Bonkers Betty Illustrations

Hello you! How the devil are you?

Here at Bonkers Betty Towers, we're enjoying the longer days and warmer weather. After a year of not wanting to go outside (possibly for fear of forever being banished to the shed whence she came?) Betty recently decided she'd quite like a look around the garden.

Contrary to my expectations, she didn't ninja her way through the flowers, hissing cross-eyed at everything that moved. Instead, she took a slow but steady constitutional, miaowing her way around the plants, giving constant feedback on what she thought of it all. She was out there... wait for it, people... a whole five minutes before deciding she'd had enough.

She came in looking like she'd conquered a medium-sized mountain rather than a very small back-garden.

In celebration of the fact that Betty has been part of the family for a year now (where does the time go?) I sat down today and began to create a few pictures of the kind of shenanigans she gets up to. She makes me laugh constantly, and I thought you might like to see how she spends her days here at The Shire.

One of the things Betty spends a lot of time doing is peeping.

She likes to hide under and behind things and watch.  For a very long time.

Still. Silent. Marginally deadly in a small and fluffy way.

She is the Master of a game I've coined "Hide But Don't Bother Coming To Seek Me".  A modern Betty twist on an old classic.

Put Betty in any room and within seconds she will have sussed out the best places from which to observe her unwitting victims (that would be me, Eric and Ernie).  She is a Ninja to the tip of every whisker.

If you don't believe me take a look at this...

If that doesn't get you quaking in your boots and chewing your fingers to nubbins with fear, then, frankly, I don't know what will.

I'll be back soon with more pictures of Betty's bonkersness.

Purr,

♥

Betty As A Pencil Drawing

Inspired by my attempts to turn my pencil drawing of a tabby cat into a "character cat", I pondered the possibilities of being able to turn Betty into a detailed pencil drawing that could capture the mighty power of her small but very hard stare.

I was ready to be a bit disappointed if I wasn't able to translate her personality onto the paper. Having only ever done one "character cat" before her, I thought my skills might not be up to it. As it happens, apparently miracles do occur, as after a while she appeared on my art journal page, looking as feisty, stroppy and comical as she is in real life.

I've decided to make her into a new blog header because, well, this picture of her makes me laugh so much.

Look into my eyes!

 For a very small cat, Betty has mahoosive ears.

Mahoosive, I tell you!

Betty and I hope you're having a beautiful week, and that your weekend is filled with happy moments. I'm not very well at the moment, and Nurse Betty is making sure I'm properly looked after by giving me lots of fluffy paw smacks to the face and head bonks. What more could a sick person ask for?

♥

Cat Art

Hello.

How are you diddlin'?

I've been having a quiet day today, and decided to do some drawing.  I wanted to turn a cat pencil drawing I did a few weeks ago into a "character cat", getting a likeness of the original cat but making it quirky.

Here's the original cat drawing...

Here's how things started off...

Ears? Check.

Eyes? Check.

Strange snowman shaped body. Check.

The beginning of drawing something is always the time where if I judged what was appearing on the paper, I'd never draw again!  Over time I've learned to be forgiving in the beginning and let whatever appears on the page be what it is without giving myself a hard time.  

Here's who eventually turned up...

He's called Stan.  I love his bright eyes and his little pink nose!

He likes looking for worms and hiding under towels.

I hope you like him.

Betty and I hope you're having a great week.

♥

  

Bonkers Betty Update

Hello and how are you?

All is good at Bonkers Betty Towers (our house) and Betty is a beautiful, velvety pom pom of fun (seriously, she spontaneously poof-ed up after a few weeks of getting properly fed and being adored).

After Betty arrived and set her little paws firmly under the table (so to speak), I started sharing "Bonkers Betty Updates" on my Facebook page.  In order not to fill my friends' feeds with oodles of over-excited updates about Betty, a few friends suggested I start a Bonkers Betty page on Facebook. Which I did.

For the past few months I had 97 "likes"/loyal (and much appreciated) followers.  Of those, I'd guess that 95 were pretty much my family and friends.

About a month ago, I went to bed and woke up the next morning to find Betty's "likes" steadily climbing.  I'm not sure how it happened or who shared Betty's page on Facebook, but she now has over a 1100 lovely new friends who follow her adventures. Huge thanks and heartfelt appreciation for your support. And head bonks and paw nudges from Betty.

Over on Facebook, I regularly post illustrations of Betty's antics, photos of Betty being poof-ey, and the odd picture of hamsters in woolly jumpers. (How completely off the scale ca-yoot was that little fella?) And here, I'll be posting longer stories of Betty's stroppy sweetness, alongside exclusive photos of the paintings I do of her.

It would be lovely if you wanted to drop by and join in the fun, Betty and I would love to see you there. Just click on the link HERE to come and say hello. And if you're popping over from Facebook to visit Betty's poof-ey corner of the interweb here on her blog, a hearty welcome to you.

In the meantime, here is a recent painting I made of Betty.  Just cos.

Betty is sending head bonks and purrs. I'm sending a big ole wave and smiles. *wave* *cheesey grin*

Ninja Betty

Betty likes to hide behind towels/blankets/anything not moving, and do what I've come to understand is "A Full Ninja". There are no words to describe it so I've painted it instead. This is a true and life-like representation of what Eric and Ernie see coming towards them. 

Poor fellas.

Do you have a furry ninja living with you?

All About Betty

Betty, aka Miss Betty, or Her Royal Stroppiness, came storming into my life at the beginning of May this year.

I was in the kitchen when I thought I saw a kitten in my garden.  Then two more. Being of an age where "readers" have become something I wear, not listen to, I got my glasses and squinted out into the evening gloom.

This is what I saw...

A week later they were back again...

According to neighbours, Mum-cat had belonged to people who lived a couple of streets away, but they had moved away and left her behind.

At that time, I had no idea that they probably stole away under cover of darkness, purposefully not telling Betty where they were going.  It was probably the kindest decision they could have made for themselves.

But I was an unwitting fool.  Totally unaware of the force of nature that is Bonkers Betty.

I saw a teeny, tiny black cat with three teeny, tiny kittens.  Oh, the naivety.

At this time, Betty had apparently been living in my shed for a couple of years. Two thoughts went through my head when I found this out.

1. I'd be rubbish on Crimewatch.

2. How had she survived through the winters?

Each day, I put food out for mum and her kittens.

With the help of the RSPCA and a local animal welfare charity, homes were found for all three kittens.

No-one wanted Mum.

Perhaps they had met her before, or her reputation had preceded her on the cat-lovers' grapevine.  I was blissfully unaware.

So now I have an extra cat.

A Betty.

Here she is...

She is small, feisty, chatty, thinks woolly blankets are the best invention ever, and loves pink.

Kind of like me, but in miniature.

P.S. For more info about Betty's journey from "homeless single parent" to "ridiculously adored queen of all she surveys" take a peek at her About Betty page.  The link is at the top of her blog.