Purr-fectly Painted

Cat art is a meow-tain of fun

Paintings created by cats and kittens at the Springdale Animal Services will be on display through the end of the month. All are available for purchase.
Paintings created by cats and kittens at the Springdale Animal Services will be on display through the end of the month. All are available for purchase.

More than 900 cats came through the doors at Springdale Animal Services last year but thanks to owner reclaim, a partnership with PetSmart and a solid foster care system, many of those found their forever home. This month, Arkansans can support the shelter another way: by purchasing a painting through the PURRcasso Cat Paintings fundraiser.

"It's just a fun event -- just something to do to let people know we're here, and we've got a lot of awesome adoptable cats," says Courtney Kremer, director of animal services at the shelter. "Some of our 'artists' were more willing than others. There were kittens everywhere -- just running everywhere. They would run across the canvas a couple times, but some of the older cats, we had to keyboard [their paws] across [the canvas]."

FAQ

PURRcasso Cat Paintings

WHEN — Reception 4-7 p.m. Sunday; on display through end of October

WHERE — Black Apple Crossing in Springdale

COST — Most paintings $20

INFO — 750-8166 or facebook.com/Spring…

BONUS — You can view a video and photos from the painting session at the shelter’s Facebook page.

Using nontoxic paint, volunteers at the shelter created colorful works by dabbing the cats' paws in the paint and then onto canvases.

"We tried to make a couple Razorback themed ones, but sometimes the cats chose their own colors [and] what the human participants had intended is not what happened," Kremer says laughing. "The trouble came when we were trying to clean their paws off -- there were little multicolored paw prints in their cages!"

The "meow"-sterpieces will be on display at Black Apple Crossing for the entire month of October with an "artist" reception on Sunday. Any money raised from selling the paintings and from the silent auction during the reception will go toward one of the medical accounts the shelter maintains -- accounts for extensive surgeries and health issues, or even just for the spay/neuter that every animal must undergo before going to its forever home.

"It seems like the dogs get more attention -- we get to take them out more often. It's nice to bring some attention to the cats," Kremer says. "In the spring and summer and fall, there's just litter after litter of kittens coming in and they get adopted a lot at the beginning but then as the summer goes on, not as many get adopted. Into December, we're able to get some of those cats adopted that have been here for a while."

-- Jocelyn Murphy

[email protected]

NAN What's Up on 10/14/2016

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