Taz and Friend
Photo by D. Sillman
Three years ago in my January 21, 2013 blog (very optimistically entitled “Signs of Spring 3”) I wrote about Groundhog Day and suggested that we change this early February day-of-prediction to focus not on an animal that is sound asleep in his grass-lined burrow, but rather on an animal with whom we could more naturally base an ecologically or culturally significant day of hope for the coming spring.
I went through the cases for using robins, or bumblebees, or scarlet tanagers as our symbolic animal to celebrate the anticipation of the coming spring, but settled on what was, to me anyway, the most logical species among us. That species, of course, is the house cat (Felis catus).
Cats are the most popular house pet in the United States (the Humane Society estimates that there 74 to 86 million house cats in the U.S. (as compared to “only” 70 to 78 million dogs). House cats, usually, share the warm, dry living spaces of a house with humans (of course, they usually keep the really nice spots all to themselves!), and cats especially share with humans a hardwired, probably DNA-based fondness for sunshine, warm temperatures, and fun, fluttery organisms like birds (their “bird-agenda,” though, is often quite different from ours!).
Photo by D. Sillman
So, three years ago on February 2, I took one of my house cats, Mazie, out into the snow-covered front yard (I tried to take both of my cats, but Taz sensed that something was up and disappeared into one of her magical hiding places somewhere in the house). I put Mazie down in the yard (on a nice dry towel!), and left the front porch door open. If Mazie ran for the porch, then we would have six more weeks of winter. If Mazie stayed on her towel or started walking around in the yard thus avoiding a dash back into the house, then spring was just around the corner.
I was amazed how fast she ran back into the house! But, that year the weather suddenly turned warm by late February. March temperatures set record breaking highs (I even remember a day when it nearly got up to ninety degrees!). Maybe our predictive model was not articulated correctly.
The next two years I followed the same experimental procedure, and Mazie, as I reported on this blog, responded with equal speed and agility and got back into the house even before Deborah could take the lens cap off of her camera. Both years, though, winter hung on grimly well into March. Mazie’s predictions, then, fit the observed phenomenon. The model has re-set itself?
We’ll find out on Tuesday, February 2! Mazie returns to the front yard for her fourth experimental trial. Deborah will have her camera all ready before the test begins! I am sure that Mazie will do her best for us all!
Photo by M. Hamilton
By the way, my daughter who lives in Albuquerque also put her cats (Binx and Mora) out on House Cat Day last year. They lolled around in the warm New Mexico sunshine and only did come back into the house because they got hungry. Spring was already starting down there, I think!
Send on your own experiences and observations!
Happy Winter! (but it’s almost time to start thinking about Spring!)
(House Cat Day 2016 is dedicated to Taz and Binx. They were wonderful cats and will be greatly missed forever!)
A wonderful commentary
I have to say, though, that there are surprising occurrences. We had a delightful and rambunctious one-year-old mongrel tuxedo cat named Little Oliver, who loved to be outside walking in belly-deep snow in winter or early spring, no matter what the date. My wife and I couldn’t imagine why he enjoyed it so much. We couldn’t coax him back inside. His thick fur and foot pads must have kept from freezing just as waterfowl legs and feet do.
Meanwhile… I love your blog.
It was fascinating, although I have to emphasize that he scrambled out accidentally whenever we opened the storm door. We don’t like feral or other outdoor cats killing “our” birds. I wish my reflexes were such that I could race out a door the instant it was opened. I had a feeling the Little Oliver was a chipmunk disguised as a cat.