This painting was a sort of gift painting for artist Ursula Vernon several years ago when her cat Loki had to be put to sleep. Loki was a rather portly cat who suffered from diabetes and who had recently come down with another mysterious malady his vet couldn't explain. Rather than put him through the torture of living with this illness indefinitely, waiting for when/if it could be diagnosed and treated, Ursula made the difficult decision to have him put to sleep.

But one of Ursula's main worries was that, in whatever afterlife might await a cat like Loki, he might not be as happy as he was here...that he might not be properly cuddled and petted and given his favourite treats, and that he might be lonely.

So I did this painting as a sort of demonstration that where ever Loki is right now, he's probably quite happy indeed. (I imagine Cat Heaven probably has Fields of Infinite Mice that stretch as far as the eye can see, bouncy balloons that never pop when attacked by playful kitty claws, a plentiful supply of soft cushions and sunny windowsills for Heavenly catnaps, and mounds of cat food so big they can be rolled around and played in.)

Since I didn't actually know what Loki himself looked like, I used my own fuzzy ball of lard, Sunny, as the basis for this angel kitty. The original version of this had the text, "This just goes to show...there's plenty of kibble in Heaven," on it, but I decided to present it here without text.

Date: December 2003
Tools: Painter Classic
Dimensions: 3300 x 4200 pixels (11" x 14" @ 300 dpi)