I look at the news feed first thing in the morning. I guess i could change that. Not look. But i look. Often, more often than not, there is a subtle ripple of nausea. literally. but then, it passes and i drink my tea. turn my thoughts to the day ahead. After the tea and after feeding Tay and Tazmeena there is Goat Feed. And lately, more and more, we have an audience. I hesitate to even put it here, like putting is claiming and i am not claiming, but it's how it seems to be going. its the
WayBack~UnderHouse Feral Family. Mother, Wheat, Liona, and that last one. Lately i've taken up calling him Rat Boy in my mind. I don't know if he is a he or a she. Maybe i'll never know? Because of behavior, i'm even wondering if Liona is a female. Maybe she is not, maybe Lion. These words with spanish accent...Leeowna or Leeown....
anyway, to document these days of July, 2017 and how we managed all this time to have nothing living under the house, but wouldn't you know it, now we do.
more and more, the 3 kittens are there. They play in the debris of the downed Russian Olive. They even play on the porch steps. and when i come to distribute the feed to all 5 feed bowls, they run back some, but stay, watching. Feral, but also attracted.
i rarely see the mother but when i do, she is being a very good mother. She lies out there with them in early morning or afternoon, sometimes just watching, sometimes playing with them. They climb and pounce all over her. She doesn't mind.
i began feeding them intermittently and then more, because the little ones have sharp little teeth now that you can hear crunching on the dry cat food. They are growing. At first i thought not to put any food and they might go away, but they aren't going anywhere and that changed to maybe if i put dry food they would be inclined to eat fewer lizards. The kittens practice hunting. She's teaching them. So i fill a bowl everyother day. of course, water. the water is in the green pyrex thing i make brownies in. I didn't want to say this here, but it's something that needs to be noted. as in Field Notes. Some days ago, i went around that corner to fill the bowl and there was no sign of them. Usually when they hear me. they come to at least peek through the slats of the pallets. No sign of them but Brain said..."what's that shape there?" and i lowered my gaze to see maybe about 8 inches of a snake. 8 inches beginning at its head, with an open eye, along to where it's body stopped. Judging from the size of its head, i would guess that it, when it was a whole snake, was almost 2 ft long. The rest of it, however was not there. and when i went back on the second day later, nothing was there but very delicate white bones. Eaten.
i love, like love, thinking about all the snakes that might live here, invisible to me....so private in their lives that i never see them, just what i am sure are their holes. I had seen, over the years, the large Bull Snake mother. Just a few times. but she was magnificant. That was back when i had the Guinnea hens. She lived under the Palace and ate their eggs. I am sure, that over in the stick pile there are snakes. Maybe only one...or two?....and then under the pallets where i get wood delivered. There too. I like knowing they are there.
i didn't look closely at this Part of a Snake, i couldn't. So i don't know what kind of snake it was. So i don't know how old it was. My guess is maybe 3 years. There was pain in my heart. Snake. eaten. and too, though, there was wonder about that small tortise shell mother cat, small. That caught and dragged an at least 2 foot snake to feed her children.
What else is there to say?
I finished the Pocket for Daydreams Cloth....it's in the shop. I put it there to keep a record but its probably spoken for.
Daydreams...i day dream about so much now. Being between Here and There, it's pretty much just nothing but daydream.
