wildlings, spring blooms, and rain

The capture of Twin Monday was a success though I had to use the live trap. First I snatched up Handsome Boy and Lovey and closed them up in the shed with food, then I put a container of food in the live trap and set it up. Robin came out to try and attract Twin with some food to see if she could grab him but they are still very wary of her and he wouldn’t approach. He did take a few steps into the live trap but backed out and wouldn’t go near it again until Robin went back inside. Even then it was a good 10 or 15 minutes before he approached the trap sniffing at the food from the outside while I quietly sat a good distance away. Finally he went in far enough to trigger the door and he was caught and boy was he mad. In all the months I’ve been feeding this kitten I have never heard him make a sound. Lovey is the most vocal and quick to loudly purr, Handsome Boy is mostly silent but he will meow now and then and when I picked him up Monday he purred loud enough to be certain for the first time. Robin and I think he is the most ready to be in the house. 

So I texted Robin ‘got him’ and went back home to get the car. When I picked up the trap I really thought Twin was going to hurt himself thrashing around and head butting the end in a desperate attempt to get out but once I had him in the back seat he laid down and calmly and quietly spent the ride to the vet. He hissed at me once when I picked up the trap and carried him into the vet but didn’t yowl or thrash around. On my way there I got a text from Robin…Lovey started yelling and crying after you took him, it was sad. Lovey is the most affectionate of the three always rubbing up against his brothers, hence his name. The vet called Tuesday morning to let me know that Twin had had his surgery and was doing well. I could pick him up anytime after 2 PM. So now Twin is home, he rode calmly and quietly all the way back and his brothers were happy to see him.

Wednesday when I went over to feed them this is where I found Twin. 

The other two were curled up on the landing outside the door to the screened porch. Momcat showed up and I fed them and pet them as usual. Usually I leave when they are still eating but that day I lingered pulling a few weeds in the back, checking on the progress of the two peach trees, doing a little repair on the screened porch and then went around to the front of the house to pull a few more weeds and Momcat and the kittens followed me. Now they have followed me around to the front on a few other occasions but Wednesday when I finally left to go home all four followed me across the street. First Momcat and Lovey while Handsome Boy and Twin sat in the drive and watched and then they too crossed over. I went inside. Later I was sitting on the little loveseat next to the window FaceTiming Jade when I looked over at the window that has textured glass in the bottom pane to see the silhouette of a little cat head peering in. When I stood up to look through the clear pane on top, there was Lovey. I guess he had heard my voice. Later still the three were in the front yard but when Marc opened the door they all scooted back across the street.

Walking around the yard Tuesday morning I had a surprise, one lone yellow flag iris in the front under the big chinese fringe flower tree that I didn’t even know was there, at least I don’t remember ever seeing it before.

Flowers are blooming all over the place. This is the empty pasture behind us with indian paintbrush. It looks better in person than this picture. 

There’s an expanse of empty land heading south on business 59 after you cross the bridge over the Colorado River and before it joins up with the highway that I wish I could get a picture of. It’s a solid mosaic of yellow creeping buttercup, pink evening primrose, blue bluebonnets, and red/orange indian paintbrush but there is no place besides the narrow shoulder to pull over for a photo.

The red tip photonia is blooming

and zinnias over at my sister’s old house from seeds I threw in there months ago that I found in her refrigerator which reminds me I need to throw out mine. Today would be a good day.

And the mock orange/dogwood is blooming very early, by a month at least.

As mentioned in my past post, we got 4” of rain last Friday into Saturday. Wednesday night/early Thursday morning it started raining again and rained and rained and rained finally slowly petering out around 1:30 Thursday afternoon. I checked the rain gauge…4 1/4”.  So, 8 1/4” in seven days. I had standing water in the usual low places and the ditch was about half full and running well but the drainage at the other end of the street is terrible. It’s supposed to drain from that end down to my end but somewhere halfway a culvert is collapsed or clogged or something and it backs up. This is Rocky’s front yard and the house on the other side of the street fared barely better. 

Complaining to the county commissioner does not produce results. They claimed they were going to regrade the ditches on both sides two years ago but all they did was scoop out a bucket load on each end of every culvert which did nothing to improve the drainage. I’m just glad I live at my end of the street where the ditches are deeper and unobstructed.

Well, this is already too long so I’ll leave my tirade against our governor and AG for later.