Today's walk report: Walk-Dawn Walk

I made a decision last night that I would put myself together early, get out the door before 6:00, drive to my starting point (1/2 mile from home), and go for a walk at the local college campus. I'm almost always up before dawn, but getting prepared and motivated to go for a walk that early is another matter. As it turned out, I was awake at 2:15! The bathroom wasn't calling me, Lucy was sound asleep next to my shin bones, so I can't blame her, and for the life of me, as much as I wanted to, I simply could not get back to sleep. Of course, as it was approaching 5:00 or so (I stopped looking at the clock around 3:30) and getting closer to the time I should've been thinking about stuff to do before leaving the house... I dozed. I ended up sleeping about 4 hours in round one, plus I threw in a 30-minute nap. I was parking for my walk at 6:08. Sunrise was at 6:04. The temperature ranged from 65º to 68º F, with relative humidity hovering between 76% to 78%. It was the most comfortable I've been out walking in somewhere near forever. Over the past two weeks, we've been in triple digits 9 days. Over the past 30 days, it was triple digits for 14 days. The highest temp was 108º F on Friday, July 31st. 

Here are some photos I took on today's walk. I was out and about for precisely one hour and covered 2.09 miles.

Early enough to see some Night Blooming Cereus, (Cereus peruvianus) with flowers still open. 

 

Hollyleaf Cherry (Prunus ilicifolia), a native California evergreen shrub. The fruit is edible but something likes chewing at the leaves more than the fruit.

 These are the female cones of Oriental arborvitae (Platycladus orientalis).

 This is a Madagascar Periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus), specifically a variety resembling 'Bright Eyes' which features white petals with a distinct red center.

 Coreopsis verticillata 'Creme Brulee', a variety of threadleaf tickseed.

 
This is a Hebe, a genus of evergreen flowering shrubs native to New Zealand. 

 Salvia farinacea and a carpenter bee. The common name "carpenter bee" derives from their nesting behavior; nearly all species burrow into hard plant material such as dead wood or bamboo.

 Lesser goldfinch (Spinus psaltria). There must've been 25-30 birds in a flock. I don't believe I've ever seen that many congregating together. They weren't especially cooperative on the photo front.

 However, there was also a flock of Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus) in the mix. When I first approached everyone scattered and I was pretty far away. Bushtits are very social and are often seen moving quickly in small flocks through shrubs and trees. I have but a few good pictures of a Psaltriparus minimus. This isn't one of them.

 This is a a California Towhee (Melozone crissalis), more commonly known as a "grumpy bird." I rarely see them up this high.

 The above were all in or near the campus arboretum, I walked from there to the botanical garden.

Grevillea 'Moonlight'.
 

More Cereus peruvianus. There were lots of flowers but unfortunately most of them were cluttered with dead organic matter from above, mixed with spider webbing. I walked into a lot of spider webbing this morning.

 I wasn't going to post this photo. I did not shove the Cooper's hawk feather into that post. I'm posting though because Google AI kept arguing that this was not a Cooper's hawk feather at all but rather a moth. Saying nonsense like, "The resemblance to a Cooper's hawk feather is absolutely brilliant, but this image is actually a famous piece of wildlife photography showcasing a living insect in its natural resting pose.The insect is a Barred Lappet Moth (Porela subfasciata), a species native to Australia that survives daytime predators by perfectly evolving to look exactly like a discarded bird feather." I had to crop in on the feather for Google to "see" what it actually was.

 Some Ancient Car Worshipers were out early, preparing to worship each other's cars.

This is a Shelby Cobra replica. I couldn't get an ID on the other car. I'm pretty sure these guys are talking about cars.

 This is an Austin Healey 3000, probably 1960.

 A 1961 Ford Ranchero. 

 What do you think they might be talking about now? The Star Wars themed Dodge Charger is affectionately known as "Dodge Vader."
 

That's it. I did my regular "short," there's nothing to take pictures of so why sweat it, loop and headed back to my car.

Dawn, by Mahavishnu Orchestra 

 

Happy Juniversary!

 Today, July 31st, 2026, marks the one-year anniversary of formally feral kitten Junimoon (AKA, Juni)  coming into this house to stay. She was born wild on or about April 9th, 2025, and was carried from my lap to inside the house at 6:44 p.m., July 31st, 2025. It was a process. I had tried about a week earlier, and that experience was a little traumatic for both of us. I will point out that I had some emotional, logistical, and general moral support for this process over the phone, and for that, I will always be grateful.

Currently, Juni is curled up, sleeping in my lap. Which means typing is somewhat compromised. She's a big girl now. She last weighed in at 11.8 lbs, nine days ago. By comparison, 20 year old Lucy the cat is 9.2 lbs. 

 Here's some of the evolution of Juni finally coming indoors to stay.

 A feral mother cat typically stays with and cares for her kittens until they are about 10 to 12 weeks old. I could probably pin down a very accurate date when I started to see Juni's mom letting Juni know she was on her own but that's not the point of this post, this post is a celebration. However, I will note that feral male tomcat Vit, started playing a very important role as Juni's protector as Juni was just moving into her 9th week. Vit was immensely affectionate with Juni's mother, Kalika. He was and still is the dominant male in the neighborhood and is the most likely candidate for being Juni’s dad. Vit taking on this role as protector, that’s unusual, a feral male taking care for one of his offspring. In typical feral dynamics, tomcats rarely pay mind to individual kittens, let alone actively guard and play with them. For Vit to display that kind of steady, protective presence over Juni—especially as Kalika was beginning to step back—says a lot about his temperament. Whether it was paternal instinct or just a unique bond forged on the patio, he gave her a safe buffer when she was at her most vulnerable.

Here is Vit tolerating Juni playing with his tail on July 9th, 2025. That's 8 weeks and 5 days for Junimoon, and her mother was no where around. Juni and Kalika did cross paths on occasion but Kalika’s indifference was beginning to show. Vit was actively following Juni, keeping an eye on her and this went on into evenings. Vit didn't ever hang out here that much before Juni was around. 
 

Here's Vit from this morning after he had breakfast.

 Yes, he was alerted to my moving closer with my phone but I kept talking to him and he relaxed. 

 
I've only barely touched him a couple of times. He is reasonably trusting of me. I've even done yard work with him nearby and he's okay with it. Power tools and all. He does appear to be hard of hearing but this is not linked to the genetic condition that causes deafness in white cats with blue eyes--congenital sensorineural deafness. That high rate of deafness applies almost exclusively to completely, solid white cats with two blue eyes. Perhaps, he just likes to ignore me.

Back to Juni's story about coming inside...

June 27th, 2025. I was starting to figure out how it might work out. Juni was also becoming very attached to me. If she had a choice to play with me or to hang with Vit, she chose me.

July 29th, 2025. I had started leaving the patio door open for her. She was encouraged to come inside with toys and food. She had accepted my petting her and coming into my lap out on the patio, the goal was to get her to become comfortable enough to start nodding off in my lap indoors. 

Here you can see her feather toy just hanging over the edge of Lucy's cat tree. Hauling that cat tree near the door was also an enticement to come inside, 

Another catalyst for my convictions about getting Juni inside and soon. One, there was the hooting from a great horned owl almost every evening and two, there were these guys. I would do a camera check with the GardePro trail camera before daylight.

 
June 30th, 2025. This was the day Juni felt most comfortable about casually going from outside back inside the house. The patio door was open for most of the day. Surprisingly, there weren't a bunch of flies coming inside.

 

Ping pong balls were the best trick to get her to explore more of the house with Juni chasing them down the hall to the bedrooms.

 Once she started going down the halls, she was hooked on exploring. Note, the ping pong ball is near the Target bag. 

 Spring toys too. Anything I could throw that would bounce was a wonderful new indoor adventure for Junimoon.

 

I couldn't follow her. I didn't want her to get spooked over my movement. When she was close, I still had the fishing pole and feather toy.

July 31st. I really wanted this to be the day I was going to feel comfortable closing the patio door with Juni inside. This was 6:51 a.m., something else she loved to play with outside.

 I followed the same program I had followed out on the patio. I encouraged her to climb up my pants legs into my lap. Again, the goal was to get her to feel comfortable in my lap inside the house. 

 7:52 a.m., a decision was made to close the patio door partway and see how Juni reacted. She was fine with it. She was staring at a bug here.

 Meanwhile, when Juni would go outside, I would go check on the unsuspecting Lucy in our bedroom. Lucy had already taken a path to rarely leave the bedroom. The bedroom was her comfort zone. Lucy remains the Queen of the castle. 

 This happened about an hour earlier. She stayed in my lap for several minutes, but mostly because I was petting her. This happened more than once, but it wasn't until we were back on the patio, approaching evening, that Juni was in my lap and seemed very content; I didn't want her outside for another evening. The decision was made, and I simply picked her up, walked inside, and gently closed the door.

 And so she remains, content and safe.

 
May 12, 2026.
 

July 30th (yesterday).

Lucy too, content and safe. Lap time with Lucy just started up again a couple of nights ago. She simply hasn’t been inclined to go there but would rather sleep along side me, or sleep in her fort. This was last night during the Dodgers game. Lucy and Juni get exposure time but it has to be strictly supervised. I don't think there would be an altercation but Juni's age and size difference is intimidating to Lucy. Lucy has earned her peace and quiet. 

 Lucy splits most of her time with me on the bed or inside her custom nightstand fort. 

Yes, everybody wants to be a cat 
Because a cat's the only cat who knows where it's at