Daily Photo: Mariposa Loves Her Fur Siblings
Don’t they make a darling couple? If you look closely around Giuseppe’s back, Mariposa actually has her tail wrapped around him.
Mariposa loves her fur siblings, who apparently don’t care that she’s not a housepanther. Giuseppe has always been the big brother do all the scared kitties went to. Mariposa is a ninja in her own right, that’s for sure.
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From Instagram
“You were gone.”
Seen in Ikea.
From around the garden and beyond.
Summer sunset. Wish I’d had my good camera, but it was beautiful nonetheless.
From around this date in past years
Mariposa Reports on Nature in the Front Yard, 2020
I have to supurrvise my human, Bernadette, but when she’s at her computer I can sit at this window and watch wildlife too! Soooo much goes on out here every day, you would never believe it! I can crouch down here and they can’t even see me! First, a bunch of birds landed on the sides of the birdbath, and then they jumped right in! And they got all wet! And then they just walked around like it wasn’t the worst thing to happen to you! They do this all the time. I really don’t understand, but honestly, I could watch them all day long!
And then something really pretty flew by and brushed up against the screen and fluttered all around outside. Bernadette got really excited and jumped up and was clicking around with her camera but she didn’t get the thing. She said she used to see so many of those but that’s the first one this year.
She said it was a “butterfly” and she said that was my name, but my name is Mariposa. She said that was another language but I don’t know what she’s talking about. Then she said this was a “mariposa” too, so I think I understand, and it might have something to do with all those stripes! That’s it, we’re both striped! You need to know that the Mariposa below is not the one we saw. That’s just an old Mariposa she clicked a long time ago, not the Mariposa who visited me today. I wonder how many Mariposas she has known?
And then this little thing was buzzing out there, and bobbing around! I almost jumped up and swatted at it! But I think I scared it away because it left.
Bernadette said that there is a feeder for that humming bird right outside the window and that’s where it was going. It does not look like a food bowl to me. I wouldn’t eat from it. She said she’s always had it there because other kitties always enjoyed it just like me. I wonder if their names were Mariposa too?
And then…and THEN…these little birds were making SO MUCH NOISE just when I wanted to nap, they were just cheeping and chattering and fluttering and would not stop. Bernadette said their daddy was trying to teach them to use the bird feeder. I asked why because I saw the daddy and other daddies feeding their birdies. She said it was like weaning, when I stopped nursing from my mother. I didn’t nurse that way, that was my mom’s belly. This nature stuff is very confusing. This is just a little bit of what they did.
All of them did get onto the feeder, so if that’s what they need to do to stop nursing they did, but I don’t know if they got it right. Their daddy would get a seed from the feeder and hop over to them and eat it right in front of them! That was so mean! They kept trying to eat it from his mouth and then he’d fly to the feeder again. I think I remember something like that when mom would bring us something dead or we’d all go to the bowl of food. (The human apologizes for her radio in the background.)
After all that, I was so tired, I had to have a rest and I just fell asleep, even with all that cheeping and splashing and fluttering. A little later I was going to have to go down to the basement door and hunt voles with Bella, and I wanted to be ready for that! What a big day!
The human interjects here while Mariposa is napping…I am forever happy this little girl is content to have a busy day watching wildlife and napping, and not have to hunt for her dinner or try to get her fill of food with other much bigger cats in the colony where she lived. Some days she is such a dear I can hardly contain myself.
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From Instagram
Dropped my car off for the tires today and walked home along an abandoned railroad line I haven’t walked in at least a decade, now very overgrown and full of nature. 4GB of photos, worth the heat to get this one and more. So many cabbage whites around, I challenged myself to get one in air, didn’t know till I got home I actually got it.
And I slowed down on Instagram considerably! I’ll be back to it tomorrow.
From around this date in past years
Sleeping on a Hot Pad, 2019
Well, it is hot. I’m not sure if he thinks this will cool him down because Mr. Sunshine isn’t one to follow rules. If someone told him that when it was hot he was supposed to sleep on a hot pad, he would do something else entirely, sleep on a paper bag or something. He does look decorative, though. Maybe he thinks it’s like a crown. Or a halo. That’s the sort of thing Mr. Sunshine would think.
From Instagram
Aunt Carol was pretty thrilled with her greeting from the Four Housecats of the Apocalypse today. They met her at the door and it went from there. Everyone had to have a kiss! (PS they have a birthday coming up very soon.)
Everyone had to have a kiss before she left.
Photos shared in past years
Inside and Out, 2018
It’s been a lot of work to uncover my flagstone and brick paths in the garden, and the girls enjoy the cool stones and the break from walking in the grass. Here they look particularly beautiful (almost painterly), but what are they looking at?
A special guest just outside the yard! I saw them looking, and heard some rustling around in the brush right outside the yard in the direction they were facing. I had the feeling I knew who it was, then the little face appeared. This fawn was born earlier in spring and is quite tall by now.
From Instagram
Because I’m seriously behind in posting (again) I’m going to catch up with posting all my Instagram photos from this week right here, followed by photos from past years. I really wish I had a computer in the kitchen. When I did I could pop in and do a quick post and keep up with things during the day, now I get behind each week. One of these days I’ll be all set up!
Caught in the act! Bella is acting like she’s not there and this is not happening to her.
Any sunpuddle anywhere is good.
Now there’s a lineup! Mimi was in the space next to Sunshine but decided to reverse photobomb by jumping down and causing several others to look at her.
Happy birthday to us! We were just born this morning!
Phlox is really putting on a show this year. Everything stops here.
Mmmm, fresh herbs for today’s meal. Nothing like it!
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What other photos have I posted on or around this date?
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How to Test a Watermelon With a Cat
Bella has first right of refusal to anything I intend to eat or use for any purpose. I carried the watermelon out of the refrigerator and she bobbed her nose at me to say, “Bring that here, I need to inspect it. It may be something I want.”
It wasn’t. This test of a watermelon using a cat will only tell you if the cat wants some or not.
It’s been hot. We are feeling silly.
Kitty things
The kitty trim on a very old curtain on my basement door, and the pawprint pattern of spots on the floor made by the eyelet holes in the flowers. Basement door closed this morning, too hot, too much sun.
I purchased these curtains when I lived in the house I rented before I moved here and used them on my kitchen door. The colors are the colors I used in that kitchen: navy blue, red, green and yellow, primary and tertiary colors for a bright space.
In this house, I have the valance on my kitchen window. The dark area is actually navy blue with tiny white polka dots and when I moved here I hung the valance over the sink and the curtain on the door, then got some navy and white polka dot valances and made red bows to use on the dining room window. When I moved the kitchen door down to the basement and replaced it with a 15-lite door I moved one of the kitty valances to that door and kept the curtain on the door I moved to the basement.
I associate the curtain so strongly with the cats who lived with me in the other house that, although this curtain is getting ragged, I will always use them somewhere. It’s one of those attachments, I guess.
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What other photos have I posted on or around this date?
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Sweet Basil, 2016
Basil took the chance on a nap in the sun, and it was actually okay for a while. I had the chance to enjoy all the colors and warm and cool tones in his fluffy fur, from the velvety black areas to the warm chocolate sunny areas and the blue highlights.
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From Facebook and Instagram
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Two Cool Cats
Hamlet and Ophelia on the bedroom windowsill, keeping cool.
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What other photos have I posted on or around this date?
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Bella’s Belly, 2015
Bella naps in the little bit of sun that comes in the dining room window, careful to make sure she toasts evenly by putting her belly up to the sun. She always curls her back toes when she sleeps, it’s incredibly cute.
I also liked the composition here, Bella’s gentle curve and the green glass platter above her, and the circular lamp in the upper left. The light had so much color I decided to posterize it to minimize the shapes and see what happened.
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Posted on Facebook
These first few are actually from yesterday when Charm discovered the top of the door.
And then this. The little street girl aspires to higher places. Charmee is moving up.
And from today…
Another exciting channel on CatTV: “Back Yard Basement View”, enough room for everyone to watch (only six are shown). From top, Mimi, Bella, Charm, Bean, Giuseppe, and Basil behind.
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What other photos have I posted on or around this date?
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Eleven Black Cats—a Free for Ferals Clinic, 2014
This weekend also held a “free for ferals” clinic hosted by the Homeless Cat Management Team, my chosen charity if I win any of the three Petties awards for which I am a finalist. The clinic was intended to serve cats living in colonies outdoors since the surgery and rabies vaccine are free and colony managers could take care of lots of cats at no charge. I had wanted to leave this weekend open for this clinic, both trapping on Saturday and transporting and volunteering at the clinic on Sunday, but Deb had offered the Family Pet Expo.
I decided I could still do some of the work if I could get help from others. I work with an incredible group of people, and I did get the help I needed. One woman on the other side of Pittsburgh just needed traps and she would do the rest, so I asked about traps, everyone organized who had what and Debby Nicola said the woman lived very close to her, so she dropped them off.
Then there was the mama kitty, Liam II (yes, Liam) and her four babies who had been born the day before the last clinic and while I had the babies in hand I was not able to trap Liam that day. Here they are below in May, as tiny newborns.
And their mom.
On the day we had tried to trap her, we had placed the kittens in a box behind the trap in the garage where she’d run to hide, hoping to lure her into the trap. No go. We put the kittens in a box in the garage hoping she’d come back to care for them and they weren’t seen again until just before the clinic. Both mom and the kittens needed to be trapped, which can be tricky, and the mom would return but the kittens would go to a foster home. The kittens are very mobile and they and mom are wary. Kittens are often trapped in smaller traps called squirrel traps, or caught with a drop net. I put out the request for someone to trap them and Dr. Michelle Elgersma offered to do the honors on Saturday. Success! At the top are four hissy kittens! hhhhh!!! hhhhhh!!! pfffffffttt!!! pfffffffttt!!! pfffffffttt!!! They are related to Salem and Sabrina, although one looks just like her mom, and I’m sure they will be friendly, sleek and beautiful in just a couple of months.
Below is yet another black mom cat with kittens!
This black mom cat and five kittens were from a person who had waited too long to get the mom cat spayed and has many cats.
Susanne Lewis, who helped rescue Bernie and his mom and currently fosters them, offered to organize the woman the night before and get them to me in the morning.
Then I had to find someone to bring the cats back to the area—thanks to Margo Cicci Wisniewski—and Susanne Lewis for meeting her and distributing all the cats back to where they belonged.
This sort of teamwork goes on every day with trading traps and arranging transportation, medical care and rescuing cats from wherever they are. And this was just the 11 cats I was working with plus the four for the woman who needed the traps! Imagine what else went on behind the scenes. I didn’t get any photos while I was at the clinic because I was busy unpacking food I’d brought to donate and eating doughnuts, but I did get the orange kittens above and an array of traps with cats in them.
The clinic served between 85 and 90 cats, began with registrations about 7:30 in the morning and Margo was on her way home after 9:00 at night. Thanks to all the volunteers, veterinary technicians and veterinarians who put in a very long day to help stop the overpopulation of cats.
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Two Other Kittens
Two kittens went through our rescue group who did not go to the clinic. A young woman who lives south of Pittsburgh had been rescuing cats and kittens from a farm near her, and recently found two kittens in a barrel on the farm. They were dirty and had goopy eyes but did not look weak or malnourished, and were frightened but not unfriendly. She could not take any more cats home and was desperate to find a place to take them. They were to go to Debby Nicola since many of her fosters will be leaving. Maggie May is being adopted, her kittens are looking for homes, and kittens Cookie and Jelly Bean will go to ARL through the Foster Finder program this week.
The young woman lives not far from where I would be at the Pet Expo, and Debby was planning to stop down to see me there. I mentioned that they should just meet at the expo to save themselves some travel time ans so they did…caught trafficking in cats once again! But these two sweet little girls are cleaned up and well fed already, and heading to the vet.
Thanks to everyone who spends weekends helping rescue cats out of bad situations, getting them spayed and neutered, feeding them, socializing them, showing them for adoption, and just for caring. We can’t save them all, but we can help as many as we can, hundreds every year.
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And sometimes, I just throw my hands in the air and have fun!
Such sweet photos.
Sweet kitties!
some great captures today: i won’t mention the pool party. we’ve had to take feeders; including hummingbird down, this county had birds who had been infected with whatever that disease was,
though I did leave the bathe up and running ~~~~~
We had to take down feeders and birdbaths because of the infection too! We are finally permitted to put them back up and I’m so glad. The routine of filling the feeders and birdbaths went along with watering my plants, and I actually forgot to water things. And I’ll just whisper that I also really missed the b*rd activity, and so did the kids.
So happy that your blog showed up on my ‘favorite blogs’ feed today!
If we had a dollar for every time we had to save a kitty from being stuck on a screen, we’d have a lot of money!
Usually, they can free themselves, but a hole in the screen is the result.
We have a screen door inside, that sections off the kitchen from rascally cats who want to create mischief when the cook is working. Got the idea from my brother; his ex-wife was allergic to cats, but loved them so much. The screen door on the bedroom allowed to cats to see their humans, but wife could sleep without sneezing.
I can’t believe it’s been three weeks since I posted! And I still don’t have my monthly desktop calendar up. Getting into the swing of vendor events has been pretty time-consuming, but it’s got to be done.
When I had my downstairs windows replaced in the early 90s I ordered heavy-duty screen with the windows. That lasted all these years before I had any significant holes. I replaced most of my downstairs screens last year with pet-safe screen, and it’s Basil-tested–he is big though he only weighs 12 pounds, but he leaps on it and hangs there, then when he lets go, not even a divot in the wire. As long as the screen stays in the frame, we’re good!