Today's Cats and Flowers

Giant and lovely snapdragon

Reasons these cat pictures are bad: 1) I took them through a dirty window  2) I had to zoom in so as not to scare away the cats, so they are blurry  3) The glare made streaks in some photos 4) my garden hose is always lying around cluttering up the background.

I wasn't prepared for having so many cat visitors in one day. The first one to arrive was the one I will name Boots. He was so interested in my clogs. I decided to put some food out for Boots, because, I'm very sad to report, Jim hasn't been around for a month. I might as well try to make new friends by means of my leftover cat food, because I'm afraid he won't ever come back.

Boots

The next picture shows Boots eating, and looking nicer. Except for the white feet, he isn't the prettiest. But then, Jim wasn't very good-looking until he had eaten regularly at my step for a few months.

Pincushion

I watered the yard thoroughly this morning, and will again Friday before we leave for Oregon to visit kids and grandkids. So I had to take pictures of flowers. I love my garden, even if it is pretty messy. If I loved it better I'd coil up the hose every evening.

Boots didn't eat all the food, so there was still some later on when Girlfriend came by.

Girlfriend

Last of all, just at dusk, came this odd-looking feline whom I'll call Two-Tone....

Two-Tone

Oh, I take that back. It's almost dark now, and Cow Cat is here -- I can see through the window as I type -- and what do you know, there is still food in the bowl. Cow Cat visits several times a day, usually, and always looks in the window and in the bowl, even though we have shooed him away many times.

Cow Cat a year ago

We didn't like him because he's ugly. But Goldilocks questioned the morality of that opinion....at least, that's the challenge I felt in my heart when she said, "Why won't you feed him?"

Calendula with oregano

Last year when I wrote about the cat visitors, I had chosen Jim, the black cat at the bottom of this post, as my favorite. So we discriminated against Cow Cat. Pippin said he may have a classic deformity of the face that makes him look the way he does. It's not his fault. So perhaps I will take pity on him after all. Will he forgive me my past unkindness?

This yellow California poppy is very beloved, because it is unusual. The bright orange are much more vigorous and easy to grow, but I managed to get this one established, and it comes back most years.

Cow Cat is unusual, and he keeps coming back. Maybe I could learn to love him, too.