Mimi and Mewsette Monday: Looking Out the Basement Door and More, June 11, 2017

June 8, 2026 Bernadette

Mimi in the middle, Mewsette on the right and Bella on the left.

So not quite outside on this particular morning, though I’m sure we did go outside at some point. I was probably doing laundry at about 9:17 a.m. and Mimi and Mewsette were impatiently waiting for the basement door to open and let them out into the purrfect June morning out there. Bella was proud to be with her elders, looking out the basement door too.

Below, the situation becomes more urgent as Mimi sees something she needs to investigate further!

Oh, Mimi sees something she needs to get outside to take care of!

Apparently they were still inside at about 10:00 a.m.—the cruelty!—when just Mewsette and Mimi were at the door and I took this little video. They had probably been moving around or interacting or something, and of course they stopped when I started the video. But enjoy that finch singing their heart out!

Then later yet, up in the studio a little after 4:00 p.m. they still look a little glum because they’re indoors, but we are all in the treehouse, up in the studio with the windows open and lots of breezes and even more birdsong. I loved how these two stayed together, and I especially loved it when they settled on my drafting table like this.

Later, on the windowsill and drafting table in the studio.

From Around This Date in Previous Years

Mewsette’s Rainbow: Two Years Today, 2025

black cat prowling tall grass — Mewsette’s beautiful round face.

This morning the garden and yard look much as they did two years ago, the yellow dutch iris have bloomed followed by the fluffy pink peonies, then yellow sundrops with yellow buttercups and white feverfew blooming through it all. My garden walk brought many memories and feelings this morning; these same joyful plants, eagerly blooming, were the backdrop to Mewsette’s last days with us in June 2023.

Today, June 11, is two years since my big beautiful Mewsette left us. Just losing her would be difficult, my precious creative thinker, but she was also the first of the four siblings to transition and always the thought of anything breaking them apart was difficult for me. But then, she was only the first of the four them to transition within nine months, each of them with symptoms of “something” within her last month, and I realizing I was going to lose all four.

sundrops feverfew buttercups — Sundrops, feverfew and buttercups still bloom as joyfully as they did.

I walked our path this morning deep into the memory of her and Mimi and our morning routine, breakfast, down the basement steps and out the basement door to our favorite place, and watching them do their cat thing, rolling, rubbing, exploring, then up to the deck for a nap before going back inside. The vegetable garden is much larger and more developed than two years ago but the basic structure at the top was there then. As I walked I slowly looked around, envisioning each of them in what they’d typically be doing, today.

two black cats in garden with yellow flowers — Happily grazing.

When I walked back into the kitchen there was a rainbow on the ceiling. A pretty big one. And for no reason I could determine, never seeing one there before and not seeing anything anywhere that would create that reflection. So Mewsette beat me back into the kitchen and was there waiting for me, as a rainbow, another visit, a sign of her joyful presence.

After reveling in the rainbow for I-don’t-know-how-long, I wanted to find its source; that was part of these visitations. The deck is outside the door, it has a deep roof, lots of trees out there, and I couldn’t see anything that would reflect in the spot the sun was shining. It’s an area I use often with my stationary bike and setting up my easel to paint and the deck surface was clear of shiny objects. I put my hand up until I saw its silhouette in the rainbow and looked at the angle but still couldn’t see anything that might produce a rainbow.

Outside on the deck I found nothing until I happened to see a smaller rainbow on the deck surface and put the two angles, kitchen ceiling and deck floor, together.

I found it was the reflector on my bike wheel that produced both rainbows, sunlight filling up the hollow plastic rectangle and bouncing around in there, then reflecting up onto the kitchen ceiling from the bottom of it and down onto the deck from the top of it with a lesser reflection.

I always find the source of the light when they visit as light, but knowing the source doesn’t diminish the magic. That’s in the circumstances.

Like when Mewsette first visited as the dancing lights in the back yard and I discovered, after 33 years, that the swinger on my big wind chime reflected the sun at a very particular angle and created those dancing lights. With all my time out on that deck, and that’s been a lot over the years, this was the first time the light presented itself to me.

My bike has been parked out on the deck since May 2024, and I haven’t ridden it yet this spring. That reflector had been in the same position since some time last September, maybe, sun shining through it each day, winter and spring, and no rainbows in the kitchen. For this one morning, for Mewsette’s visit, everything lined up for her to send her message.

I can sense they are all here today, Mimi, Mr. Sunshine, Giuseppe, and Jelly Bean too, together again, in the kitchen, and in the garden.

five black cats — All five of them together in their famous lineup on June 5, 2023, just six days before we lost Mewsette.

All five of them together in the kitchen, in their famous lineup on the cabinet, June 5, 2023, just six days before we lost Mewsette.

She was so beautiful.

black cat with green eyes — Mewsette’s secret to the greenest eyes…

Mewsette has green green eyes already, but she is prepared to share one of her deepest secrets for the greenest eyes on any kitty.

“Sit next to the asparagus fern when the sun is shining on it,” she whispurrrs, “no one will be able to believe the color!”

Thank you for following our grief journey after losing all of the Four Housecats of the Apocalypse.

I hope sharing our experiences have helped you in some way, as sharing my experiences with you helps me.

You can read all the articles related to their loss by tapping one of these images in the side bar and in articles.

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pastel sketch of black cat in sunshine — “Mewsette in Sun”, pastel on Fabriano Tiziani paper, 7″ x 9″ © B.E. Kazmarski

Mewsette lets the warm sun wash her back while she sits and simply looks lovely. Read more and order.

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