tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1857834966842567237.post6593430999211923853..comments2023-10-26T09:36:36.638-04:00Comments on Three Dogs and a Couch: So... hungryHeather Pedenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00437608758801235095noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1857834966842567237.post-81672599844873710042010-07-26T20:51:14.925-04:002010-07-26T20:51:14.925-04:00I loved it: so whimsical, so pleasurable to read, ...I loved it: so whimsical, so pleasurable to read, so engaging in tone and subject, so natural. The prologue image is eye-catching: cat poised, focused stare, sharp shadow, orange running onto the table with its knife edge exposing only his face. The light is beautiful, coming from above and putting his features before our vision. And, where is he sitting? At a dinner table, of course. Rembrandt would smile. It stops the viewer and colourfully points him/her to the article. I envy your artistic use of the camera.<br />Yes, you use the soft poetical beauty of the intro paragraph to set the scene and then jar us a little with that "crinkling" noise before letting us see Chestnut himself. This hungry feline balloons, throughout the entry, into full character as you react, Bear reacts, and finally Cleo reacts. Why you even have Chestnut talk to us, as he irritatingly chews plastic, cardboard, and wood. The cat dialogue seems, well, so cat-like: "I'm starving." "My dish is empty." Small cat squeaks and even repetition with the latter line. Cats like to keep at us humans, so insistent. All your chosen details, expressed so artfully, simply pile up and, in the mind's eye, we see this incident as if we are actually there somehow: "shrugging walk" of cocky Chestnut, "white cat hairs stuck to " Bear's black face, Chestnut morphs into a "gaunt" starving animal with "bags under his eyes." I laughed at this image - poor skinny pet just wasting away. The last line from Chestnut himself perfectly closes the beautiful portrait of this cat: "My dish is empty."<br />The article takes the right tone and we smile at your descriptive accomplishment here, Heather. Yes, you paint with artful strokes.Ian MacLeodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09933134070879959931noreply@blogger.com