Black Cats

I’ve always had black cats in my life. When my ma and pa brought me home from the hospital in October of ’79 they put me in the crib and our black cat Ebony showed up at the door with a mouse and dropped it in the doorway as a present. Ebony slept in my bed at least 3 nights a week growing up. She was alive ’til I was 16 and she was 20. An entire childhood spent with that cat. Ebony gave up the ghost when I was really busy in my teenager years driving around recklessly in my station wagon with underage kids who were drinking and we went looking for raves and I said no to “Ecstasy” a LOT during those years and thinking back it’s some sort of twisted miracle I never did “e” in my teenage years. I owe it to Ebony’s de-facto elder sister wisdom.

Then mom and dad got Diva. She was a real great creature and really got into the whole “walking on the keyboard thing” as we got more and more keyboards in our house as the computer age progressed. She used to do this thing called “long cat” where my mom would sit on a chair with her legs straight out in front of her and Diva would lie long-wise down her legs and stretch from her hips to her feet. She was one long cat ! Diva eventually kicked the bucket in 2013 after dad dropped her off at the vet to put her out of her misery and dad was really sad and polished off an entire bottle of brandy while he unknowingly stroked a pillow on the couch beside him as if it was Diva.

A year later I met Natalie and pretty much moved in right away with her and her male roommate Marley, a spry 8 year old black cat who she’d had since his birth and had lived in like nine places together. I’d never had a male black cat in my immediate orbit and Marley hadn’t really had another steady dude in the house but we got on famously right away. Marley and I recently moved into a new house together (along with Nat) and he and I often sleep together while Nattie’s in the other room with the baby. I installed a cat door for him and he comes and goes as he pleases. He’s a real drooler and if you don’t give him enough food before you go to bed he’ll come stand on your chest at 4am and start purring and dropping drool into your mouth while you sleep. He’s started rubbing his face on the baby’s feet and the baby moves her foot to the side in a faux “attempt” to get away from Marley….but then goes back for more and I’m super happy that our child has a black cat in the house and Natalie has literally shed tears of joy while she watches her two babies inspect each other and imagine all the fun they’re going to have together.

I sincerely hope the winner of this auction has as much luck with a black cat in their life as I’ve had with the black cats in my life.

Link to eBay auction: http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/141898487550

Painting Dimensions:
-38" x 28" (97cm x 71cm)
-Acrylic paint on canvas on wood frame 1" deep.

Auction Summary:
-1 “Black Cat” original handmade painting by Kyle MacDonald
-1 autographed copy of the book One Red Paperclip by Kyle MacDonald
Shipping:
FREE SHIPPING ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.
-faster “paid” options as well. Please select options if you’d like RUSH delivery.

Provenance:
-Marley the black cat supervised the creation of this piece and gives his paw of approval.
-More than twelve people have seen this painting in person.
-Nine people have said they want to buy this painting and zero of them have bought this painting.
-Was on my Facebook wall for approximately 36 hours and got more than 11 likes.

Artist:
-Kyle MacDonald BA UBC GEOG
-Has had three black cats in his life — 4 if you count this painting.
-Dislikes Marmalade. Why isn’t it just called orange jam and why is it not sweet like other jams?
-Canadian
-1979 -