Nico Killed by Coyote

My sweet baby Nico kitty.

My sweet little Nico was killed in the yard sometime last night. He didn't come in when I called him for bed but that's not unusual on a nice night.  He never left the yard and liked to sleep either on the back porch or under it.  I found his body about 30 feet from the back porch this morning.
The body was stiff and there was a look of terror on his little face - his teethed barred for a fight.  There were two puncture wounds on either side of this backbone on his sides and one little scratch on his head. I think a coyote's jaws grabbed him and crushed him. There was very little blood. It had all been just for sport.
I buried him in the flower bed out by the garden under the butterfly bush and put a large flat stone over the spot to mark his grave. He liked to sniff the flowers there. I will miss him terribly as he was my lap kitty who liked to snuggle and  who wanted nothing more in life than to have me pet him. He showed up in the yard during the summer of 2005, just a tiny frightened kitten,  so I judge that he was seven years old.

Venus is having a good year.

Here's a reprint from the Old Farmer's Almanac. Read the whole thing to be amazed.

Transit of Venus

The year’s celestial highlight, visible in the afternoon in the United States and Canada, is the transit of Venus across the Sun on June 5.

A transit occurs when a planet passes between the Sun and Earth, so that we can see the planet’s silhouette move across the face of the Sun. Transits of Venus are exceedingly rare. After this June, the next one won’t occur until the year 2117. (See “The Sky Is Falling!” in The 2012 Old Farmer’s Almanac, page 96.)

See our Sky Map showing the approximate path and size of Venus as it slowly makes its way across the Sun. The entire event lasts more than 6 hours.

Venus transits once made headline news around the world. Costly multinational expeditions were dispatched to observe them in the 18th and 19th centuries. No transits occurred in the 20th century, and 121½ years elapsed prior to the last one, in 2004.

Careful observation of transits allowed the first reliable determination of the distance from Earth to the Sun, and consequently of the scale of our solar system. Imagine a scientific experiment that required 243 years and several generations of dedicated astronomers to complete! There is no story quite like it in the history of science.

But here’s the rub. Under no circumstances is it safe to look directly at the Sun. See our Sky Watch page for Web sites that will show the transit live.

Venus, our nearest planetary neighbor, is certainly having the best year it will have in our lifetimes. Enjoy gazing at the “goddess of love.”

Sincerely, The Old Farmer’s Almanac

New Nest for Mom and Baby

Tonight when I went to close up the chicken house and check on the baby chick, mama hen left the stinking nest and moved to the box next door.  I noticed only three eggs left in the nest and an empty shell, so I have a suspicion that mama hatched a chick and ate it!  I hate to say that's what definitely happened but the shell was empty and I didn't see a chick anywhere.

I put the little chick that was still in the nest in with the hen and refilled its little water dish. Then I took the remaining eggs out of the stinky nest and threw one on the ground. It bounced, so I am thinking there is a viable chick in there.  I put the three remaining eggs under the Buff Orpington hen that sits and sits but never has any eggs under her. We will see if she can hatch them.

This isn't the Buff Orpington that is sitting on nothing - but one of her sisters.