I Miss My Cat

 

    It's on cold and sunny days like we've had for the past few days that I think of my cat "Sammie" (Samantha, from Samantha Brady of All My Children TV fame, a similar feisty female). Sammie would lie in sun in winter, on our back deck, but also sometimes in our paved driveway, soaking up the rays and the heat while she did what most cats spend a lot of time doing -- sleeping. I suppose that is because they originated in the desert and probably had periods of hibernation. That's "my" guess.

    Sammie had heart trouble (a rapid heart beat that made it almost impossible for her to sleep) and had to be euthanized last November. It was the humane thing to do. I think she'd previously suffered a heart attack. She was fourteen and a half.  Now, when it is sunny, with cold temps and/or a cold wind whipping up, I think it is a Sammie day. 

Some Glimpses of Nature Part 1

     It-- he or she, traveling so fast I couldn't tell which -- stared straight at me as I cracked open the front door of the house to let the cat in. Sammie -- our cat, named after Samantha Brady of "Days of Our Lives" TV fame -- didn't seem to notice that barely above the hedges partly in front of the walkway in front of the house and slightly above my eye level was (gosh)  a hummingbird (we're talking back in July, not now in January). It was a female, a ruby throated hummingbird (many birds being dimorphic) looking at me. She was in her helicopterlike position, as though she were waiting for me to throw her some bread crumbs. Close to my front door is also a tall, gangly rose bush. Maybe she had tried for some nectar from those red flowers before it decided to just hover by my front door? I couldn't tell. But in 15 seconds she suddenly "zipped" away. Too bad we didn't have a feeder out front.
     Our neighbors had a tree of Sharon and a sugar water hummingbird feeder out front, but I believe they were in the process of cutting it down. After that I didn't see any more hummingbirds. They are very fast wing flappers and one wonders how they keep their energy up, especially in winter, when most of them do travel south to warmer climes. As long as we have "sugar" feeders and deep, nectar filled birds the hummingbirds will survive, though I'm also told, like other birds, they will wolf down tiny insects too. The early bird literally "does" catch the worm, and eat it too!