Today's walk report: Garden Cat

After a couple of hours of anxious anticipation, Stan the cat showed up this morning around 7 AM. I'm  guessing this was about the 6th time he has taken off for four days and then reappeared on day five. So far today he has apparently visited his food three times although I only saw him twice. The third visit was during this walk. See yesterday’s post if none of this makes any sense.

Here's Stan having breakfast at 7:28 AM. This was shot through a dirty window. Yay Stan!

 It was mid-day, about 63º and the walk came in at around one mile. The point was to get outside. I had some inner turmoil about another cat, a stray in the garden. I ended up calling Docken because a part of me wanted to help out this cat but maybe the cat didn't need my help. He let me sit and talk to him from a distance for quite awhile. It was only once I got up to see if I could get a better look since, for some reason, I wanted to confirm it was a male, that he took off. I'm pretty sure it was a tomcat. Looking at the pictures now he appears healthy. He stopped and listened to me saying kitty, kitty... is he someone's cat, simply on the prowl? These are questions I asked myself and I asked Docken. We had no definitive answers. 

Before I get to the cat, here's the male Calypte anna hummingbird known as Dusty once again. As handsome as ever.

Then around the bend, I saw something move. He spotted me the same second I spotted him and wasted no time moving to a secure spot inside the garden.

Feral cats can travel for miles depending on a number of factors. I've read they can have territories ranging from 2 to 1,000+ acres, so it's anybody's guess. I hope he has a home. I hope he's okay. We have a lot of rain starting in as little as five hours predicted to last as long as 40 hours. Thunderstorms are included in the mix.

Parting shots from the garden...

Mushrooms growing at the base of an Apache plume (Fallugia paradoxa) shrub. I believe these might be Marasmius oreades, also known as the fairy ring mushroom but I wouldn’t put any money on it. 

This is not Dusty, I don't believe I've seen this male Calypte anna hummingbird before, at least not in the garden proper. The plant is Peritoma arborea.

I didn't have a song in mind for this post and decided about midway to add whatever was playing on my headphones once I finished. So, here you go.