Illustration Friday: asleep

Sleepy cat, sleepy cat, why won't you go to sleep?

(watercolour, 23x31cm)

The sleeping kitten is Kara. I named them Kara and Mel, like caramel, because they're both orangey-brown coloured and siblings. In the original photo they are about 3 months old. They both lived in my family home in the Philippines. When they were older we gave Mel, who ended up being called Kulit (annoying) to my aunt. She did indeed live up to her new name.


Only later on did I realise that Kara was actually a tom, but the name stuck. He's still known as Kara but I call him Karabao, like carabao. I think it's better for him to be named after a docile beast rather than a cutesy sweet treat.

This is Kara in December last year. He's about 1 year and 4 months here.

Still sleepy as usual. Of the 2 Kara is much friendlier. You can easily pick him up and he doesn't mind. He often climbs up onto my lap to take a quick nap. Kulit on the other hand was always wary of being handled, even approached. Good thing we gave her away.

When he's awake and fully alert he is a beast:

We used to have mice living in a pile of wood in the garden. I think he caught them all.