cats

It seems whenever we go shopping at thrift stores and antique malls, there’s one thing which we see over and over again during our visit. Ratting around Saturday, we went to the Moorhead Antique Mall, where the item du jour was large flocked animal nodders.

Seriously large, these flocked animals with nodding heads were easily 9 to 12 inches long. There was this vintage German Shepherd Dog with collar and chain who greeted us on the way in — he was an omen, even if I didn’t snap the pic until our way out. (Hey, you don’t know what the item du jour is until you see them multiple times — which is why I missed taking photos of a few of the other large nodder dogs.)

Large Vintage German Shepherd Flocked Nodder

To give you an idea of the size of these nodders, here’s a small (or regular sized — because these are the size nodders I am used to) tiger nodder, next to the daddy of tiger nodders.

Pair of Vintage Tiger Nodders

I love how the large tiger nodder roars. He also has a collar and chain leash. (I have to say, the chains on both the tiger and the dog nodders seemed too shiny to me; but I didn’t inspect them carefully or anything.)

Large Vintage Roaring Tiger Nodder

However, the piece de resistance of the day’s nodders was this large flocked cat bank nodder — yes, you read that correctly, it is both a bank and a nodder. Perhaps it is a possible theft deterrent — the nodding a subtle clue to someone handling your bank. But really, there’s no need for a reason; it’s just 100% fabulous.

Large Flocked Vintage Cat Nodder Bank

It would have been mine, but I don’t have $39.99 in my regular non-nodding bank. :sigh:

Later we went to the local Salvation Army thrift store and found not one, but two paintings of Elvis on velvet.

The first was framed, with a cost of $9.

Framed Elvis on Velvet

The second was not framed, for $5.

Velvet Painting of Elvis

Truth be told, I’ve long been looking for a cheap Elvis on velvet painting for our bathroom, decorated in religious icons; but I hesitated and hubby gave the sour puss, ending the discussion with a “there’s no more wall space” comment. But if either is there tomorrow while he’s at work… Well, every throne room needs a king.

Then again, maybe I should save my pennies for that cat nodder bank.

Kitty Cane Ornament

You know the old saying, “With friends like that, who needs enemies?” Well I’ve got friends like that. Actually, that’s unkind — I’m sure she didn’t mean to do what she did…

She sent me a sweet gift, a pick-me-up between friends; she likely had no idea that she’d set the collector’s illness a-flowing through in my veins…

She sent me Kitty Cane (complete with red glitter and a pink poodle), one of the adorable, risqué pieces from the Alley Cats series.

The Alley Cat series of “glamour pusses and sex kittens rolled into some tough hair balls” is by Margaret Le Van Dominguez of Margaret Le Van Designs.

Daisilyn Monroe Alley Cat

If that name sounds familiar, you might remember the designer from her line of hand painted evening bags and custom totes (sold through MooRoo Handbags) which were seen on Friends and even made Oprah’s “O” List.

Prior to handbag fame, Margaret Le Van Dominguez was a professional decorative artist, specializing in faux finishes, trompe l’oeil murals and hand painted furniture. Now she splits her time between creating fine art and licensing her paintings, illustrations and other designs, including the delightfully whimsical Alley Cats.

Alley Cats are the purr-fect combination of humor and classic film glamour, so they hit all my hot buttons. Each feline has her own story, or bio — rather like (but shorter than) my other glam obsession, Gene Dolls — which fuels my fascination.

The polyresin Alley Cats appear on red carpets and even as domestic divas — always keeping their girlie glam. And there even are swanky male Alley Cats too!

Male Alley Cats

My Kitty Cane is an ornament, a product of Kurt S. Adler, Inc., but Artisan Flair, Inc. began producing the Alley Cats line in 2004 — which means I am four years behind!

And so that’s where my sweet, well-meaning friend has gone and done something she never meant to do — she’s got me thinking I can’t stop at just one… And I can’t even just settle for the new releases, but must be on the prowl for all the Alley Cats. So that’s what she’s done; she’s started me on another addiction, another collection. I honestly couldn’t be more thrilled — she’ll just have to live with the knowledge that she’s now my enabler. *wink*

Alley Cats

I don’t really collect salt & pepper shakers. I’ve a few vintage glass shakers for my table that we actually use, but I am more drawn to the vintage animal s & p shakers and it seems that whenever those are up for auction or for sale, the prices are too spicy for me. Sure, I’ve rescued a few single shakers, an odd elephant dressed as a policeman and a cat in a king’s robe; but that’s only two, not a collection, right?

But not too long ago I stumbled into these.

I got them, along with the matching cruet, not because they were uber cheap (though one could hardly call $15, or $5 per piece outrageously expensive), and not because I could see them as part of my animals with red polka dot bow ties collection (because these bow ties are stripped, not dotted — and I am fussy like that); but because they puzzled me.

These shakers and the taller cruet are part of a vintage ceramic figurative table wear set which was made in Japan. This I know. What I do not quite know is what the animals are supposed to be: pigs or cats?

Now I’ve made it through school, including college, thank-you-very-much, and I can tell a pig from a cat under most every other circumstance. But tell me, please, what you make of these?

Sleek black animals with pointy ears & whiskers, like cats. But then they also have pink pug-ish piggy noses, and curly tails. And their feet are painted in metallic gold — more like hooves than paws too. So I really don’t know what to make of them.  Other than to find them, like any genetic mutant, utterly fascinating in their combined creepy cuteness.

Until you can prove — or at least make a great argument for — one or the other, pig or cat, I call them the black pig-cats.

I don’t yet know if my niece has the fabled collecting gene like I have, or if she’s just exhibiting mimicry of the behaviors that she sees in me, but she definitely has collections. Aside from the epic cache of Barbie and Bratz clothing items, she’s also the gleeful recipient of all of my extra Heroclix pieces (and probably has a few hundred by now, about 25% having been rendered limbless by uncareful feet), and most recently, she’s accumulated a wide array of Littlest Pet Shop figurines.

Every year at Christmas, my mom would hunt down a complete (or near complete) set of action figures for me, from some property that I was interested in. I recall full collections of Real Monsters and Earthworm Jim figures under the tree, and it was always a great feeling to get a headstart on a collection of something, Perhaps this is why I take the same approach to my niece’s Christmases. Last year, I imported a fairly expensive collection of dollhouse accessories from Japan, because she was into dollhouses – and the Japanese domestic gashapon scene seemed pretty amazing. This year, I found Littlest Pet Shop.

Knowing my buying habits, the Toys ‘R’ Us lady asked me if I was buying the armload of them for myself, and I quickly corrected her – but I was still excited about getting a wide array of adorable animals for my niece’s Pet Shop display. That she didn’t yet have. All of the animal 2-packs, and packs that consisted of an animal and a display piece, were less that five dollars each, and the selection was impressive… AND their heads bobble. What’s not to love?

So, I found one mini-figure of each major animal group for her. The insects, the bunnies, the dogs, the cats, the birds, the skunks… everyone, except for the damned seahorse. Sure, if trends held true, they’d re-release a different seahorse later, but not by the time Christmas came. My hands were stained pink from digging through those strawberry-scented girlie toy racks, all the while gripped with paranoia that I was being perceived as some kind of toy-scalping creep, stalking the pink aisles for profit and leering. At least the seahorse is now accessible again – even if my niece chose the dragonfly over the seahorse when she was given a choice at the store this weekend.

With a history of over 400 pets and counting, along with countless playsets and accessories, Littlest Pet Shop seems to be something with a lot of endurance for serious collectors and animal lovers alike. I admit to a certain peculiar weakness for setting things up in contained dioramas, and LPS appeals to that also, so I never mind playing with the mega-playhouse that you can buy for them. It probably comes from creating action-filled, organized scenes in the Ghostbusters Firehouse of my youth, and continued on into organizing the insanely cool Muppets Kitchen playset in more recent years (which had enough space, and working cabinets and drawers, to store almost every accessory that came with every figure in the line). Yes, these items are essentially boy dollhouses, and don’t even pretend that your 1979 Death Star playset was anything more than a wicked dollhouse with space lasers. Because, sorry guys, it was.

Recent auction results don’t reveal any extraordinarily expensive pieces – though a certain Littlest Pet Shop artisan is making a small mint on expertly crafted customized figures – usually of breeds of animals or species that have not yet been addressed by the existing 400+ animal collection, and a good handful of unicorns. These one-of-a-kind art pieces have gone up to $150, that price being established for a customized horse. Of course, horse collectors are also a bit intense. Aside from the custom figures, there’s the odd purple iguana or the new giraffe (pet #440) that go for about 40 bucks a pop, and that’s their OOP, or ‘out of package’ price. MIP, or ‘mint in package’ items usually fetch a lot more money.

So, we collect these as a team, my niece and I – and not for profit. It broadens my own toy hunting, also. One can only go to the toy store and leave empty handed so many times before you get jaded and despondent at the lack of re-stocks. There’s the satisfaction of finding the occasional new or rare animal, just as I’d get from finding a rare Two-Face action figure, and ultimately, a little girl being excited about adding a new friend to her pet shop is even more rewarding.

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