Snowcat

Mrrrr Friends,

Some of you have asked, "what precisely is a Snowcat?"  I can only tell you what my mom told us kittens, and what is commonly accepted wisdom among cats in the Baraboo Hills of Wisconsin.

Snowcats are built for snow. We're extra furry all over (though still short-haired) and especially between our toe pads. We tend to be kind of compact and muscular, not long and lanky. But most of all, we love snow: we love the feel of ice on our pads, we like digging and playing in it. Indeed, many of us like water just fine too.

And what, in practice, that adds up to is this:

Snowcats float on snow. (That's the site near where I was buried the other day.)

These two pictures were taken in the middle of another 4 - 6" day putting our snow total for the last week up to about two feet. The snow had been wet, and hard going early in the week but after more snow, melty day time, then icy night time, pack started forming.

Now don't get me wrong...you aren't just born a Snowcat and you go out and float! Snowcats like me gotta use our physical attributes wisely. Here I am demonstrating a low walk.

I can be floating along and, all the sudden, a paw pops down through snow a bit so I go into low walk (not to be confused with the slow walk which is another thing entirely). Notice my leading paw, the careful placement, and the broad pad spread. The Snowcat pad spread in snow is the hallmark of our family. Here's another image where you can also see the role of the claws in establishing gentle but firm placement on the snow surface.

See the breadth of the pads in even a good pack situation? (These are hard to capture because any Snowcat worth his or her whiskers puts their back feet right in their front foot print when they walk in snow.)

Snowcat.

Avalanche!

Mrrrrr Friends,

The snow is even deeper today. It has not let up at any point though it got suspiciously wet in the mid-afternoon. We're guessing 14" at least, and I'm willing to swear on my kibble tin that it's more like 18".

I don't have many pictures for you today because there was an incident.

We went out in the morning after coffee and waking up the aluminum cat. The snow was decidedly deeper and still lacking pack - tough going even for a purebred Wisconsin Snowcat. I kept falling in holes and climbing out. Finally I hitched a ride on Oom's shoulder's. We visited the wetland where the following incident took place.

Did you get the hint? We didn't.

Large amounts of wet snow had been collecting on tree branches and, with a slight breeze this morning, was sliding off the branches with loud thuds. We saw a whopper release off the big white pine on the other side of my brook...big sloppy plop into the water!

After this lightweight incident with an ash tree dump, as we headed back in, we stopped to admire some tracks under my friend the big white pine. The next thing I knew there was a sliding and whomping sound and the world went kind of light and dark all at the same time.

The cat was buried! The pine tree threw a big old snow wad all over me and Oom. She didn't get buried, but I could tell from the cursing and swearing that the camera might be more in my situation.

It's a natural snowcat defense to lift the tail flag-like in a drift so folks know where you are....I think my tail was sticking out of the heap of fluffy stuff.

Like a sherpa, Oom dug me out...it didn't take much really. (The camera had one more shot in it.)

Actually, it was kind of fun.

I wonder what will happen tomorrow? It's been snowing all day!

Perfect Winter Day

Mrrrrr Friends,

It was getting bleak out here.

But I had hope. And that hope was rewarded this morning with a big flaking, wet, wonderful snow! It was weighing down many of the tree branches and was coming down in big lopsided flakes when we first got up in the morning.

I declared it a snow day and made plans to keep Oom out all day. 

She lagged behind a bit. It was a little annoying.

But we went down to my brook. We found some interesting tracks there...mink?

They had been snowed on a lot so the picture wasn't good...but here's the brook all snowy.

I frolicked a bit. I was gonna climb that ash tree but then a big plop of snow came down on me!

The view of the house from our wetland was very nice too.

By this point we'd been out a cat's age and I was wet from my ears to my tail...and I had snow burrs all over my tummy. The snow was right up at that height and since it was so wet, it stuck! It was time to grab a snowshoe and get a ride.

It was one of those rare days when I was ready to go in when Oom was.

We snuck out later to try to make a snow cat...but it looks more like a snow lemur. I was trying to get Alex to sit in the window and pose, but she was having nothing to do with it. We need to work on this.

Terd of Hurkeys

Mrrrrr Friends,

I've just finished marking every object in every corner of the yard.

Sorry I haven't been able to blog, but it's a big yard. Except for eating and sleeping, I had to make it clear to Orange Cat who's who and what's what! Do you get my meaning?

The campaign, you will be relieved to know, has been successful: there have been no recent sightings.

But as is often true, you get one thing done and something else comes along! We had a whole new kind of intruder the other day...a herd of turkeys! Unfortunately, I was sleeping pretty sound the night before, so I didn't see them. I found these tracks as I walked down to the brook.

All I had to do is get up on Oom's shoulders and I could see this wasn't just a turkey or two strolling through the yard but a turkey-thon.

They came up from the brook...those are all turkey tracks!

Even a turkey can slip on ice!

And several fanned out every which way into every part of the yard.

They're bigger than me...but they are birds. I wonder what it would be like to meet a turkey?

As you can see the snow is almost gone, the brook is running almost free of ice. We've seen a Rough-legged Hawk looking pensive in the wind, a striped skunk looking for a mate, I'm beginning to shed a bit, and the Chickadees are definitely territorial.

Everyone is thinking spring but I'm wondering if we'll get another blast?

Territory

Mrrrr Friends,

I've been obsessed of late about my territory. I have not had time to blog.

Five days ago, at 10:32 am EST human time, there was a large, stripey, male orange cat in the north-northwest quadrant of my yard. He wasn't just in my yard, he was swaggering in my yard.

This is not one of my near neighbor cats. Brewster, Ubu, and I have worked out territory sharing agreements. This cat is a stranger. He lives across the street, quatre-corner (that's kitty-corner to you).

He was walking in my grass and rubbing against my trees, scenting them. Normally, I am not too territorial, but, from what the Hairy Woodpeckers and the Blue Jays are telling me, it's pairing up time and territory delineation is right around the corner. This Orange guy was in my yard, and I'm just not feeling like myself. I'm feeling downright feral.

He was touching grass that my female cat pal Alex might touch. He has not asked permission. If Alex's person catches him, we'll have all-out war on our paws.

On top of it, Oom thinks he is a "good looking guy." Harumpfffmmmmrrrr. I've had to spend an extensive amount of time on window sills watching for him. When I go out, I must re-scent everything he has touched.

I've written much here about the cat community and our non-competition claws, but this guy is just breaking so many agreements. I guess spring is coming...

Sorry, gotta go check the windows now.

Birder Cat

Marmot Controversy

Mrrrr Friends,

Given my spiritual kinship with marmots, I've been asked to weigh in on the Punxsutawney Phil controversy. You've read perhaps that PETA thinks it's time to retire Phil and replace him with a weather robot. Mmmreally.

They argue that even though Phil has it good, he isn't meant to live in captivity...he's a shy, wild creature that wants to be hibernating on schedule, not hanging out in a library to be rolled out once a year and manhandled for the media.  Groundhog Day traditionalists counter that Phil lives the life of a king and that life isn't that great in the wild for a marmot these days.

Should a marmot be a "pet"? I'm not sure any animal should be a pet. We're individuals, for goodness sake. "Pet" implies commodity and, somehow, disposability to my mind. Maybe it's just that I've seen what some people do to their pets...takes me back to my youth looking out for some fellow kittens left in a house in Wisconsin. We made it. I know most humans have deep ties to and responsible relationships with animals they call pets, but I've never been fond of the term. Word hockey aside, the point is that marmots are wild. They still have a role in our ecosystem, unlike Felis catus.

Can a marmot live in captivity with regular exposure to humans and be content? Likely, some can. Individual animals might be quite capable of adapting to such a lifestyle. And it's true, it looks like Phil is loved and well-cared for. He may be content.

But I gotta admit, every year, some humans whip out Phil, or one of his captive marmot cousins, and manhandle him a little as they parade around making their point about winter...it makes me shiver.

It seems to me that with all the cool camera and video equipment out there, some creative scientists should be able to scope out a wild marmot hole, plant a camera with a motion detector and, with minimal disruption, wait until the marmot makes a real prediction about the weather. Or maybe, you've got some marmots in a zoo somewhere - maybe even marmots that needed to be rehabilitated and were kept in captivity because they wouldn't survive in the wild - that you could set up a marmot-cam on?

Have you spent time watching a marmot? Here's a little clip from my friends at National Geographic who prove marmot-cams can work.

I'm sure you humans are about as good as predicting the weather by now as most marmots. I'm sure there are marmots out there smarter than most of you, when it comes to weather, but, in any given year, the marmot currently known as Phil might not be that weather-savvy.

A robot is not a marmot, PETA. Marmots are furry, very good at paw hockey,  and irreplaceable. But your hearts and minds are in the right place on this one.

Now, if any of these folks had any sense, they'd ask me to predict winter based on my coat depth and shed time. That's what I call science.