Kitties! Everywhere!

jonnycat sent me this photo from his paris hotel room. clearly, high-class hotel art transcends nationality:

mom is trying to figure out the name for the baby kitty. here she is, with her uncle walter. walter doesn't usually look so peeved, but perhaps it's the sunlight in his green eyes.

the metal thing the kitten is embracing is a cast iron bunny. why do i mention it? it's one of those things i recall from my childhood. thankfully, my parents aren't knick-knack people. i guess that comes with being artists and educators; people know better than to give you crappy plastic resin figurines cast in a chinese factory frequented by hallmark. i grew up with yard sculptures larger than me, various stone and ceramic pieces that would send suburban moms into fits of hysteria at the "unsafety" of it all. the jrl ranch is definitely not child-safe; i think i got my first mild electrocution at age 9. touching an electric fence is a rite of passage for every country kid.

but back to the sculptures. i am amazed that they are still around. they were from my grandmother's garden in los gatos. i hear stories from friends who return home after college dismayed that mom & dad have done a full-scale remodel that included throwing out all decorative items not made in the current decade. i feel badly for those folks. my parents don't do that, and thankfully their decor never looks dated. when you enrich your life with beautiful and personal art, it seldom goes out of style. so i am a lucky kid; i am never embarassed by my mom's hideously 80's wallpapered bathroom. instead, it has original artwork, gorgeous paint, and the occasionial vintage jantzen swimsuit.

so thanks for having great taste through the ages, mom & dad!

now, about the kitten.

she needs a name.

it's up to you, dear readers, to nominate and vote. what will it be?

(i'm not sure "norma jean" will fly. even though she was once a jantzen model and is thus tangentially related to this post.)