Black Cat Cards: Two Sevens

I finished three cards today.  I should mention that the arrangement of the suit symbols is intended to be integral to the meaning of the card.  Once the deck is done, some of the symbols will probably get rearranged to make this feature of the deck work better.  Looking at all the cards, you can also see that most of the cats have some sort of circular halo-like design around their heads, more obvious in some cards than others.  Cats are sacred and the human/domestic feline relationship is a holy Mystery.

The Seven of Fangs shows a puzzled and calculating cat circling a snake.  The snake isn’t quite realistic – it’s a pictograph decorated with feathers and coiled in the shape of the Great Serpent Mound of Ohio.  Cat and serpent are both crowned with crescent moons, suggesting a mythological encounter involving some unavoidable mutual confusion or deception.  The interlocking criss-crossed suit symbols emphasize this intense, complex interaction.  I have seen cats watching snakes, and they never seem to be sure quite what to do with the “stick that moves”.  The cat is Beluga, who has never encountered a snake (at least outside of his dreams) but is a good circle dancer.

7 of Fangs

Beluga reappears in the Seven of Paws, circling and inspecting a lunar crater, perhaps imagining nonexistent water.  For all I know, this might be one of his actual hobbies, since I’m still not sure where he “goes” during some of his trances.  In the photo he was circling the shower drain during his exploration of the house a few days after we brought him home.

7 of Paws

The Nine of Paws shows a pampered cat sitting on a cushion beside a bowl of water, attentively watching a hummingbird through a halfmoon-shaped window.  Cats and hummingbirds are both emotionally intense creatures, and both need (and appreciate) a safe, comfortable, and well-watered environment in order to thrive.  The suit symbols are arranged in the form of a bowl, suggesting abundance.  The cat is Leon, who was indeed watching hummingbirds on the porch when I took this photo.

9 of Paws

Black Cat Cards: Queen of Fangs

The Queen of Fangs carries her kitten to safety as a storm gathers overhead.  She is aware of the danger but her focus is on her responsibility, so she is able to ground her fears and draw strength and purpose from the storm, using it to drive her movement.  The kitten is relaxed and trusting, too young to understand anything but his mother’s guidance.

Queen of Fangs

Black Cat Cards: 6 of Paws, 8 of Fangs

Six of Paws

Having overcome the temporary and mostly internal obstacles presented in the Fives, we reconnect with the world in the Sixes, and gain the self-confidence necessary to meet the challenges of the Sevens.  The Six of Paws shows two cats who are obviously very comfortable with each other, drinking peacefully from the same pool of water – an image of comfort and refreshment.  The drawing was traced from a photo of Dumas and his brother Ararat eating on top of their kitty tower.  They are very closely bonded and are inseparable at mealtime.  At night they sleep together in their bed on the kitchen counter.  Even in the simple drawing, it’s possible to recognize Dumas’ sturdy, angular body and Ararat’s delicate head and short, thick tail.  I posted a drawing of them HERE that I did last winter when they still lived at the shelter.  The story of how I came to adopt them is rather involved and I am not able to write about it here.  But they are happy members of our cat family now.

Eight of Fangs

The Eights depict changes, though there is more choice and ambiguity involved than in the straightforward challenges of the Sevens.  The Eight of Fangs depicts an angry tomcat – complete with the typical thick cheeks and muscular “fighting pads” on the top of his head – and a net.  (I have left the net out of the picture above, but you can see it on the card.)  He doesn’t seem to be caught in it, and may have just shredded his way out.  Whether the snarl is an image of aggression or survival depends on your point of view.  The cat could be feral or merely frightened.  (This isn’t one of mine, since my nine boys were neutered as kittens or young cats.  Impy was two years old when we took him in and had already developed a bit of a brow ridge and some impressive shoulder muscles, but he has never snarled at anyone!)

Other than drawing cats, I’ve been doing a lot of embroidery for a long-term project (no pics until it’s done!), and a bit of metalwork, including this new Talon Knife Amulet.  The little hook on the side opposite the claw (right side of photo) is also a tiny blade and could even be ground to a sharp point.  Why do I drill holes in my knives?  Partly for looks, since the round, beveled holes add interest and counteract some of the harshness of the steel blade.  Partly for practical reasons, since they are drilled through the thickest part of the metal, and the holes (and the bevels on both sides) remove enough metal to make a difference in the weight.  And partly because they just make the knife feel good in the hand. 

Talon Knife Amulet

Black Cat Cards: Queen of Paws

I’ve updated the Black Cat Deck page with two new cards.  The pictures are shown here without numbers or suit symbols, so the details are more visible.

The Queens, naturally, will feature mother cats with their kittens.  The Queen of Paws shows a longhaired Mama cat with a single half-grown shorthair kitten.  Without the crescent moon, the picture “works” from any angle, but I added the crescent moon and the halos because the pose was so strongly reminiscent of  “Virgin and Child” icons, and a feline Black Madonna seemed appropriate for this card.  The photo from which I drew the picture showed two unrelated shorthairs.  I made the mother longhaired to make her look more different from the kitten, and to honor Maia, my first cat, a rescued stray who arrived with two newborn kittens.

Queen of Paws

Most of the drawings for the cards are taken from photos of my own cats.  The action drawings are traced directly from photos made during laserlight play sessions that usually involve half a dozen cats zooming around the living room!  We take a lot of pictures and I trace the most interesting poses to make silhouettes.  This transforms a photo of a particular pet into CAT as an archetype, and the silhouette takes on a life of its own and suggests details to complete a card image.  I’ve made several drawings this way now, and it’s given me a new appreciation for my own cats, cats in general, and the mysterious CATSOUL behind all of them.  I may post more details as a “how-to” exercise later.  For now, here’s Dumas, third-biggest of my black boys, on the Nine of Claws:

Nine of Claws

A cat strains every muscle to catch a peregrine falcon that hovers with extended claws.  Who is the attacker and who is on the defensive?  If they make contact, both will find a more serious adversary than expected, and the outcome is uncertain. 

So far, Dumas is featured on two other cards:  the Eight of Claws, with lightning bugs, and the Five of Claws, with sparring partner Leon.  Impy, second-biggest of my seven black shorthairs, is shown on the Four of Claws, enjoying in his favorite sport of blanket-wrestling.

Nature Book Review #5: A Cactus Odyssey

Fifth in an occasional series of natural history book reviews.  I choose special favorites that I own and use regularly, but they might not be readily available in your local bookstore or library.  Books reviewed here can be purchased through Amazon.com by following the links from my Southern Arizona Desert Botany homepage.

A Cactus Odyssey:  Journeys in the Wilds of Bolivia, Peru, and Argentina.  By James D. Mauseth, Roberto Kiesling, and Carlos Ostolaza.  2002, Timber Press, 306 pages, hardbound.

A Cactus Odyssey

For people who are still contemplating several weeks or months of cold, wet weather, this book is a cheerful winter reading selection.  It’s an informal, non-technical, and entertaining natural history travelogue written by three botanists who journeyed throughout South America to study cacti.  Most of the cacti and other plants in this region are poorly known, and some have been so little studied that they do not even have well-established scientific names.  This book is packed with beautiful photos of spectacular and often bizarre cacti, and is full of interesting scientific tidbits and thought-provoking speculations that will inspire any naturalist.  The authors present fascinating details about the flowers and growth habit of many species, and explore questions of habitat, distribution, and evolution.  They do not just present disconnected facts, but communicate their curiosity and deep respect for their chosen field of study and for the land through which they travel.  If you are already a cactus expert, this account will renew your appreciation for one of the most distinctive families of New World plants.  If you aren’t botanically inclined and your interest in nature is more general, this book will awaken your sense of wonder at the diversity and tenacity of life.

Ferns under the Saguaros

We spent the past two days hiking on a couple of popular trails in the Rincon Mountains near Tucson.  It’s unusual for us to hike where there is a trail at all, and even rarer that we go to the busy trailheads near town, but at this time of year, cold weather and short days limit our choices to short drives and the warmest places.  Many of the rocky canyons in the saguaro-covered lower parts of the Rincons are singing and shining with running water as the snow melts in the pine-forested highlands.  The water is not a stranger here – it completes the landscape and makes it come alive.   Even small canyons like the one pictured below, where water usually only flows when it’s actually raining, shelter the “resurrection” ferns and spikemoss that are green and growing now.

Canyon in the Rincons

I counted six species of granite-loving xerophytic ferns, including Notholaena standleyi, one of the most common “star ferns”, growing with one of my favorite desert shrubs, the medicinal Jatropha cardiophylla, also called limberbush (for its rubbery, flexible twigs) and sangre de drago (for its red sap):

Star Fern with Jatropha

 When identifying desert ferns, it’s important to look at the underside of the leaf, since many species have distinctive hair, scales, or – in this case – a coating of yellowish waxy farina on the lower surface.  Stems are extremely brittle, so great care is needed when handling the leaves so as not to break them off:

Star Fern Underside

I love the beautiful pinkish-golden powder coating.  It fades to nearly white on older leaves.  The coating is characteristic of the genus Notholaena and helps keep the leathery leaf from drying out too fast.  It also reflects the sunlight to keep the leaf from buring, since the underside is exposed when the leaves are dry and curled up.  There is a dried leaf, curled like a tiny hand (still alive, just not yet revived) in the center of the photo.

Besides fernhunting, we also greeted the saguaros, admired the lush “forest” of jojoba bushes, and pointed out five species of cholla to curious hikers.