Martin, Cats and More Cats

I posted an item a few days ago about Mrs Chippy, the cat that accompanied the Shackleton Arctic expedition and came to a sticky end when the expedition ship was caught in the ice. Mrs Chippy didn't have 9 lives after all. Anyway, it inspired Martin S, who regularly corrects items posted, to send me an email about some other notable cats. Thanks Martin.

Here is Martin's contribution:

Otto.

I am pleased that you had an article on Mrs Chippy, one of the most undated, and fearless master of us humans, the not so humble Cat. Too often overlooked to other imposters, such as the horse dog or ……the Pigeon!

Trim

We should be reminded of Australia’s own naval contribution of Felis Catus, being, of course, Trim.

Trim proudly in front of the NSW State Library.

Trim undertook the first circumnavigation of Australia, assisted by Matthew Flinders, and was later interned in Mauritius on his return trip to England. Trim suffered a fate far worse than Mrs Chippy. Eaten by those horrible French Savages, who obviously had run out of frogs, snails or horses for their consumption.

I believe Bryce Courtenay wrote a book about him.

Simon

Perhaps for a war hero, we should look no further than Simon.

Simon escaped on board the HMS Amethyst, when in Hong Kong docks in 1948, no doubt saving him from a fate that befell our beloved Trim.

The Amethyst was caught up in the Yangtze Incident in 1949 during the Chinese Civil war. Shots were fired, Simon was injured, and some sailors died.

Simon, sporting one of his war service medals

Simon's role on the Amethyst was one of keeping up morale, preventing plague by personally disposing of vermin, and inspecting the operations of the ship.

Simon never fully recovered from wounds received in action, and was awarded the Dickin Medal posthumously (for us humans, the equivalent of a VC).

Recognition of military exploits are surrounded by controversy. Between 1943 and 1949, the Dickin had been awarded to 32 pigeons, 18 dogs, 3 horses, and Simon. A bloody disgrace, and no wonder our feline masters take pleasure in dispatching those, as Woody Allen puts it, “Rats with Wings”. 

It should be noted that the entire crew of the Amethyst attended Simon’s funeral.

Simon’s life was put to film in 1957 in the “Yangtse Incident”, and no, it does not feature Chairman Meow.

On a further nautical note:

Polydactyl Cats and Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway was the pet of a great number of moggies. 

He amused them by telling them a story of catching a big fish!

One of his favourite owners was a polydactyl cat (many toes) that had previously spent a considerable time at sea.

This genetically inherited trait is considered advantageous to a sea going puss, as it greatly aids the hunting and climbing on a ship.

Yep. More thumbs than a Koala

Hemingway bequeathed his house to his polydact owner, and it remains in the many toed family to this day.

Hemingway stated:

“A cat has absolute emotional honesty: human beings, for one reason or another, may hide their feelings, but a cat does not.”

Quote for the Day

More "You had only one job" . . .

Quote for the Day

(For Rosie)

The Art of John Lopez

Byter Charles Z sent me an email last night with the message “Over to you mate”. Included in the email was a link to a collection of photographs, some of which have appeared in Bytes in the past.

The photographs are quite interesting but the unfortunate thing is that there are no captions.

The first photograph is the following:

It is obviously a sculpture made with scrap metal items but it had me wondering: Who was the sculptor? What else has he done? Why work in scrap metal?

I looked into it further and came up with some information and more photographs of the sculptor's work The following item and photographs are from an article about the artist at:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2633902/One-mans-junk-anothers-art-Stunning-sculptures-buffalo-horses-cowboy-riding-Triceratops-created-scrap-metal.html

One man's junk is another's buffalo sculpture. 

These stunning sculptures of heavy beasts have been fashioned from scrap metal. They are the work of artist John Lopez who welds the pieces from abandoned farm machinery. Based in the town of Lemmon, South Dakota, the 43-year-old has created full-size representations of creatures including a horse, buffalo and even a cowboy atop a triceratops. Mr Lopez had a successful career in bronze sculpting, but changed his working techniques after the death of his aunt Effie in a car accident. He moved to his widowed uncle Geno Hunt's ranch and set about making a family cemetery. But after completing a perimeter fence Mr Lopez ran out of material and, being 35 miles from the nearest town, had to search for usable scrap iron on site. 

Mr Lopez said: 'I am a sculptor and love to create. I started welding sculptures together.’ The 43-year-old added: 'I get my ideas from my life, the ranch, our history here, the animals around our area.'

Gallery:

The very first photograph in this post is of a sculpture called Black Hawk and is of a life-size plow horse pulling a single bottom plow.  This photograph above shows a detail from Black Haw, the photograph below shows the sculptor, John Lopez, working on Black Hawk.

John Lopez with his personal favourite, Steel Stallion.

Gallery #2:

The photographs below are from John Lopez's website at:

http://www.johnlopezstudio.com/ 

If you're wondering whether John Lopez does anything apart from scrap metal works, he has also sculpted 12 life-size presidential monuments for The City of Presidents project in Rapid City, SD. Some of the presidents include John F. Kennedy and John Jr., Grant, Carter, Harrison, Coolidge, T. Roosevelt, and Garfield.  Here is the pic of President Kennedy:

_____________________________

Thanks Charles.

I will keep posting photographs from Charles's (I have a dispute with my son Thomas as to whether the correct form is "Charles' " or "Charles's". . .  I maintain that it is optional and that "Charles's" sounds better) link from time to time, with commentaries where I can find same.