Daily Photo: Winter Forecast in Black Fur

“Well, I guess we’ll be watching a lot of snow as our human rides her silly bike in the morning,” Mimi said, “but we’re not sure if we like caterpillars telling us what to do, even if they are the same color as us.”

An unlucky caterpillar made its way under the screen door in the basement to foretell our future, unlucky only because the creature looks so much like a cat toy I’m surprised there are any left in the world. Mimi just gave it a good sniff, which made it roll into a motionless ball, but Mewsette flopped down next to it for a good rousing session of caterpillar toss-and-roll. I’m all for environmental enrichment, but not at the expense of a living creature who stumbled into the wrong basement. I picked it up and slid it out the door.

Caterpillars come to visit each year, and the last several years they’ve been solid black, but with orange skin—Cookie claimed that was a tortie caterpillar. Normally they are black with an orange band across their middles. Legend has it that the narrower the orange band the harder the winter, which would mean a solid black one would be the worst winter on record. But I think it just might be that our local caterpillars, as in the ones in our back yard as insects do create their own localized populations, are the solid black ones. I know I’ve seen them since 2010, and the winter of 2011-2012 was so mild I quite wearing my winter coat in January. Perhaps the caterpillars think they are disguised when they come into the basement. Silly caterpillars.

Other daily photos shared on this date

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2012: Cousins Chester and Luna

click here for the original post.

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2011: Cookie Contemplates a Rainy Morning

click here for the original post.

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