall behind him, sporting the same, striped, vest and presumably a list of his sins below. His hands (um paws) are on his hips. He is looking to the left of the viewer at something, above him Tough Baby! is inscribed.

Peaches, meanest cat ever, just shown here for the heck of it.

If I was going to draw comparisons to my New Jersey cats this chap would be Milty not Beau who for all his top cat status isn’t really a tough guy – just the largest kitty here. Milty, even in his dotage, is more like this swaggering fellow.

Faded back of card.

This card was mailed, although the message and address are quite faded. By happy coincidence it is postmarked July 30, 1940 from Margate, Kent. So as of yesterday, it was mailed exactly 86 years ago. As best I can read the message on the back, in faded blue writing it says, Dear Andrew and Timothy, We are having…time here and the weather is lovely. How are you getting on Andrew with your work, not working…hard I hope. How is Timothy, I’m sure…love the sea. Love from Heidi & Madelaine. It is addressed to, Master A. Marr, ‘Kilroney’ Swan Lane, Edwin Bridge, Kent. The card is British published.

So that is your quick Pictorama post for today. I’m off to do household and cat chores and find my way to the garden, weather permitting.

Winkin’

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Like most New Yorkers I awoke to a much cooler day today after several days or grueling and punishing heat. And this fellow was looking up at me on my desk when I got here this morning. (Envision my desk, an old drawing table someone gave me, as a living, roiling, mass of things which occasionally coughs up something from a lower stratum. One morning last week it was freakishly an early family photo of Kim’s. I don’t remember having seen it before and have absolutely no idea how that ended up in the mix.)

I purchased this card at the most recent edition of the postcard sale. You would think that it might be embossed with the very textured, woven look of the background (like the surface of an old suitcase), but it is not. This very sporty cat however, who has a hat, high (detachable?) collar and bow tie all of his day. That chapeau (more or less the same blue as his natty bowtie), is at an especially jaunty angle and sized just right for between his pointed ears.

As cat coloring goes, he is a bit nondescript. His hair is sort of a brown mix but without a distinct stripe like a tabby. He’s got a saucy look with his gaze directed, not at us, but toward someone or something to the viewer’s left. While it isn’t all the way to thuggish, his wink isn’t one of affection and I would say he’s a tough guy. (Cats blink and wink with affection and sometimes of course as they get sleepy – which being cats is much of the time.)

This card was mailed from Rotterdam on April 3, 1917 (I needed Google’s help with that) and addressed in a purpleish ink to Mej. W. H. van Etten, Oudshofstraat, Steenbergen. In the same ink and hand on the left, it appears to say something like, Jac. Pat.

So this uncredited artist could be the Netherlands answer to Louis Wain. He looks like he is up for some trouble – I can see him shooting craps or pulling a minor heist. While Wain’s cats can have that quality there is something always a bit scattered about them and there is usually a sly joke somewhere.

Back of the card.

The only identifying mark on the card is a stylized PN and the number 2501-4 on the front. While an internet search shows Postcard News as utilizing these initials, they appear to be a later, American card company.

As a kid I had a remarkable tortie named Winkie. I have probably written about her before although not that I can think of at any great length. She was my first cat soulmate, was extremely smart (arguably too smart for her own good), and had several extra toes on each front paw as well as an extra joint somehow which made her look like she was on her tip toes.

I’m sorry not to have a photo of Winkie available, but here is Cookie Fussbudget Butler.

She and my cat Otto have left me with the impression that the girl cats are smarter than the boys, although the fellows are more likely to be very affectionate. This plays out a bit with Cookie and Blackie. However, it must be said that lately Cookie has become assertively in need of attention and leaps onto the bed nightly (dramatically jumping over Kim’s pillowed head and mine), lands next to me and begins loud meowing for pets. She has always been the more vocal, chattier of the two cats and now the vocalizations are long, loud and drawn out conversations and I suppose recriminations. Cookie (aka Cookie Monster), the tuxie of the two, is quite a card.

In the Yard with Cats

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: I am heading to New Jersey tomorrow for a few days and this card has me in a pleasant mind of backyard time I hope to enjoy. My roses are in bloom and the gorgeous purple-blue hydrangea, both front yard and back, is starting its ascension into its first flowers of the season. The herbs are well on their way and I understand my grapes have finally come back with a will. Strawberries have already made an appearance and the dahlias are shooting up en force!

I will, of course, be greeted to varying degrees by the resident cats there. Beauregard will claim as much lap time as possible while Milty and Gus will shove in where they can. Stormy and Peaches, my girl cats, are my scaredy cats and although they may (or may not – thinking of you Peaches!) be glad to see me.

The grapevine has returned with a vengeance I am glad to see. All the garden photos are via my friend Winsome.

If you pay attention to all things cats on the internet, you know that catios are all the rage and you can purchase them pre-made (think screened tent for your cats) and less expensive, or you can build a more elaborate version. Ideally the cats have free passage from house to safe outdoor harbor in the catio, but there are an increasing number where the expectation is that you will plop them in and take them back out yourself. Of course, I have considered these but I am not carrying my precious pusses outside to put them in a flimsy screened enclosure. No, I would have to be one of those folks who built something solid and give them cat door access to it.

Although I grew up with cats that roamed free in the yard and divided their time in and out of the house as a matter of course, this is no longer the way in the area where I grew up and where we now have a house. At some point, keeping your cat inside, or with a collar for brief outside turns, became the way of things. Cats are chipped now in case they are lost, although something about putting that in her cats always made my mother nervous. Although all these cats came from living on the streets, none of them has set a paw outside since.

The aforementioned Peaches.

There is something wonderful however about my childhood memories of cats wandering in and out, more or less at will, without thinking about it. They enjoyed it so much and all the better if we were outside with them. As I kid I would sit outside and play with them for hours. I actually haven’t thought about it for years.

Like this photo we might have had a light indoor chair outside, although it would likely be alongside a bunch of lawn chairs. (My father eventually bought heavy outdoor chairs and tables at garage sales, but I was older by then.) If we were outside at least a few of the cats and the dog would be out with us although, maybe someone was sleepy inside too. There were no particular rules. We just never thought about it. Everyone pretty much came in at night unless for some reason they had a mysterious kitty rendezvous and were off on a toot for the evening. Noted but not a cause for alarm.

The dahlias are showing early promise.

Looking at these folks and their cats in their backyard in the dabbled sunlight it makes me think about it. The women are in their long dresses of the day but summer versions and the man, seated behind them, is in a suit with a tie. (One could say he is sort of not quite fully participating.) Those summer cottons which while beautiful must have required difficult laundry and endless patient ironing. Hard to see but the woman in white is leaning on a bit of a chicken wire enclosure behind her. When we look closely there are beds of plants, something leafy and green climbing up an arbor to the viewers left and behind them.

It was clearly a bit of an occasion. Girl kitty (my assumption) is wearing a big bow and looks a tad unhappy about it although not in full on revolt. She perches in a timid way on the chair with a cushion. She is a light-colored tabby-ish kitty, orange most likely? The other looks like a tom and he is in a loving if tightly gripped hold for the photo. Look at the stripes on his legs! Those black bands! Both have white faces and front paws. Handsome fellow!

Backyard is blooming!

The yard has a high fence around it as far as we can see, although technically not one that would keep an interested (let alone determined) cat in or out. My backyard is also fenced, but given small spaces as entry points near the ground I have found all sorts of animals back there including a fox who got in and admittedly didn’t seem to know how to get out. (I opened the gate and invited him to take his time leaving.) Cats do come by occasionally – that is how Stormy and Gus came to live with mom. Some of you might remember the stray tom I christened Hobo who we fed on and off for several years.

Hobo back in 2023.

This photo was never sent and nothing was written on the back. On the back there is a very faded company logo for Central Studio, and an address, 103 College Street, Burlington, VT. It is easy to imagine that this was taken in Vermont, a singular photo postcard and the cats were clearly rallied for the photo opp. It is a wonderfully distilled moment from a long ago summer.

Meanwhile, on my way to the Jersey shore so a Jersey summer specific card to come tomorrow!

Crying Kits

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Today I have cat tales. Cats are of course the foundational interest of Pam’s Pictorama although we do stray – Kim’s comics, the occasional dog. We are All Pam, all the Time, but albeit not quite cats all the time but much of the time.

Today’s card came as a purchase from the most recent incarnation of the postcard show and we have the Boulanger card with crying kitties to consider. I’m not exactly sure what in particular Maurice was thinking about. We have a dark gray and white matched pair of kittens who are looking at each other with tears running down their faces. The white one is a bit pudgier and a smidge bigger than the gray one, one with yellow eyes and the other a very light green.

In my opinion Boulanger (b. 1910, d.o.d. unknown) was something of a pretending to the Louis Wain (b. 1860, d.o.d. 1939) throne so to speak, as there are a few decades of overlap between them. I reckon there was more than enough demand for the images produced by two cat artists. (Some prior posts for Boulanger can be found here and here. Louis Wain Pictorama posts abound but a few are here and here.)

This image is evidently called, Tendrement (Tenderly) and on some versions evidently in German it is also written, Apfelblüte. Daut un daut lüschen Hoffen – Apple Blossom. That sweet, soft glimmer of hope. I did wonder about the image of weeping pusses. It does raise the issue of who you might have sent this card to and what their reaction might have been. Mine was not sent and does not have any useful information on the back.

Yesterday was a major cat event here as Blackie has been doing sort of poorly with a lack of appetite. Ahead of the holiday weekend I managed to get him into his local vet in the late afternoon. Have I ever mentioned that Blackie seems to have an uncanny need to go to the ER on a holiday weekend or otherwise inconvenient (reads as more expensive too) times? He does. Long story short, no sooner had we gotten home than the vet called to tell me that after looking at his tests (a small amount of ketones in his urine) he needed to go to the ER.

The little man, feeling more himself, today.

Of course, these days the kitty emergency room is at the hospital where I work. So yes, on what should have been an afternoon off I was hopping in a cab and rushing Blackie down there. (Kim, still recovering from back surgery did the first vet trip but we decided he should stay home for the second.)

I took him fully expecting that he would need to stay overnight. A young resident saw him and ran some more tests. Blackie hates going to my place of employment, but this time I had reason to bless working there. He enjoys a low-key celebrity status as an employee kitty (people came and visited with us and even with him in the back, reporting out to me) and despite it being the Friday night before the long weekend, one of the senior docs who has seen him before came by to have a look at him.

She mentioned as had the other two vets, that he had a lot of bowel not moving in his intestines – kitty constipation. The difference was she gave me instructions for giving him a tiny kitty dose of Miralax. Since eating and resolving constipation were the main issues we decided I would bring him home – he has an appetite enhancer and an anti-nausea drug. Even when we came home last night, he was ready to eat! That combined with the Miralax appears to have set him absolutely right today. I woke to a hungry boy cat and a rather impressively full litterbox. Yesterday reminded me of why I love the hospital where I work. Yay for Blackie!

Ring Tale

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: So once in a while I drift a bit and devote a post to another of my passions, antique jewelry. (Sorry, cat folks – more and more on those to come.) I recently devoted a post to an amazing ring I purchased of Cupid chasing Psyche in the form of a butterfly. (That post can be found here.) Today I need to start by saying Kim purchased this for me, knowing I had a serious hankering for it, and of course that makes it a bit more special. Thank you! I love it!

Although I admittedly have a sort of insane fondness for opals (a post or two about them can be found here and one on a very beloved boulder opal ring here, if you are somewhat new to jewelry posts), and their constantly shifting shafts of light. My other passion, highlighted today, is a bit of a story or symbol I find motivating. I like my collections where I can see them (photos lining the walls here at Deitch Studio and increasingly in New Jersey.)

Antique bone skull set in a ring that is another favorite of mine. Ring designed by Muriel Chastanet of LA. Pams-Pictorama.com collection. They recently turned a slightly larger skull into a necklace for me.

Rings. Yes, I do wear several on each hand most days, and they are a constant morale boost for me. To have them either winking light at me or motivating me with their stories and symbolism can inspire me all day. The ring I am sharing today was on the site of a British vendor (@heart_and_serpent on IG or their website here) for several months before I caved and grabbed it up. I saw it once on Instagram and it caught my eye and then tugged at my brain. I just kept visiting it on her site – hoping it would not have sold. Luckily it had not and I realized that I really needed it. Somehow this one was meant for me I think and I wear it pretty much daily.

I am not sure the world at large currently shares my interest in a certain kind of cameo or intaglio rings. (Yes, I have bought another cameo ring, this one depicting Hercules, coming soon. I was deeply interested in the symbolism of his endurance and perseverance. Seems like a good message for me right now.) Their loss! Luckier for me as they don’t just fly out of the store and I have the sort of pause I tend to need before making a significant purchase I plan to wear frequently like I do these.

I must say, I can just get lost in the little story depicted on this ring. A woman in a long dress and her large dog (dog really sold it for me) are walking in front of what I think of as her house. The cottage is made of bricks and there is also a brick wall next to it – this creates great textures and there is incredible depth to the image. There manages to also be a sort of a bit of fence and bushes. Another house, with trees behind it, is in the distance and there are even clouds in the sky. There are sort of four layers to the space in the image.

This was unusual for me but something I found when clearing out stuff of mom’s in New Jersey. Pams-Pictorama.com collection.

According to the seller, the ring is circa 1890 and the rose gold setting is 9k, which is a karat I think of as more frequently used in Britain than the US. Although in reality while I assume the ring is British (as it came from there and the 9k setting) I don’t actually know. The Victorian nature of the ring, the depiction and enjoyment of the natural world, is a bit of a giveaway though. I will add that the rose gold plays off very nicely with the shell cameo color. Meanwhile, let’s just say it is just as well I don’t live in Britain because I purchase a lot of jewelry (not to mention toys and photos) from there and can only imagine how much worse it would be if I could actually visit these folks and not pay shipping and now tariffs!

There is a mark where the ring was made a bit bigger and me, even with my somewhat arthritis swollen hands, can and do wear this on my index finger. (Index finger is somewhat new territory – I expect to get to my thumb one of these days. I have seen women wear old, chunky gold men’s rings on their thumbs and love the look. I have my eye out. Poor thumbs should not be jealously unadorned!) The majority of my cameo rings are actually quite small and I wear them on my pinky.

Lauren over at Heart and Serpent has many stunning mourning pieces in her generously stocked online store. (She just put a photo of herself up on her IG account today as it happens, sitting in front of some gorgeous early tiles, at a historic site I think.) I have a smattering of mourning objects (I wrote about one in a post here several years ago with a very moving story), although have not worn many of the pins lately as I wear fewer jackets to sport pins on, and I found the necklace I wrote about a bit fragile to wear frequently – no scarves to tug at it but even without that. (My jackets are also the display area for my collection of gold, school merit medals, also with encouraging messages like Improvement or Excellence. Those are credited with helping get me through some rough days as I found my footing at a new job. Posts about those can be found here and here.)

Antique horse cameo ring designed by the incomparable Muriel Chastanet Jewelry of Los Angeles. Probably the first big jewelry investment I made. Still a favorite. Pams-Pictorama.com.

I think my current job (raising money for an emergency animal hospital) has peaked my interest in dog imagery. I meet many more dogs these days and am giving them their psychic due. The large dog here definitely caught my eye and just between us, there is a very beautiful dog stick pin which has landed at Pictorama which may eventually find its way to becoming a ring or even fitted for a necklace. Cats watchout! The dogs are on the move.

Family

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today’s is a recently acquired photo postcard – it showed up in the mail last night as a matter of fact. I bought it off eBay on a whim and am more charmed by it in person. This photo today would probably be photo shopped or fully AI generated which makes its skill – and its imperfect bits – that much more endearing.

Seven cats are lined up here – several are looking at a spot in front of them and we assume the person behind the camera has something to capture their gaze that way. Almost all of them are very fluffy indeed, and the dark haired one on the left could almost make another cat with that enormous tail. It says a family group and I wonder if it is mom and dad on either end and this variety of kits betweenn. There is one tabby, third from the right who doesn’t fit the family fur, short-haired or so it would appear.

If we assume that mom and dad are on either end, there is a dead ringer for each of them in the pile – the white kit all the way left and the one next to it. The others are a bit more of a wild mix and I really like the one who wouldn’t sit and has his or her back up a bit. Dad just has an insane amount of fluff and both are well brushed and maintained.

Everyone is seated on a garden bench with painted some sort of boxes acting as end tables. There is a nice cushion on the bench being enjoyed by the cats – no idea how they got the cats on the end to pose so perfectly. There are cushions on the ground in front of the bench, covered in a sort of oriental rug pattern. I wonder if those cushions are for the back of the bench but didn’t work for the photo. We can’t see much of a garden behind them, but we get glimpse of the flowering shrubs behind them.

This card is undated and was never sent. It appears to be American made but there is no maker credit on the back.

As the mom of seven cats myself (the Jersey Five and NY kitties) I have to admit that I do not have a single photo of all of them in one frame. I actually only seem to have four of the Jersey Five together, let alone along with Cookie and Blackie. So hats off to this ambitious photographer and cat parents somewhere and back in time.

Kitten Card

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Pam’s Pictorama Photo Post: Today I have plucked this hand-colored card out of the pile. It was used as a birthday card and it certainly is cheerful enough to make a good one. Kitten pictures are like dopamine hits and during stressful times if I can, I find watching videos of them or looking at pictures of them very soothing. Given the feline nature of Pictorama this is probably not surprising.

Meanwhile, I have seven cats, no shortage here, and yet looking at more cats still appeals to me, although I do recognize that I do not need to acquire any at the moment. (I’m not sure I documented the sudden acquisition of five cats when my mother died, although longstanding readers probably figured it out. For new readers, that is how I went from always having two to having seven more or less overnight. It’s a lot of cats.) All that to say I am cheerfully contributing to your dopamine acquisition online today, a bit of cat fluff to cheer your weekend, (another) rainy one if you are in Manhattan. (Not to mention to help get with the time change – that certainly snuck up on me.)

This young woman might be from the early 1920’s to as late as the 1930’s when we take her clothes and hair (careful marcel wave) into account. She holds two very likely little suspects, a tabby (always a good look on those) with his small paws wrapped around her arm, and fluffy white one with spots, the true color of which is hard to peg.

The kittens are small enough to be easily subdued by the young woman holding them. Her dress has a wild print and has been painted in this interesting orange, red stripe running down the front and a sort of Keith Haring-esque pattern. She sports a bracelet which appears to be silver and has a charm hanging off of it. Her ruffled cuffs and collar have been left a bright white. There are some sort of illegible decorations down the front of her dress and artificial looking ropes of flowers are color sketched in behind her. If she wasn’t such a pretty woman, she would recede behind all this visual noise, however she holds her own.

Inked on the back in neat script is says, Dear Kathie, Wishing you many happy returns of the day. From Lily & John. However, there is no postmark, it must have been handed to her or on gift perhaps.

Given my affection for such antique missives, it probably isn’t surprising that I am still a sender of cards. Although the circle is smaller than it used to be, physical cards still go out for birthdays and for some, Valentines, Easter and for a large group (as you have seen) Christmas. Are the best of my cards being saved to turn up in the future? It’s hard to say, but I believe the folks I send them to seem to appreciate the physical reminder that I am thinking of them and have chosen a card for them. (And who doesn’t love a bit of unexpected mail that isn’t a bill?) However, it is undeniably an anachronism, albeit one I hold dear. So this is a cat card for all of you today – I will say that personally I needed a cat pic today and this one has done just fine.

Dear Louise

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Pam’s Pictorama Post: Here at Pictorama we’re in lucky black cat territory today. When I reflect on the difference between the British who honor their black cats with being lucky and our own culture’s tendency to assign them bad luck, I think I may have been born on the wrong side of that big pond. This is an English published postcard, never used postally so hard to get a date on it. The image is a fairly common one and I would say this postcard could be from any time from the ‘teens to the forties.

Although the phrase on the card, I will meet you in the evening dear Louise, seems to bounce around (I found it on at least one other, albeit mundane, postcard) I cannot find the precise origin of it. However, one can imagine this sharp looking little fella being a popular image on a postcard. Red bow, tongue out, looking over to the side with huge eyes, he is perched atop a brick wall, rooftops and pipes in the distance with a huge yellow moon rising from the mist. I can see it being just the right cheeky card to send to your loved one for an assignation of sorts.

I have written about the roots of British black cat good fortune before. On the maritime side, they believed that a black cat on board a boat was good luck (perhaps not for the cat although maybe a mousie and rat filled paradise of sorts), and my favorite tradition of giving a bride a black cat on her wedding day – what a very nice wedding gift that would be!

Blackie on the bed in NYC in a recent photo.

As mom to two black cats, Blackie and Beau, I often profess to their particular good nature. I remember that my mother wanted to adopt Beau especially because he was an all black cat and I gather they are less likely to be adopted. There seems to be some truth in that but meanwhile certainly she found herself the most devoted little friend ever. Beauregard would sit on her lap happily for hours if allowed and there is not enough petting in all the world for that cat. He is a great companion.

Beau possessively on my lap one morning in NJ recently.

When his weight became too much for her as she grew more frail, he shifted first to next to her and eventually to the chair next to her where he kept persistent watch over her – really of his own accord and understanding. He did not need to be reminded after he first realized it. At times it would be my job to move him to another room – doctor coming etc. and at first it was difficult. As experienced as I am with cats he wasn’t used to being picked up and carried and he is, frankly, an enormous cat. He allowed it and over time he accepted me as one of his spare humans while mom was the unquestionable primary.

With mom gone more than two years now I am the closest thing to her and when I spend time in NJ he claims as much lap time as he can get. His preference is still sitting in my mom’s recliner chair, and I like to think my way of petting, learned at her knee, is somewhat reminiscent of hers.

Milty, who is actually a small cat, looking like an evil genius in a recent photo.

At times I have felt bad about not trying to bring Beau to New York with us, but he rules the house and the other cats in New Jersey, and I am not convinced that displacing him would make him happier. It was my mother’s wish that they would all continue to live in the house and I promised to at least try and it has worked for the past few years. Beau, Gus and the two girls (Stormy and Peaches) are quite young cats, only Milty is a senior citizen (of slightly indeterminate age – late teens, early 20’s) and he is quite tenacious. Therefore, the Jersey Five remain intact at the house there.