It turns out that the girl kitten may not be a girl. Her markings are very similar to Momcat’s but where Momcat’s predominant color is dark gray on light gray, Girlcat’s is darker. Since s/he is the most wary and will only let me pet her/him while s/he is eating and because this kitten never walks around with her/his tail upright like the other two little boys and Momcat and because her markings are so similar to Momcat I assumed s/he was a she.
s/he
But Thursday night, Robin was out there with me while I was feeding them and we both got several quick glimpses of her/his rear end and it certainly looks like s/he has balls. That coupled with s/he has almost identical markings and color to Robin’s boy cat Noodle, is making us think she is really a he. So Friday evening I put a little food down in the shed so that I could get around behind her and try to sneakily lift up her tail and get a good look. Let me just say it was dramatically unsuccessful. I guess I’ll find out for sure next week when I try and trap that one first.
The rain is over for now and we're back to our normal winter weather...lows in the 40s, highs in the 60s. Today we have a blue sky day. It was overcast yesterday but I got out there anyway and started cutting back some of the dead foliage and have three piles to pick up, filled the garden cart with other tree debris including four of the sections of that big limb that fell earlier. Picked up the last handful of pecans and added them to my tally for a total of 201 pounds from my three trees.
Speaking of trees, there are two tallows beside the driveway and the first killer arctic vortex of 2021 nearly killed both trees, and did kill others around town.
More than half my two trees did leaf out in the spring but they have been struggling ever since as every winter since we have had temps in the 20s and teens of different durations with less and less leafing out. Earlier in the fall we had a man cut out the dead wood in both trees but now it looks like this winter with just four nights in the 20s and teens that another half of the one on the right has died. After our three days of rain last week, last Friday I noticed that two of the trunks are covered in this white fungus. I’ll wait til spring to see if any of it leafs out but we should just go ahead and cut it down.
And speaking of rain, my neighbor Gary thinks my rain gauge is wrong because it always shows more than his and our other neighbor’s gauges which always measure the same. He only showed about 5 1/2” of rain to my 7.5+”. He’s probably right which bums me out if I can’t rely on it. I’m going to take my tube down to his house with two or three inches of water in it and pour it into his gauge and see what it says.
Pity about the trees. Can you replace them with some other species? Why do you need to know the exact amount of rainfall?
ReplyDeleteIf I have to take the smaller one down I'll plant a confederate rose and a morning glory bush in its place, both of which I have in small pots with no place to put them. as for the rain, I didn't use to care particularly but since the flood I like to keep an eye on the area rainfall. all the rivers and streams in the areas that got battered worse than we did from the rain last week are out of their banks or nearly. even the Colorado River that runs through town crested to flood stage and overflowed its banks slightly.
DeleteThose dead trees will make great habitat, and a rich source of food, for woodpeckers, nuthatches and other species, if you saw fit to leave them standing.
ReplyDeleteI would consider leaving it if it wasn't right next to the driveway in an area that I use a lot, not to mention the cars. we have a much bigger dead rain tree at the back of the property that the arctic vortex killed in '21 that we have left standing for that very reason. we don't use that part of the property besides keeping it mowed so if and when it falls it won't damage anything.
DeleteMaybe an Arborist could help with that fungus and save the trees.
ReplyDeleteWell, I hope the Vet can solve the mystery of just what the sex of that cat is! It has to be one or the t'other!
Marcia in Colorado
perhaps but those are short lived trees anyway and not native, come from China. if I'm going to pay for an arborist it will be for the two huge oak trees next to the house both of which need attention.
DeleteIf two of kitty's three rear openings look like a colon : it's male, if like an exclamation point ! female. The penis remains sheathed in that circular opening, the female vaginal opening is a vertical slit. But it's a whole lot easier to spot if the owner's not in perpetual motion!
ReplyDeleteoh, I know how to tell a girl cat from a boy cat. that's not the problem. the problem is that particular cat never raises its tail so as to get a good look at its rear end. the other three walk around with their tails straight up in the air, not this one which makes me think it got injured somehow and can't.
DeleteI thought Maurice was a male until I took him in to get neutered. Most orange tabbies are and I just didn't really look. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteThat tree does not look good to me but I am certainly no arborist. Time will tell.
We used to have a rain gauge but somehow it's disappeared. We look at the garden cart to see how much rain we've gotten. Not very accurate but it''s all we really need.
Interesting that your gage should be so off? I would have thought it was how it was set but when you have several gages that are different, that is another story. Do you make a lot of money from your pecans? I love pecans and always buy them in the story for baking.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see the result of the rain gauge experiment!
ReplyDeleteYour tale of the cat's tail reminded me of a passage from Mark Twain's "Tom Sawyer Abroad": "The person that had took a bull by the tail once had learnt sixty or seventy times as much as a person that hadn't, and a person that started in to carry a cat home by the tail was getting knowledge that was always going to be useful to him, and warn't ever going to grow dim or doubtful."
ReplyDeleteSounds like you might agree!
It's a handsome cat for sure. Males love to hold their tails high; however, the feral kitten I rescued, Toby, seldom did. I'll be interested in this fellow's final disposition.
ReplyDeleteWell, they are a pretty cat no matter what sex they are!
ReplyDeleteThat fungus certainly suggests dead wood. Boy or girl, that's a beautiful cat!
ReplyDeleteI hope you'll report on the outcome of the rain gauge test; I'm so curious. Is it possible more rain falls over your house, sprinkling you with its nourishment?
ReplyDeleteAll I have to say is .... Martha, the boy cat. Cats like to hide their amenities! I sent Martha to be neutered as soon as he showed his true origins! I hate to see trees die, no matter the species.
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