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IN MEMORIAM
Likamkie “Red”
15 april 2000 - 19 maart 2006
‘Vreugde en verdriet hebben we gedeeld
Met vreugde hebben we gespeeld
Het verdriet gevoeld en
Samen weg gekroeld
Waarheen je ook zal gaan
onze liefde blijft eeuwig bestaan’
Vaarwel, lieve Red. Rust zacht. Wij houden van jou.
(Gedicht door Maria Egas voor de SHCN)
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What we had never thought, has actually happened. This afternoon we lost our sweet cat, Red. She was just 5 years old. She was a healthy cat, very persistent but loving. She always washed our fingers or licked our face. If we tried to push her away, she would insist to stay and keep washing. We thought that she would live to be 20 or at least 15. But… apparently that was not ‘the plan’….
Friday night when we came home, we noticed that she was very absent and quiet. Then we noticed that she was incredibly thin. This we had not noticed before, and it was very unfortunate. I hugged her, tried to play with her, she didn’t react as cheerful as usual. She approached me very slowly and I noticed that she was slightly limping.
Saturday morning we called the vet and made an appointment to go in the afternoon. Before we brought her to the vet, I gave the cats can food. Red still had her appetite, but she was clearly lost her fighting over the mood fierceness. The fact that she still had appetite, made me feel better. But the vet’s diagnose said that her kidneys were failing. We asked for a bloodtest right away. It did confirm the vet’s diagnose. The machine couldn’t even determine how high the value is anymore, because it already passed the maximum value set for the machine. We made a decision to leave Red with the vet for two days. The vet thought that she would get better. They usually do.
Sunday morning, today, we got a called from the vet’s assistant. She needed help from us, because she had to clean Red’s cage. Red was not really cooperating and fiercely hissing at her. Nor laughed when he heard this. I felt happy too. We thought, yay, she’s back and is showing who is the boss. The assistant said that we needed to be there at one o’ clock. I couldn’t wait till I could see Red again. But when we got there, the news that the vet gave us was not the news that I wanted to hear at all. She warned us before we saw Red to mentally prepare ourself. Red’s condition has worsened in the last 30 minutes to one hour before hour arrival. She got a very high fever and seemed to be in a dying state.
Finally, we saw her in her cage. Her body was twitching every few second. I guess, it was the fever. The vet explained again that at that state there was no turning back. I kept calling her name, but she didn’t respond. Her eyes were open, but they didn’t respond. The vet left us alone to let us think and make a decision. The decision came, but it was a tough one. We have decided to put her to sleep. When the vet came back, we told her about it and she offered to take off the IV needle and put Red on a towel so that we could hold her and sit down wit her. We were alone again and we took turn in holding her. I called her name again, did the ‘tick tick’ motion with my fingers which I usually did when she did something naughty and knew that something was off limit. Her tail gave some response. Her eyes blinked several time. I was so happy. I thought I would get her back and could take back our decision. But a few minutes later, she went back to that twitching mode and blank eyed again. We couldn’t stop our tears. We were already crying when the vet was there. We were still crying when the vet was back. We just did not care. The vet finally came with a syringe filled with blue green fluid. She assured me that the fluid also contains enough dose of narcotic beside the main ingredient. It just take a few seconds for it to work, she said. I believed that, I watched enough vet series on Animal Planet so it was nothing new. But now it happened to my own pet that I needed that reassurance. She offered if we would like to give the injection. We both refused. So she did it by puncturing the IV tube with the needle and injected the fluid. We said goodbye to Red again. I was silently praying that she would go to a cat heaven if there is one. Or the rainbow bridge.
Tomorrow, the SHCN will pick up her body from the vet and cremate it privately, separate from other pets. Then they will put Red’s ashes in an urn and deliver it back to the vet, where we can pick it up. We will keep the urn and give Red a final resting place, in our house near our heart.
Other passengers in the tram on the way home.
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I didn’t realize that the trains between Amsterdam - Utrecht run on new schedule starting this past weekend. On top of that, there are now only 2 trains per hour which stop at Duivendrecht. I didn’t know that and lots of other people didn’t realize that either. We all ended up waiting for about half an hour for the next train. Same thing for going to the other direction. I saw those people on the other platform waiting for a train to Amsterdam.
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A twig from one of the trees on our street. For the first time, I used watercolor without pencil or pen & ink line drawing. Just 100% watercolor. It was such a refreshing change!
A not-so-straight door. I was playing with Neocolor.
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Again, I followed another watercolor instruction book. And I love the result. It was about miximg complimentary colors to produce soft pastelly grey. And what lovely colors I got from the experiment! I can tell you that Amsterdam Zuid/WTC station has never looked half as good in reality. Hah! 
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A scene in the tram on the way home.
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This is actually an another experiment, based on a book that I have. Usually I draw my subject first using pen and ink, then apply watercolor over it. For this one, it was the other way around. Something new that I had never tried before. It was fun and more spontaneous! My sketch does not look as neat as the example shown in the book, but I think it looks pretty good.
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I bought ‘the artist’ magazine march 2006 edition (UK) this past weekend. In the magazine, there is an article by John Lidzey on ‘How to build up a subject from cuttings and photographs’. It was a very inspiring article, and no wonder they put it under the chapter ‘Inspiration’. It tells you how to do a painting from various resources: photos, newspaper clippings, reference book, etc. You isolate the relevant subject(s) from each source and put them together in one painting. So it is similar to photo montage. I was so inspired by this that I decided to experiment. But instead of making a (real) painting, I did a sketch (typical me). I loved it! The technique and process certainly give new possibilities.
So here is my first try, based on several sources. And it got my imagination going, a nice side effect. This could be:
- my next vacation destination, with me reading a newspaper under the sun.
- my villa somewhere in Southern Europe (if I get to be filthy rich), with me reading the Wall Street Journal (oops, de Telegraaf)…
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Yay! I have been using a brand new sketchbook since last week. And I am loving. The texture of the paper is slightly rough (handmade paper) and it absorbs watercolor fairly well. I absolutely love the graphic on the cover and the inside flap.
The printing on the front cover (top image) shows a map of 17th century city of Utrecht. The inside flap (bottom image) shows a map of 17th century Utrecht and its neighboring towns/villages. I just love old maps.
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My reflection. I was in the train going home. There was a problem with the train traffic and so I had to take a detour. I had to take the train to Groningen from Duivendrecht and get off in Amersfoort to take a train back to Utrecht. I had to stand the during the whole journey, because the train was really full. Luckily the trip didn’t take as long as I thought. I thought of drawing other people, but I was not in the mood for getting caught or looking for the ‘right’ subject. As I was standing facing the windows, I could clearly see myself. Seeing my own reflection made me think, ‘there, I have found the right subject. I don’t need to look to far’. I couldn’t let the chance slip away. So here is my entry for Everyday Matters Challenge #56 - Self Potrait.
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Almost forgot to scan this sketch I made last week. It is showing a house, floating on the river Amstel (a boathouse?), under the bridge/metro station Overamstel.
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The dog is preserved and stuffed. He guards the entrance to the exhibition spaces faithfully. Contrary to the usual sign of ‘Niet aanraken (Don’t Touch)’, he has a sign that says ‘Ik mag geaaid worden (I may be petted)’, which encourages kids to touch him. I touched him to for a second. The coat felt real but it gave me a strange feeling, which I could not explain. May be the fact that it did not react to my touch and the lack of warmth. Petting a static stuffed dog felt certainly different than petting my neighbor’s always drooling dog (a real sign of life). Conclusion: Life really makes a difference.
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I spent a day at the Natural History Museum (Naturalis) in Leiden last Friday. I used the visit to make many small sketches of preserved animals and plants. I considered it as a preparation before going to a zoo. The animals at Naturalis are as real as those in the zoo, only they are dead and therefore, static. It was a good exercise. And I think, I like the challenge of sketching different animals within a short period. The variation is refreshing. This summer, I’ll visit one of the zoo and see how I deal with moving animals other than my cats.
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I had to go to a workshop last Tuesday evening in Amsterdam. So after work, I had to stay and wander around the city for a little while, before the workshop. I went to get something to eat at my favorite chinese restaurant in the city: New King on Zeedijk. Their food is always delicious. Here is a selection of the dishes listed in their menu.
Note: my RSS feed problem is still not resolved. I apologize to those, who have trouble reading my blog via Bloglines or other rss readers. I can’t fix it (yet) and I prefer to spend my time drawing rather than twiddling with gibberish php stuff. So it can be a long time before it can be resolved. Sorry!
There is something wrong with my RSS Feed. However I don’t know what. Bloglines doesn’t recognize the feed, and it will only read the comment’s feed. I have looked through Word Press help, and found the answer. But the solution is apparently not really a solution for me, since it is written in some gibberish techie language which I (poor non-techie soul) completely clueless about how to apply that. From the Word Press support page, this broken RSS feed thing seems to be a bug in WP 2.0. Fine, but I want people with subscription to still be able to read my blog with their news reader.
Anybody has an easy, non gibberish solution to my dilema? I welcome all help I can get.
Thank you in advance!
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