Walsall Wonderland

I love cats, adore them. I think cats are awesome! My fiancé and I have two cats that are just great. Today I felt like doing another Theme Post, I told you they’d be more! So today’s is going to be cats!

I think to start this entry we have to go with a Maneki Neko; a Japanese ‘Beckoning Cat’.

The story of the Maneki Neko goes something like this. An old monk who lived in a run down temple could barely afford to feed himself, but he nonetheless kept a cat, and fed the cat as best as he could. One day, when the old monk was completely out of money, and the cat meowed for food, and the old monk exasperatedly said to it ‘I can’t afford to eat. How can I afford to feed you?’. The cat went away to think about this, and the monk felt bad for his outburst with the cat.

The cat went out to sit by the front gate of the temple. There was a terrible storm that day, in which a young noble man who was out walking had been caught in, and had taken shelter under a tree. Through the rain, he saw the cat beckoning him, which happens to be the same motion a cat uses to clean it’s head. The young noble man walked over to the cat, and just as he reached it, the tree he had been standing under was struck by lightning and collapsed. The young noble would surely have been killed were he not beckoned over by the cat.

The young noble man went inside the temple, looking for whoever owned the cat. When he got inside the dilapidated old building, and found the hungry old monk, he told him of how the beckoning cat had saved his life. He then decided to become the patron of the old monastery, and told many people about the amazing Beckoning Cat that saved his life, and told them to visit the temple. After this, the monk was able to afford rice again, and able to buy fresh fish for the cat. They lived on happily like this for some time, until eventually the cat got old and passed away. The monk and the noble man made a statue in honour of the cat, and people from far and wide still go to see it.

I’ve always loved the Maneki Neko story. Next up are some scarves, this first one I have made, and I love how the pattern of the Cat’s Paw Lace Scarf turns out. Then there is this groovy scarf, though you need to know what ‘Longcat’ is to fully appreciate it’s awesomeness! The Longcat Scarf has a great double knit look, and would be extra warm!

Now I have to move onto patterns for cats. Getting a cat to do anything it doesn’t want to do can be torturous, to the owner, not the cat. So how this knitter got this argyle vest onto their cat is rather beyond me. Now, kitties need a place to nap, as they sleep approximately 18 hours a day – that’s not a joke – so this dotty cat bed is a nice place for any cat to nap. Lastly, kitties need to play in the 6 hours they are awake each day, so here are my two favourite knitted cat toys. One is a very cute bumblebee on an i-cord, and the other is a really cute felted fish, though I wouldn’t include catnip as I don’t like drugging my cats.