The best bit of a home studio? Cats

Hello Everyone! I thought I'd take this chance to share with all of you one of my unforeseen joys of painting in my home studio - Cats. As a recovering shelter vet, I have a lot of cats - 4 now, all rescues and although they don't all get along, they all have found their own way to hang out with me while I paint.

I have a studio upstairs with one little window but I choose to paint in my beautiful conservatory which has floor to ceiling windows and a heated floor. Now I'm sure that the cats love me and not the heated floor - but one can never be sure.

Miracle Mike is a three year old recovered Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP) cat who was blind

and parapalegic. Thanks to the great folks at FIP warriors he made a near full recovery and can now walk - or rather mince - at various speeds. He can also see although he likely shouldn't drive - because of this I find that after I finish every day he likes to jump up on my stool and get up close and personal with the painting - to properly assess what I have acheived.

Arnie is the slave driver - he doesn't like to be held but likes to be near at all times. I feel like he is judging me for the work I get done or don't. He very much has a supervisory roll and often takes it on himself to sample the merchandise - namely the canvas' upstairs in storage where I find little teeth marks every now and then.

Finally there is Kitten. She is 20. She is named kitten because she was never meant to be our cat. We were just looking after her until one of our vet students could take her back to school. For various reasons that never happened and so now we have a 20 year old cat named Kitten. Like many old ladies, she doesn't like the youngsters and the youngsters don't like her. She also has bad arthritis and was pretty much just staying up in what we call "her condo" away from everyone else.

Now that I'm painting and can "monitor" the situation on the couch, I bring her down to sit with me. She loves it and konks out on the couch guarded by canvases that are works in progress so no young cats can sneak up on her. Her favourite pal strangely is our 2 year old Jack Russel Ter

rier Monty. He is incredibly gentle with her and she snuggles up to to him at every opportunity.

The last cat Minnow is adorable but likes to hang in the windows of the conservatory admiring the view. She is so quiet I don't tend to notice her at all - so no pictures.

Painting has brought me so much joy and this quiet time with my cats was an unexpected one! I feel privileged to not only have the ability and finances that allow me to paint but the time just to be able to work and wait and work and wait... with my cats.