Named after our wonderful studio cat!

Brenda is the cat that lives in the Ravi Zupa Arts studio. She has a very big personality so we’ve named this set of matches after her. The designs feature some of the old favorites including the Cash Rules cat, the Rage cat and the Flexible Tao Te Ching piece. There are also a few new friends including some emotionally complicated calicos. 

Brenda’s story is pretty great! She was a feral cat living in the backyard of the Commerce City studio. There are a lot of strays around these parts. As the only long haired tortie, we always referred to her as Brindle Fluff (which later became Brenda). She had a litter of kittens in 2018, of which only two survived. One was a funny looking long haired orange tabby that we called Amish Beard and the other was a short haired gray tabby that we called Gray Guy. The three of them lived in the backyard for a winter, and we saw Brenda catch squirrels to feed the kittens. Eventually we caught all three of them with the help of The Feline Fix, a non-profit  spay and neuter alley cat organization in Commerce City. The vet spayed/neutered all of them and treated them with basic vet needs.

The kittens had a lot of health problems and their growth had been severely stunted from malnutrition so even though they were fully grown they still looked like kittens. The two of them were young enough to eventually get comfortable with humans (one of the vet techs decided to adopt both),

 Brenda on the other hand was “far too feral” and “no amount of exposure to people would make her come around”, so they clipped her ear and instructed us to release her back where we had caught her. Over the next two years, Ravi continued to give her food and shelter in the winters and very slowly she started to trust him. Now they’re fast friends! Brenda loves to sleep on Ravi’s desk and on his lap while he’s on the computer or drawing. She’s not in any hurry to be pet by other people but sometimes… she’s definitely friends with all of us now! 

She’s a real street cat and she looks the part, she has a clipped ear, one missing fang, a broken, crooked tail and by the end of the winter she has a mess of dreaded fur that falls off in clumps. 

We love Brenda and her big personality!