The wait is over and the big night is here. No, not Botanical Week on the Great British Bake-Off (although I am curious, since nobody understands what it means). I mean Hallowe’en, of course.
We are a little nervous as we don’t know how we will contain Louis Catorze, given that we will be opening the portal to The Front multiple times tonight. But, just like everyone before us who has ever had to deal with vampires, we have until sundown to come up with a solution.
The good news is that we actually managed to achieve a few passable contenders for the 2023 Official Hallowe’en Portrait. However, none of them quite match with my creative vision. I wanted a regal, velvety panther with a glint in his eye that said, “I am the elder statesman of vampire Chats Noirs”, rather like this:
Instead, I ended up with this fetching collection:
I know. We don’t know what to say, either.
They did improve somewhat. But then the bar was pretty low.
But, given the choice between a prize-winning Official Hallowe’en Portrait and a happy, healthy, lively Catorze, we would always pick the latter. We never thought he would be in such good form in October (when his skin problems usually resurface) and at the ripe old age of thirteen and, yet, here we are. He’s lively, noisy and alert, he’s chubbing up, and his fur is the softest it’s ever been. Either we are tremendously fortunate, or the Dark Lord is regenerating and will be at maximum strength in time for the apocalypse.
Joyeuse Hallowe’en à vous tous, and merci to the cats below for their Hallowe’en contributions:
louiscatorze.com 
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