Signs of Winter 9: Housecat Day 2023!

Mazie. Photo by D. Sillman

(Click on the following link to listen to an audio version of this blog … House Cat Day!

Ten years ago I wrote about Groundhog Day and suggested that we change this early February day-of-prediction to focus not on an animal that should be sound asleep in his grass-lined burrow dreaming of gardens to ravage, 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 pluses and minuses for using a number of different species for our new holiday including robins, bumblebees, scarlet tanagers and killdeer. Each of these animals had features that positively reflected the coming spring, but none of them matched up to the intent and timing of this odd, mid-winter holiday.

I also thought about using earthworms or the early spring butterflies (mourning cloaks and spring azures), but the timing of their activities were too close to the actual onset of spring! These animals wouldn’t get active soon enough to stimulate the anticipation and buzz for the joyous coming of the new season.

Taz. Photo by D. Sillman

Three years ago someone suggested that stink bugs emerging from their hibernation hideouts in our houses might be a “good” sign of spring. I am of the opinion, though, that stink bugs are not a “good” sign of anything and am not seriously considering that well intentioned but obviously misguided suggestion.

Taking all of this into consideration, I have again settled on what was, to me anyway, the most logical and most reliable and most available indicator species among us. That species, of course, is the housecat (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)). As I wrote in my November 24, 2016 blog (“Our Other Best Friend”) cats have a complex relationship with humans and may be the only animal species that has chosen us as a co-evolutionary partner rather than vice-versa (hence the hypothesis that cats are not really domesticated at all but are wild animals exploiting our habitats and resources!). The resemblance of domesticated cats to their closely related wild species, the focus of many cats on places rather than people, and their perceived aloofness and self-absorption are factors that cause people to have intense feelings (both positive and negative) about cats. On the distinctly positive side of feelings for cats, the English philosopher John Gray in his recently published book (Feline Philosophy: Cats and the Meaning of Life) suggests that cats hold the secret to a well-live human life! How can we doubt philosophy?

Binx and Mora. Photo by M. Hamilton

A cat’s inherent love of sunshine and warmth, though, make them a perfect biological agent to help us predict the nearness of the coming warm seasons! And, since they are living in our houses year round, they are available for predictive experimentation!

So, ten years ago on February 2, 2013 I took one of my 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 she 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. 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.

In 2014 and 2015 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 almost before Deborah could take the lens cap off of her camera. In both of these years winter hung on grimly well into March. Mazie’s predictions, then, fit the observed phenomenon.

Bela. Photo by M. Hamilton

In 2016, though, Mazie’s response to the front yard was entirely different. She stepped off her towel and explored the front flowerbed, jumped at some little Pardosa spiders that were running around in the grass and seemed to enjoy herself very much. The early onset of spring that this behavior predicted came about! We had a mild, pleasant March and April and eased our way into a warm, early summer.

In 2017  Mazie not only ran back into the porch but she headed straight for the basement and hid in a box in the furnace room for several hours! Her reaction, though, did not match the resulting weather as both February and March had average monthly highs of 66 and 67 degrees! Definitely an early (and sustained) Spring!

In 2018, Mazie ran from the cold and snow and predicted six more weeks of winter. The rest of February was a roller coaster of temperatures bouncing from the teens all the way to 77 degrees (on Feb 20)! March, then, was cold and snowy but finally finished up in the 60’s. Sounds like Mazie nailed her prediction again!

In 2019, Mazie took control of her House Cat Day performance. Just before 2 pm she went to the front door and meowed to go outside! (we were waiting for the warmth of the day to build up before we took her out!). Deborah opened the door and Mazie walked out the door, down the deck stairs and out into the snow covered yard. She then went under deck and spent the next half hour exploring! This is the most “Spring Positive” reaction she has ever shown! Mazie predicted the immanent onset of Spring!

Taz and Friend
Photo by D. Sillman

Observations of Feb and March 2019: first two weeks of Feb were warm, then after a cold spell the last week of Feb also warmed up. Then we had another cold spell until the second week of March where we hit (on Thursday March 14) 77 degrees! After that the highs stayed in the 50’s through the rest of March and the in the 60’s in April.

Overall, Feb/March 2019 was wet (almost 7 inches of rain) and more warm than cold.

We got about an inch of snow the night before the 2020 House Cat Day event, and it continued to snow through the morning. I was a bit worried about Mazie’s reaction to the outside world, but, in Pennsylvania 2020, the snow melted quickly and there was sunshine and 52 degrees by 3 pm. We opened the deck door for Mazie and she stepped boldly out. A gust of wind hit her in the face, but she shook that off and walked slowly down the stairs into the side yard. She walked on top of the landscape timbers that edge Deborah’s perennial flower bed like it was a balance beam and then stepped off into the wet grass of the yard. She sniffed the air and did not even look back at the deck. She stayed out for about 20 minutes and then came up to the sun room door to be let back into the house.

Mora. Photo by M. Hamilton

Mazie predicted an early spring! And the March and April data backed her up again!

March 2020 high and low temperatures were very close to average, but one-third of the days of the month had highs of 60 degrees F or greater! April 2020 also had average high and low temperatures very close to average but half of the days had highs that were 60 degrees F or higher and a number of these were over 70 degrees F! Also, there was no snow in either March or April! An early spring, indeed!

Mazie nailed it again! Her spring predictions have been correct 6 out of 8 times since 2013!

Take that, Phil!!

Unfortunately, after a long and wonderful life, Mazie passed

Mazie. Photo by D. Sillman

away just before we moved away from Pennsylvania. There was, then. no Housecat Day the past two years from our new home in Colorado. This year, however, there will be!

A month or so ago Deborah and I adopted two kittens, Pezz and Pizo. We got them from the  local Humane Society and they are sisters. Pezz is the smaller of the pair and has some of the quiet characteristics of Mazie. Pizo is a little bigger and a bit more

Pezz and Pizo. Photo by D. Sillman

athletic and has more of the aggressive attitude of Taz. Mostly, though, they are a bit of blend of the two extreme personalities.

We are going to take one of them out into the backyard on February 2 and see how they react! Results will be posted here!

Don’t forget to pass along any observations that you make on the glorious cats that share your houses!

Housecat Day 2023 is once again dedicated to Mazie, Taz, Binx and Bela. They will be greatly missed forever!