Painting with the Help of the Barn Cats - Now with Act Two Added!

[dressagetraks]

A Comedy of Project Errors

Plot Summary: Touching up the trim all around the house (high and low) and painting the front stairs and the front door - with unplanned and unhired assistants.

Primary cast in order of appearance:

Dressagetraks: Less than coordinated but determined, albeit with hands that now have the annoying tendency post injury to suddenly switch off at times under grip pressure.

Paint: WHITE semigloss exterior, 1 gallon.

Emily Dickinson: BLACK barn cat.

Longfellow: BLACK (and white, but mostly black) barn cat

Scene 1:

DT: To change clothes or not to change clothes, that is the question. Whether tis wiser to put on old sweats before this extended project session, or to stay in my favorite blue jeans and decent sweat shirt from the errand run this morning, because after all, I'm not planning to get paint all over myself. Hmmm. Discretion is the better part of valor. (This turned out to be a GOOD decision :yes:)

Scene 2:

DT: Grrrr. Come back here, brush. I think I'm painting the ground along with the house. Along with myself. What's left?

Emily: Merrr-owww? Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

DT: Watch it! I've got paint on my boots.

Emily: Purrrrrrrrrrrrr.

DT: Darn it! There went the brush again. (bending over)

Emily: Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. (winding through hands now as well as ankles, and beginning to be redecorated)

DT: Go away, would you?

Emily: Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Scene 3:

DT: Well, the stairs and door look nice now. On to the trim. Emily, DON'T SIT THERE!!!!!

Emily: PURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR (sitting on the newly painted white steps and arranging herself as door guard)

Scene 4:

DT: Finally done. Paint all over, but Emily and I can both wash. (Putting empty paint can in metal pile in the garage and tossing the depleted roller from the roller brush into the wheelbarrow which collects yard trash).

Longfellow, rising from a nap in said wheelbarrow, roller clinging to his side: Meow? Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

[cutemudhorse]

:lol: Kitties are nice!! Look how helpful!!

[Zu Zu]

Delightful!~ My barn cats - Katharine Ann, Cleopatra, Yeller, Holly Holly Holly, and Cowboy "help" me every day with everything I do -- couldn't do a thing without them. Thanks for sharing your painiting picture.:D

[SonnysMom]

My husband was painting the baseboards in the house one day a really nice dark navy. The yellow lab then went and layed down with his back against the newly painted baseboard. He had a really neat blue stripe down his head, withers and back. OOPS.

[RU2U]

Vegetable oil removes paint very easily, ask me how I know!

If you need any more helpers the MCSPCA can help you out with that!

[Tiki]

I was staying with my brother and sister in law for a while. We were all in the kitchen eating dinner when my cat, Mitzi, came into the kitchen. She walked all around, rubbing ankles and purring - completely innocent. ;)

My brother looked down, and then looked very puzzled. All of a sudden, he screamed " M I T Z I ! ! ! ! ! ".

We all looked down and saw pink pawprints everywhere she had walked.

He ran out into the hallway to find pawprints all over his newly pink painted bookshelves for his daughter's bedroom. :D:lol::winkgrin:

[Come Shine]

Longfellow, rising from a nap in said wheelbarrow, roller clinging to his side: Meow? Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

:lol:

[Holly Jeanne]

Cats are great painters. ;) I was putting primer in my hallway one time. Got a phone call from a friend with really sad news. Went back to painting preoccupied by the sad news and promptly knocked over the pan of primer. Fortunately, I had a think drop cloth. So, I go get something to clean it up and see flame point Siamese male heading in that direction. I call his name and he must have heard the panic in my voice because he freaked and took off straight through the spilled primer right across my bedroom floor, my bedspread, and my cast iron bed frame. :lol:

I'm getting ready to paint some more in a couple of week so thanks for the reminder!

[MistyBlue]

LOL...black cats + white paint = Pepe Le Pew cartoon! :D

[ChocoMare]

LOL...black cats + white paint = Pepe Le Pew cartoon! :D

Ta dah! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEdBndu0YUM

Tiki: Hope someone thought to take pictures. Pepto Bismol Paw Prints :lol:

[DeeThbd]

DressageTraks, that was beautifully written! I am sharing that! And...LOFF your kittie names....the literati would be proud of you!
Now, for others who combine cat ownership with renos...I need to sand and varathane my indoor stair runners this summer....and I have (gulp) SIX indoor cats (it's a big, old house!) Any suggestions? I COULD lock them into one or two bedrooms....but I KNOW that if I do that, SOMEONE will manage to sneak out! My thought is to do one side of the stair and hang a drop cloth or something....but somehow, I know the kittehs will outsmart me!
Dee

[terasa]

My kitty left a line of little tracks from the front door to the back on my refinished wood floors. When the light hits the floor just right you can see the tracks. It's kind of cool now, 5 years later, since he's been gone for 2 years and I was quite attached to him. I'm reluctant to refinish again and get rid of them :)

[texang73]

What's the big deal? They're were just trying to express themselves!! :lol:

You know, like these kitties (http://www.monpa.com/wcp/) :D

I was in studio art classes in college, and had left a small abstract oil painting of a horse on my table to dry... I come home to my tiny apartment with multi-colored pawprints on the kitchen floor and lovely pawprint accents all over the painting! It was actually pretty cool looking! I still have it. :cool:

[dressagetraks]

Almost all of my animals are named either from literature (characters or authors) or from music. I have a just-turned-2yo colt named Toccata who is the light of every day, but I swear, the next time somebody asks me, "Is that a word you just made up somewhere?" I might flip. At least every once in a while in general public meetings, somebody gets it. They are by far the minority in my circles, though.

My indoor cats, Siamese, are Rosalind (from As You Like It) and Tenuto.

[chestnutmarebeware]

Not kitties, but Rosie, the Paint mare was let out into the field after we had painted the run-in and THOUGHT the paint was dry! (Heck, it sure felt dry!)

Anyway, Rosie suffers from what I call "Chronic Itchy Face" and loves to rub her face on anything, but especially me (I know—most people think that's rude, but I allow it, so don't flame me!)

Imagine my surprise when she saunters into the barn for dinner with red barn paint completely covering her lovely wide blaze! It took lots of currying and weeks before she looked normal again!

Bo, with the run-in in question (pre-painting):

http://s127.photobucket.com/albums/p122/kmclaughlin21/?action=view&current=Bo1.jpg

[shea'smom]

I like the part about whether to bother changing, because I also, do not plan to get paint on myself! I now have lots of painting clothes.

[2DogsFarm]

:lol: DT: what were you thinking?
Always change into the grubbiest most-likely-to-be-tossed-out-anyhow clothes when painting. I generally end up with more paint on me than whatever was being painted.

My helpful black cat waved his tail through the pan of offwhite paint, then got po'd and went swishing away down the hallway leaving little painty tailmarks all along the walls and floor.
More cleanup than I bargained for :(

[kashmere]

I have a just-turned-2yo colt named Toccata who is the light of every day, but I swear, the next time somebody asks me, "Is that a word you just made up somewhere?" I might flip. At least every once in a while in general public meetings, somebody gets it. They are by far the minority in my circles, though.


Browning?

[Sport]

We built a new feed room last summer and this included new cement floors.
We forgot to sign them, but the kitties did it for us. Based on the depth of some of the prints, I expected to find cats wearing cement boots the next morning.

[dressagetraks]

"Toccata: A musical composition usually for organ or harpsichord in a free style and characterized by full chords, rapid runs, and high harmony."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=en-GB&v=ipzR9bhei_o

[MEP]

turned-2yo colt named Toccata who is the light of every day,

Bach's Toccata and Fugue in Dminor for Organ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipzR9bhei_o

(hee hee - the same youtube video - I guess that's what comes up when you google Bach Toccata)

[dressagetraks]

Painting with the Barn Cats, Act Two

Summary: Repainting the trim all around the house suddenly makes the body of the house look weather-worn and faded.

Cast:

Dressagetraks: Still determined, still coordinationally challenged, most definitely in old and worn clothes in advance.

Paint: Two gallons of deep ocean blue, semi gloss exterior.

Emily Dickinson: Black barn cat.

Ruby: Dilute calico barn cat

Chiam: Flamboyant highly-patched calico, indoors.

Scene 1:

DT: Hmmm. Think I'll paint all around the lower part first before getting the ladder. Cuts down on ladder time. (Swish, swish, drip, drip)

Emily: Meow? Purrrrrrrrrrrr.

DT: Aiming to be redecorated again, are you?

Emily: Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. (Winding through ankles)

DT: WATCH OUT!!! (Trip, splat, landing full out on the ground, with the brush making a neat arc through the air and landing in hair. Human hair.)

Emily: HISSSS!!!!!!!! (Stalking off with tail waving in offended dignity)

DT: Oh, shut up. Who do you think initiated that? (Extracting brush from hair, debating whether cleanup with the job 1/10th done is worth it, and continuing to paint with a sigh)

Scene 2:

(Swish, swish, drip, drip)

Emily: Meow. After due consideration, I will condescend to forgive you for falling over me. Purrrrrrrrrrr.

DT: Watch out, Em.

Emily: Purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. (Jumping onto the wood pile, which gives her enough height to swish her entire tail against a freshly painted wall.)

DT: You'll be black and blue. That makes two of us.

Emily: Purrrrrrrrrrrr.

Ruby: Meow? Meow? (tentatively approaching)

DT: Watch out, Ruby!

Emily: My paint. It's MINE. ALL MINE!!!!!!! HISSSSSSS!!!!!!! (a dilute calico streak with a black streak in pursuit heads off around the corner of the house).

DT: Poor Ruby. At least it gets the cats out of my hair and brush at the moment, though.

Emily and Ruby, advancing at full speed around the other corner, having done a full circuit of the house: MEOW!!!!! HISSSS!!!! HISSSSS!!!!!!!

DT: WATCH IT!!!!! (First gallon of deep ocean blue, fortunately almost empty, tips over as the feline tornado swirls by)

Scene 3:

DT, with ladder: Okay, now then, rule number one. We will not fall. Wait, already broke that one today. Okay, rule number one and a half, we will not fall off the ladder. (Swish, swish, drip, drip).

Chiam, peering urgently through inside window: Meow! Meow!!! I'm missing something. Help! I've been left out of the action!!

DT: Hi, Chiam.

Chaim, frantically pawing the interior glass: Meow! Help! I'm left out! Cat abuse!

Ruby, approaching again tentatively: Meow?

DT: Hi, Ruby. (Reaches up and drops brush as hands give out)

Ruby, jumping: HISSS!!!!!! (Dilute calico and ocean blue streak exits stage left)

Chiam: NO FAIR!!!!! Other cats get to help! I'm missing out! CAT ABUSE!!!!

Scene 4:

DT: Sigh. All done. I think. I hope. (Putting empty paint cans in scrap metal pile to dry, then going back for the lids) Emily!!!!!!

Emily, sniffing wet ocean blue paint can lid: Meow? You rang? (Walking casually across said lid to DT to rub through ankles.) PURRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

[MEP]

:lol::lol::lol:

How'd your hair turn out???? Bwahahahahaha

[Larksmom]

Painting-maybe not so much !