The gulls are back!!

On my way home from breakfast at a local restaurant this morning I was greeted to the sounds of Ring-billed Gulls.  I saw them hovering near the road and did the proverbial double take!  I thought to myself "I guess spring actually is coming!"

This played out as I was rushing to get some groceries and head back home as another winter storm was about to hit us with around 20 cm of snow!  Yup - there is a blizzard out there as I write this.

I remembered writing a similar blog posting on gulls and was curious to see the date.  It was March 9th, 2011 and you can read it here.  It is eerily similar in that a snowstorm was about to hit then too.  

Gulls don't seem to have their schedule quite as finely tuned as Swallows (at least those in Capistrano if we believe the stories) but they are just as amazing to me.  Just like the return of Canada Geese and Red-winged Blackbirds, they are a welcome sight and sound!

Sweet-Young, Willow and The Beatles

I was browsing on the website Fine Art America and came across this wonderful painting called "And I Love Her".  You can see it here.  

The artist mentions how, when he hears The Beatles' song of that name, his late, wee tabby always comes back to him.

Well, I was moved by both his art and his words and I started to listen to The Beatles track on YouTube here.  

Suddenly my cat Willow appeared at my side and wanted to get up on my lap. She listened to the song with me.  I'd like to think that she felt the presence of Sweet-Young too.

She is the one on the right in the photo above, sharing a cat nap with Sweet-Young.

A lovely cat named "Sweet-Young"

I know it has been awhile since I made a posting.  I guess I needed some motivation. Well, a beautiful cat named "Sweet-Young" is my motivation tonight.

This sweet, gentle cat came into my life sixteen years ago and she left it four days ago.

I often told her, especially during these last months, how I fell in love with her at first sight.  A colony of homeless cats came to my attention those sixteen years ago and as I tried to help them, it became necessary to give them descriptive names and I often referred to her as the "sweet, young one".  The name stuck although I was embarrassed at the vet clinic and changed it to Tamu (which means "sweet" in Swahili).  Mind you, that was only for their files because she always remained "Sweet-Young" to me.  And she always remained sweet  - but alas, not young.

Her gentle nature was evident through all the years and through all the turmoil of bringing in homeless strays to live with us.  She often took a young one "under her wing" and became a surrogate mother.

One such kitten was a tiny black and white one that I named Darcy.  Darcy grew up to be a tall, handsome cat and he fell in love with her as hard as I did.  Although she was becoming more delicate these last few months, she never rebuffed his loving advances of face rubbing and cuddling although the look on her face betrayed her dismay on occasion and I had to intervene so as to give her some peace.

Darcy and I are both missing her terribly.