Day of the Cat and Catkins

I believe cats to be spirits come to earth. 

A cat, 

I am sure, 

could walk on a cloud 

without coming through.

~ Jules Verne

It was a cat-filled day. An alley-cat prowled at the warehouse near the hotel. A good hunter, it was fat yet agile. It ruled that area between the building, the barb-wire-topped fence, and the pallet piles.

DH slept while time was killed with a short shopping trip to a thrift store. It was almost a Broadway show. Laurel cats and Betsey cats...sleeping cats and blinking cats...jumping cats and winking cats...but no cats were liberated (only photos).

Alley Cat

Betsey Johnson bag.

Another Betsey - backpack

Laurel Burch (These look like some other - less colorful cat designs. I'll think of them in a day or so).

I think this is from a Puma backpack.

I believe these were baggy pants - pajamas perhaps.

I suppose we all have our "cat" friends - the four-legged kind and the two-legged kind.* Cats have lived with us in numbers from 1 to 5 depending.... but now just one cranky old cat with two cranky old people.

We found the backdoor open when we stopped to snag the nephew. The younger cat, Little,** was outside for a wander. Little gets upset if the door is closed. They are, obviously, cat people.

The next stage of the trip started with dinner - fast food. The local ferals approved of our choice. They wandered the back of the parking lot - perhaps waiting for a handout.

Three?

They looked pretty good, if a little shy.

I think there were 5 - one got away, out of view. The yellows are toms I understand. The other two are female. I don't know if they have a program here to neuter strays. They should.

On the drive we began to see masses of orange and pale yellow in the scrubby woods - the orange from catkins of huisache and yellow from what we call catclaw.*** These flowering spikes let us know it's spring.**** There was a short search for photos of the two together (no luck) as an article must be written about these acacias. Both are problems for ranchers (and appear they will be for the article writer as well). In any case, a good deal of research will be condensed into 400 to 500 words and a few photos. And we will wait again for the bloom next March.

I don't know if every thing I call a catkin really meets the definition, but I love the word. It is one of my mother's words. When I use it I summon her memory.

Catclaw catkins (a double cat!)

Huisache catkins

Live oak catkins

NOTES: 

*The two-legged kind post cat photos all over your FB feed (and think you need another cat). The four-legged kind just ruin your furniture and sleep on your lap.

**Miss Kitty is the older, larger cat. Hence the name "Little" for the other. Miss Kitty is also a cranky cat. She welcomes a petting - until she doesn't with a violent rejection. Most of us have felt her teeth. I leave her alone.

***I think these are actually Blackbush Acacias which have a straight, not claw-like thorn, but I'm calling them what my little brother called 'em when we talked about them not so many years ago.

****You cannot really trust that all frost is gone until the pecans bud-out - yup - until the native pecans start putting out their catkins. All the other trees can be fooled by an early bit of warm weather. But pecans cannot be fooled. They do not lie. That's another thing I learned from Mom.