some recent photos

march is roaring

there was a point in february when i thought it may never rain again but march is proving me wrong.  we've been getting some good rains this month.  we had a mix of rain and snow all day yesterday and into the night last night.  woke to a clear, blue sky this morning and sunshine melting off yesterday's snowfall.  

took a few pictures while out on the morning walk with zane and benji...

february's warm, dry weather convinced the fruit trees to break dormancy and many of them started blooming just before this storm rolled in.  it's been good to have the precipitation but not sure how the trees will fare with the rain, snowfall, and sudden drop in temperature.

garlic seems happy enough to stand in the snow

'indian free' peach blossom...hope there's some hardiness hidden in that delicate beauty

a day or two of some sunny to partly sunny weather and then some more rain and cold as march roars on.

doppelgangers

there have been a couple of interesting new faces in our feral cat community.  a couple weeks ago i saw a little black cat come into the kitchen garden and just sort of hang out and hunt a little bit.  he (only assuming it is male) seemed perfectly comfortable out there.  i watched him and took pictures through the window.  he's very similar in appearance to jack (not all black cats look alike).  jack had very sleek and refined features.  this wild guy looks just like him but with a coarser/rougher appearance.
here are the pictures i took looking out through the window...

zane and benji were quite interested too

even has the same yellow-green eyes and reddish highlights in the fur

the profile is eerily similar to jack...

if jack was still alive and going out on his own and i saw this i would not have thought twice about it being him

he's been eartipped so at some point someone ran him through the tnr program (trap, neuter, release) to help keep the feral population stable and healthy.  eartipping (removal of the tip of one ear) is a visual sign that a feral cat has been altered.

he's much too wild to let me get close but i've been putting food out for him and i still see him around now and then.  he reminds me of jack and that has been nice.

on to doppelganger number two...
yesterday i was across the street loading some wood chips into my truck for some mulching i'm doing in the fig orchard over here.  i had been at it a little while and out of the corner of my eye i saw a little, pale orange tabby walking along the edge of the road.  for a split second i thought benji had somehow gotten out of the house and made his way across the road.  i stopped what i was doing and looked at the cat and could tell it wasn't benji.  i heard a car coming and started calling "kitty, kitty..." because i was worried it might get hit.  the cat wasn't paying me any attention but was still coming away from the road and in my general direction.  i walked toward it and kept calling but it wasn't interested.  it wasn't afraid though either.  it seemed to know exactly where i feed migo and the creature behind the woodshed and was on a mission to get some grub.

offered my hand for inspection but kitty was not interested in me

same eye color and pale orange coat as benji but with a different pattern and a little more white on the face and neck

i followed the little one over to the food.  migo came out of the woodshed to say hello.  migo is fortunately the least confrontational cat in the world and just came over to sniff a little and hang out with me for some petting while the newcomer got some lunch. 

something desperate in those eyes

she (?) seemed like she'd gone a while without getting enough to eat---not starved looking but a bit skinnier than a well-fed cat.  i hope she'll hang around and get herself fed and up to a healthy weight.

now i'm half waiting for a gray tabby who looks just like billy to show up next.

current conditions

snowing a little...

cozy indoors though...

happy anniversary to us! (#7)

staal and i had a nice little anniversary outing at the nursery this afternoon.  as soon as we got there we were greeted by a big black and white cat who turned out to be just about the sweetest guy ever.

he made me think of sophia, jack and billy's sister, who is a lovely black and white kitty

we got to petting him and it was clear we were not going to get any nursery shopping done this way.  he wasn't tiring of the attention and we were enjoying him too so i tried picking him up to see how he'd like that and it turned out he liked it very much.  so i hauled 15-20 pounds of very relaxed and contented purring kitty around while staal and i toured the nursery.   the big guy just hung out, laying over my shoulder making bread the whole time.

i had to pass him to staal at some point so i could pick out some onion sets and some seeds and he cozied right into staal's arms.

it seemed like we were either going to have to live at the nursery or take him home with us---such a sweetheart.  we sat on a bench in the sun with him for a few minutes and once he was entranced by the warmth we said goodbye and left him snoozing in the sunshine.

it was a very nice afternoon.  thank you, staal, for sharing in it with me and for sharing in this life with me.  i love you. 

2020

catio (habitat)

i've been putting in a fair amount of time cleaning up the tree-fall from november's snow storm and while i was working on that the other day i found some branches that i thought would work for some perches and climbs in the catio.

here's how it worked out...

(the first 5 photos start looking to the right as one enters the man door and then go around counter clockwise).

looking straight in from man door

i think benji approves.

 

i'm thinking it needs a cat hammock up by the skylight for some good sun napping, a bed of grass for chewing and lounging, and we'll check out some plants next time we're at the nursery in town.  that's it for now.