We were up in the Napa Valley over the 4h of July holidays. As usual there were lots of winey cats about and ready to have their photos taken…
First stop. Frog’s Leap Winery in Rutherford. This kitty named Terracotta has been a resident here for years.
She was actually looking like her age his caught up with her a bit lately. She just wanted some peace and quiet to sleep.
Next stop… Corisan Winery in St. Helena. This cat’s name is Vinnie. You might remember his sister Zoe who I featured back in the wintertime in this post here. They were both born on the concrete floor of a barrel room. Look at those big yellow eyes… what a stunning man cat!
I actually thought this was Zoe when we first arrived as they look so similar. Vinnie is bigger than his sister though and normally roaming the vineyards and shy of people. It was a real treat to meet him!
Last stop… Black Cat Vineyard in Napa who I’ve featured many times before. We spent the evening with Tracey, her family, friends and other wine club members celebrating the 4th of July at her Vineyard Estate.
I actually featured this guy O.D. on the blog before. O.D. meaning “Orange Dream” and this guy sure is dreamy!
He basically hung out with us all evening relishing in the non-stop attention and rubbing.
and finally the gratuitous belly shot… dreamy! He reminds me of my very own cuddle bear and “grey dream” Micky cat. What a fantastic 4th of July!
We took off for a few days after Christmas and headed up to wine country in the Napa Valley. One of our favorite stops is Corison Winery located in St. Helena. We’re members of their wine club and they make some of my favorite Cabernet.
Here is one of their beautiful vineyards. Since it’s winter you don’t see much on the vines but the mustard (little yellow flowers) are starting to pop up a little between the vines.
Last spring they had a wine tasting event outside on their back patio and I met this little lady, Zoe. She rules over wine making operations with her brother. (He is super shy and hardly ever shows himself to strangers.) They were born in someone’s barn on a concrete floor like this one before they were adopted. She makes sure they never have any mice in THIS barn.
She was acting especially charming the day we stopped in.
Zoe is super talkative and doesn’t hold back in telling you she needs to be petted. I love how she shuts her eyes when she talks. So if you’re ever in the napa valley stop by Corison Winery. Maybe you’ll see Zoe!
This is a black cat that lives in the park across the street from my sister and parents in Connecticut. My sister sent me this photo of him last week. I sure hope black cat was safe over the Halloween weekend! He seems to be getting along pretty well for himself considering.
This black cat is a wild cat that lives in Fulton Park and roams/hunts all over and throughout the park. We have seen it chase after birds and even saw it with a chipmunk in it’s mouth. It’s a huge cat but you can’t really tell from pic. I see it everyday walking the dogs and today it stalked us as we were on our walk in the afternoon. It followed us through the brush. We see it walking through the fields and laying in the sun in the park and I see it early early in the morning and late at night. I was able to snap these pics from my phone as it stalked us. Thought you’d like it.
As I mentioned, I was in New Orleans last week. I met my friend who was there on business so I had the days alone to entertain myself and explore the city. I got up early the first morning to walk to Cafe du Monde and sample beignets before my walking tour of the French Quarter. On my way there I happened upon these two guys sleeping in the window of a Loom shop/studio on Chartres Street.
The shop is the Louisiana Loom Works open everyday but Wednesdays. A typical cat lady, I always have my eyes open for cats, stray or otherwise so I made a mental note to try and stop by later.
Well it just so happened that our tour guide took us down Chartres Street and past the Loom Works shop during the walking tour that day. The shop was still closed but the cats were up and more animated. There were two gorgeous Snowshoe Siamese in the window.
One even hopped down off the window seat and ran to the door to get a closer look at us!
On Thursday morning I had a cooking demonstration class at the New Orleans School of Cooking. I highly recommend the class for any of you who plan to visit the city, love food and want to learn the interesting and diverse history of food in New Orleans as well as EAT! But I digress. After my cooking class was over I was on my way to the french bakery Croissant D’or Patisserie. On my way there I had to pass the Loom Works shop again and they were open! I went inside and asked the owner if she’s mind if I visited with the cats. The owner of Louisiana Loom Works, Ronda Rose a charming person who of course loves cats too. I had thought there were just three cats living in the shop but Rhonda told me there are actually six cats living in the studio! Rhonda and her husband Walt have lived in New Orleans for the past 19 years. Here she is with one of her lovely Siamese cats named Nanette.
What a beauty! She loves to hand out on the loom while Ronda is working.
This beautiful Flame Point Siamese is a rescued Hurricane Katrina cat. Her name is Mrs. Bentley. She was super friendly and threw herself on the ground for some rubbin’ and lovin’ from me.
This is Sandra Dee, Nanette’s sister.
This kitty is Rudy Valentino. He was playing hard to get. Yup there were cats under looms… on rugs…
just about everywhere… This very friendly and quite handsome Snowshoe is Foster.
This big guy named Zeke is just too cute.
Just about everyone came out to say hello. So if you’re ever in New Orleans, be sure to stop by Ronda’s Louisiana Loom Shop in the French Quarter. You can see her beautiful hand woven rugs in person and see the kitties too. Here is a link to her website where you can view more of her custom rugs and photos of the cats in the studio.
Back in February of last year we shared
Black Cat Vineyard wines with you. You can take a peek at our previous post
here.
We’ve been back to Napa a couple times since then to visit
Tracey Reichow the founder and winemaker of
Black Cat Vineyards and taste the current releases. We were back there this past weekend to visit her vineyard estate property and were in for a real treat when we were able to meet a few of her vineyard cats in person.
Black Cat was the inspiration for Black Cat Vineyard wines. Black Cat moved across country to the Napa valley with Tracey and her family. Black Cat immediately loved the vineyard lifestyle and spend his days keeping Tracey company. He has sadly passed on but you can read his story
here. The current ruler of the vineyard is 14 year old calico cat “Patches” above. Patches is an extremely vocal lady who spent nearly 2 hours with us as we sat outdoors and sampled wines.
Is there anything more perfect than wine and cats?
I think not.
The last cat to make an appearance was OD. (Orange Dream) MY favorite of her brood, OD is a chubby diluted orange fella.
OD reminds me of an orange version of Micky with his laid back personality and lover boy body shape. Tracey said he turns a darker orange in winter but is a lighter orange in warmer months.
So if you’re ever in the Napa Valley be sure to visit Black Cat Vineyard. Just contact Tracey via her website and schedule a private tasting with her. Tracey’s wines are absolutely DELICIOUS! Since our first visit, we’ve become more familiar with her wines. We became members of her wine club too and are able to enjoy her yummy wines all year round now. Tracey is a delightful cat loving wine maker that we’ve had the pleasure of getting to know a little better each time we visit! Thank you Tracey for a fabulous afternoon of wine and cats!
I’ve been in NYC for about 6 days visiting with friends and family and enjoying some cooler weather. Luckily I got out of there just in time before they got hit with a big snowstorm. Here is a photo of Tony. Tony is a very handsome tiger cat who lives across the street from my friends’ apartment. He’s a very friendly guy who likes to demand attention and petting from people passing by.
This is my friends’ greyhound. Cha Cha is a older lady now and enjoying her senior years. Tony is her arch nemesis though. They don’t like each other very much because Tony can be a jerk if he wants to….
This is Frisk. He’s a BIG friendly boy whose personality reminded me very much of Jake. I had to make an unexpected trip back East this past weekend and I got to meet these kitties in person. I was tempted to smuggle Frisk back to CA in my suitcase. He’s SO handsome!
This is Ite (short for Graphite) She’s smaller than her brother and a bit more shy.
My sister was about to give Frisk some Turkey so he’s telling her to hurry up and give it to him!
NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM!!!
My friend of some 20+ years spent 2 luscious weeks abroad in Italy and France. She was sweet enough to document some of the fabulous foreign felines she encountered. The top 2 feature Italian Gatti who live in the Piedmont region. The botton 2 feature French Chats who live in the Côte d’Azur. I can’t wait to get back to Europe but it’s tough to get away considering Jake’s uncertain health. We were hoping to get back there this fall but we’re going to Hawaii instead because it’s closer. Perhaps 2010 will bring much improved health to Jake so we can sneak away.
This is our cousin (or maybe he’s really our uncle?)
Sonny. Isn’t he handsome? He looks sad because he got this collar put on him last week. He got into a scuffle with his brofur and he got scratched bad, ouch! The scratch got infected so he had to have it cleaned and stitched back up. He’ll go back next week to have the stitches removed and he can have the collar taken off then.
In the meantime, he’s milking his injury for additional affection by demanding lots of head and face rubbing. Sometimes he grooms his cone, as depraved as that sounds. (Micah would groom his cone too when he had one.) His little pain the in the butt brofur (literally, that is where Sonny’s scratch is you see) is scared of him now and has been keeping away. That’s alright with Sonny though, he needed a vacation from that brat!
The handsome ginger “wine cat” at Elyse Winery in Napa, CA
Scrappy Siamese cat I spotted near a truck in Yountville, CA
The wine country is full of cats! We’ve seen so many over the years on our trips. I try to snap photos of the ones I see but I’ve had a bit of a dry spell. We went up for a quick trip (2 days) on Sunday. I was fortunate and saw 2 photo worthy felines and had my camera ready. Hopefully I’ll be able to share even more with you in the future as many of the wineries have “resident cats” that help greet customers and control pests. I vaguely remember the ones that have cats and try to revisit them from time to time and see the kitties.
