A Fuzzy Black Visitor

No, not another kitty, but an all-black woolly caterpillar!

A distant relative, come to visit?

No, but it was definitely trying to communicate, rising up on its front end and waving its legs.

“Mewsette, look at this! It’s all black, just like us!”

“I know, Sunshine, I’ve been watching it. When you touch it, it rolls up in a ball and doesn’t move.”

Each of them touched it once and carefully studied it. Tired of this treatment our visitor quickly undulated its way in another direction.

Then Cookie made a discovery as well.

“Hey, it isn’t solid black! It has orange in it too, just like me! Its skin is orange between the black fur. It’s a tortie caterpillar!”

So our woolly caterpillar matches everyone in the house, except maybe Jelly Bean, who has white spots. What concerns me is that according to lore the more black this caterpillar is wearing, the harsher the winter. This one does have all black fur, even though it has some orange skin, but does that mean we’re in for another heavy-duty winter?

I picked the poor thing up and put it outside the door where it was safe from inquisitive paws and, hopefully, it could develop some orange fur in addition to skin.