Category Archives: Sol Duc

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Sol Duc

Mom walked Elwha first today. There is fine mist from the sky. Mother slipped outside with Elwha early. I did not hear the click of the harness until after the door had closed. I had to wait.

Mother came back in and makes coffee before taking me out! Sometimes she and Elwha and I go out together. She is taking us out early today. Yesterday she slept in until 7:00, which is annoying. I prefer that my breakfast is ready at 4:00.

I lead Mother to the wild part of the back yard today, when she won’t let me dig in the neighbor’s garden. I am heading through the yard and realize: one of the four foots is there! A big one!

Black cat and buck meeting.

I go closer and he is quite big. I think it is best if I lead Mother away. I can handle him, of course, but Mother is more vulnerable and after all, she brings me food.

Black cat and buck 2.

Mother backs out of the yard and around the garage. I go further into the yard and there is a lady four foot. She and I exchange greetings. Mother comes around between our garage and the neighbors. She waits until the lady four foot and I are done and the lady four foot goes to the apple tree. Then Mother and I go inside.

I would like more food now, but Mother can be stubborn.

I am Sol Duc and I like the four foots.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: cat.

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Sol Duc sploot

Here is Sol Duc splooting as a kitten, in October 2021. It was not very hot, but she did like to lie that way.

She also did the opposite of splooting. Is there an unsploot?

Elwha is more of a “rub my belly” type. He means it and will not ambush you. He doesn’t bite but just does full throttle purring for belly rubs. He also is not supposed to be on the table.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: splooting.

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Meeting

I took pictures of this cutie out my back window. I got my Canon and cracked the back door. Sol Duc ran right out! But, mother deer is paying close attention.

Mother is nearly on my back porch and Sol Duc reverses direction very quickly and climbs.

An interaction between four sentient beings, though I stay in the house. I am photographing through a grubby window so as not to spook anyone else. Sol Duc immediately pretends nonchalance.

Mother deer is satisfied.

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: sentient.

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Toothsome Devil

I am Elwha.

I am a toothsome devil, young, muscular, handsome. I am sixteen pounds of muscle, a tiger cat, ISO of wonderful lady. DON’T get confused by my sister in the photograph. She likes to lean on me sometimes, especially when Mother is gone. Mother has been home, thank goodness. She goes out in the nasty car, but comes back by nighttime. It has been hot this week. She slept in the basement bed one night. My sister and I were a bit worried, it was different and confusing, but she apparently doesn’t have our heat tolerance. We loll in the upstairs when we want the heat.

Contact me, babes. I am in my prime and want to meet the lady cats.

_________________

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: toothsome.

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The creeping wild

No mow May: here.

Home meadows are becoming more common, for pollinators. Unmown, with wildflowers. There is a movement for a no mow May, to help pollinators and insects survive. This will help the birds too, because insects are food.

I quit mowing half my lot in 2007, after checking with the neighbors. I had just finished a divorce and I was paying my ex and I did not have time to mow it, nor money, nor inclination. My lot is L shaped. The 1930s garage extends onto the second lot, which is perpendicular to the first lot and goes to the middle of the block. The plumbing goes there too.

The lot is a deer stop. The deer circle a route that is often the same from year to year. This lot is not very visible from the road because a huge rosa rugosa, well over my head, fronts on the street. The deer come in through the driveway. There are high fences around it now, but there are still two other exits. One at the other end, to another driveway, and one past the garage next door. I watch for fawns in the spring, the mothers will leave them there some days.

I have birds and nests and sometimes raccoons and squirrels. I have seen coyotes within a block. This year I have a pair of “swamp robins”, also known as varied thrush, at my bird feeder. That is a first. My present cats are allowed out on leash or in the cat cage, so I have lots more birds all around the house. The birds apparently know that the cats are contained.

The lurker in the cover picture is Sol Duc. The grass is already deep.

My front and back lawn are still lawn, sort of. I have not used any weedkiller ever, and have lived here since 2000. Siberian squill and parsley and daffodils and forget-me-nots are busily invading the lawn. Also oregano and thyme. The deer are unenthused about most of these. They can come through the sometimes mown back of the house, but the front yard is fenced to protect my roses.

The deer do eat the squill. Maybe I could have a lawn of squill, mown by deer.

I like my lawn full of weeds. I am not very interested in grass and I like birds and insects much more. Ok, not cockroaches or fleas. We are not warm enough to have a lot of mosquitoes in my yard.

Maybe the deer like the leaves but not the flowers.

The wild has taken over the center of the block and now is creeping through my back yard and my front yard. And I am rooting for it all the way.

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Living together

Lichen are a lifeform formed from algae and fungi, which is amazing. Apparently they join forces when they can’t survive on their own and form a different creature. And it’s not just one kind of algae or one kind of fungi, but lots of them! I am reading Entangled Life: How fungi make our worlds, change our minds and shape our futures, by Merlin Sheldrake. It’s really quite amazing. I love science, it opens up the world!

For the Ragtag Daily Prompt: lichen.