Black Cat Deck: Jack of Fangs
July 19, 2009
The Jacks are more detailed than most of the other cards. They show cats that I know well, whose personalities express the meaning of the card particularly well. The Jack of Fangs features Flounder, a tiny black shorthair who has lived at the Hermitage Cat Shelter for several years. He was born with paralyzed hind legs, so the muscles in his hindquarters are underdeveloped and he drags his legs and tail when he walks. In contrast, his chest, neck, and front legs have grown exceptionally sturdy and muscular, and he is able to flip upside down and “stand” on his front paws and head for a few seconds at a time, just for fun. But he is most memorable for his big fluffy head and enormous round deep golden eyes that give him an owl-like stare. He is an intelligent, intense cat with a strong personality, full of power, affection, and impish humor – a “magic cat” with a larger-than-life presence. He was once a friend of Scootch, the female paralytic whose image I used for the card backs. He tested positive for the feline leukemia virus, so he lives in a special enclosure with other FeLV+ cats, though so far he has shown no signs of illness.
Jack of Fangs
In the drawing, Flounder is surrounded and aided by mysterious night-flying spirit helpers: small Saturniid silk moths whose eyed wings match his own wide-eyed, curious expression. The moths are native to southeastern Arizona but have similar relatives throught the U.S. They are Dysschema howardi (back), Agapema anona (chest), Automeris randa (tail), Sphinx cerisyi (hind foot), Schinia jaguarina (forefoot).
Here is one of my favorite Flounder photos – I think it’s beautiful because it shows the latent, springlike energy in his strong little body, but there was no way to work it into the card, since too much detail would be lost at that size.
Flounder meditating
I like them both, and especially your explanations of the cats depicted.
There’s something about that title “Jack of Fangs” that is delightful.
I love silk moths. A friend of mine in South Africa sent me a beautiful picture of one resting on her house. We identified it by asking at the “What’s That Bug” web site–it was a Giant Silk Moth in all its glory, so here’s another Black Cat card with huge meaning for me.
Plus the bonus story of Flounder. Neat-oh.
I should mention that only three are Saturniids (silk moths) – Sphinx and Schinia are in different families. I chose all of them for their eyed wings. “Giant Silk Moth” is a generic term – there are many species, all over the world, including several here in southern Arizona. The best known are probably the Luna Moths (genus Actias, several species worldwide including one in the eastern U.S.). I chose not to include the big ones because they would have overwhelmed the cat picture!
Ah yes okay. I looked up the relevant post–the “Giant Silk Moth” picture my friend sent that I asked for identification for was the “imbrasia wahlbergi”
Isn’t it gorgeous?
http://www.whatsthatbug.com/2007/05/07/saturniid-moth-from-south-africa-imbrasia-wahlbergi/
As you can see from the post, my friend misidentified it originally. Happy moth hunting everybody!
I was trying to identify a moth on a botanical postcard I own. I think at least one bug had been mislabelled in the original picture, and I’m also wondering if one of the names was an older classification that had since been changed. It became terribly confusing–if you want to have a go at this one Lorena. . . .
http://woley.wordpress.com/2009/04/28/hoppin-with-jude/
We certainly have a lot of fun with cards. As you can see I love any type of card with botanical and other scientific thingies.
(Sorry to interrupt the program but I can rarely find people to help me with proper identification. If you can solve this one I’ll blow you a kiss.)
Here’s the original engraving, and it’s Aphana submaculata (“maraculata” was obviously a misprint).
http://www.lowryjames.com/cgi-bin/lowry/2301
And leafhoppers CAN fly. I once brought a hackberry gall indoors and in a few days I had the little creatures all over my room, hopping, flying, and climbing the walls (did the same thing with a praying mantis egg case when I was little – hundreds of baby mantids all over the bubblegum pink walls and frothy white canopy bed – fortunately I got them all out before Mom saw them!)
Oh wow, you found it! Thanks so much. I shall put the correction in my post.
I think this is why I like to look things up and compare sources with actual experience if possible. If you see something fly, then it flies, that’s just the way it is.
I had an argument once with a guy who made fun of me because I kept telling him about songbird species, including grackles, that were missing from my childhood and they all of a sudden appeared when I was a teenager because DDT had been banned. He scoffed, but I know what I experienced and there were no other explanations for them being absent.
(A crow recently stole a baby grackle from a nest here–it was a terrible thing to witness and we were too late to intervene!)
Okay, back to our regular topic. I appreciate your help.
What is that nesting circular shape, like a rose, on top of the cat’s head?
It’s the moon – I wanted to make it more complex than a disc, but simple enough to recognize on the card without detracting from the cat drawing.
It looks a bit like a Charles Rennie Mackintosh rose. . . .unfolding like moth wings.