Good morning

Yoda thinks, "Gardening, schmardening. My catnip alone you be leaving".

Nepeta cataria

Serendipitous Morning.

     Watched an aerial tour of the south cost of England from Goonhilly Down to Dover on HDTheatre, another Discovery satellite channel. We'll be there in a few weeks walking terra firma, not flying around in a helicopter.

     The Sunrise Earth segment which followed was from Iceland. No clouds of ash or flowing lava, though. Plenty of geysers.

     Some of our cats like to bask on the kitchen window-sill in the early morning sun; but to catch this particular quartet in the window was quite unusual.

Stubbers, Leo, Tigerlilly and Marie

Twitchers . . .

Marie and Belle watching birds on the deck 

Cat books from the shelves 4

Cat books from the shelves 3

Not yer ord'n'ry 'cclesiastical cats.

Cat books from the shelves 2

     The book is not really entirely about Dewey. One of those books brought to my attention because my mother-in-law grew up near Spencer, IA

Cat books from the shelves 1

Cleveland Amory introduces these ten tales. The introduction ends with Amory's favourite cat quotation: If Man could be crossed with a cat, it would improve man but deteriorate the cat. ~ Mark Twain. 

It is not easy to photograph cats as I am finding out. Rule one: don't use flash.

Meet some of the cats

 

     All cats are tabbies deep down. Yoda is a Himalayan as witness his blue eyes. He was the only short hair in a litter of five so  he's not pure Himlayan. We lost his medium haired brother Ghengis last year. That little picture of Ghengis was taken on a cell-phone about a month before he disappeared.

Yoda's head isn't really as big as it appears.
     We hand reared a litter of five fluffy white kittens from the age of about ten days after their mother was killed either by coyotes or a large raptor. Ghenis was the most ruthless at feeding time when he was a kitten. Yoda had large ears which twitched as he fed.  All kittens' eyes are blue when they first open at about ten days. When these kittens' eyes remained blue I began to wonder what breed they might be or if the males might be deaf as many white male cats are. Then at about a year old their coats began showing faint tabby markings beginning on the rear quarters. Yoda is now about eight years old.

     Leo adopted us about five years ago after wandering about the neighbourhood not finding anyone else to take him in. He and Yoda abide by the adage keep your friends close and your enemies even closer. Where one is the other isn't very far away.

     I know many people absolutely detest cats for various reasons. Woody Guthrie described  a brutal treatment of kittens in Bound for Gory. And just recently a boy in the USA decided that wrapping a cat with duct tape would be rather fun. The opening scenes of Whistle Down The Wind shows a sack full of kittens being tossed in to a pond. The farmers children rescue the kittens and keep them in a barn where a fugitive from the law has sought refuge. 

I think most people are kind to cats judging from the fuss that is made of Lionel in the bookshop. But then surely book lovers and lovers of reading are lovers period . . .