I’ll admit– that’s a lame attempt at a connection between title and sketch… but I don’t have much to write about, being buried in this SPIDER-MAN/FF mini series– and ‘MOUNTED MONDAY’ sounded twice as lame. So there you are. Today’s sketch had kind of an odd genesis. It was initially a very small thumbnail scrawl that I did as a warm up over the weekend. As I’ve said before, a lot of the sketching I do ends up not being even close enough to be worth posting. Some of it is the kind of thing that only I can even interpret, it’s so messy and indecipherable. So, over the weekend, I sketched out a small, messy version of a cowboy riding a horse at high speed… and I like the gesture of it, so I scanned it in, enlarged it in Photoshop and printed it out. I then traced it over again in blue, cleaning it up along the way. This morning, I went over that with graphite… and there you have it. I think the process leeched out a lot of the energy that I get with my more spontaneous sketches…. but then, that’s a problem I struggle with all the time, as I’ve said in past postings.

A couple of weeks back I was listening to the local talk radio station, and the host was discussing the subject of the recent pet food recalls and the dangers to our 4-legged loved ones from Melamine and other contaminates in name-brand pet foods. He was speaking with an animal nutrition expert, and she was talking about how terrible most of the brands that can be found in most every grocery and pet food store are as far as nutrition and the kinds of terrible ingredients they include in what is SUPPOSED to be healthy for pets. I was shocked at how terrible and disgusting some of these ingredients were– diseased and cancerous meats thrown in to what’s generally labeled as ‘meal’. Chicken meal… beef meal….. anything with the word ‘meal’ has this problem. ‘Byproduct’ as well, falls under that category. Then there were the preservatives she discussed that lead to eventual kidney failure and cancers in our pets. The speaker mentioned a discussion she had with a Veterinarian nutrition specialist who told her that there was no reason why the average medium-sized dog couldn’t live for 25 years… and the average cat for 30 years with the proper nutrition. As I said, I was shocked. My Charlie’s almost 3 now, and I had no idea that what I was feeding him– what I thought was the top-of-the-line food available only in pet food stores– was not as good for him as I thought. The woman mentioned several brands of pet food offered by the NATURA PET FOOD COMPANY.. These are the healthiest foods that can be fed to our pets– some of the brands they offer are completely organic. The beauty of this site is that you can do a search for places in your area that sell these brands, and I did that– as it turns out, there’s a place only 15 minutes from my house, and I went there immediately to buy some INNOVA brand cat food for Charlie. He absolutely loves it– and it might just be wishful thinking on my part– but I would SWEAR he’s grown a bit more in the week I’ve been feeding it to him… he seems even more muscular than he was before…. and more full of energy (not that he wasn’t already a terror as is…). So if you’re interested in possibly finding a food that will be healthier for your pet and perhaps help them live a longer, more full life, check out the NATURA site.

OK.. that’s it. Back to the superheroes.

This is Entry 373.

Mike