09 Winter - Bert

After more than a year, I finally broke down this last winter and started feeding the feral cat living in the trees over our hot tub.

Phil named her Bert, short for Roberta, since that sounds like the name of a street-smart, tough girl.

I suspect she's eliminated the pocket gopher population in our backyard, as the few remaining gladioli have flourished this year, while in past springs, they steadily vanished one by one from below ground.

This photograph shows Bert hard at work the first afternoon I fed her. I told Phil the caption should read: "Garden patrol makes me sleepy," while he more aptly suggested, "Smooshed iris are cute."