Black Swallowtail and Feral Cats

This is likely a Black Swallowtail, Papilio polyxenes Fabricius, 1775. I caught him because the flower he frequents is right next to where I have my coffee in the mornings.



Can you tell these cats apart? Me, not so easy. There are a number of black cats in the neighborhood. All homeless. All, except one. We have had Dell-Roy Jackson fixed, vetted. . .and have tried to tame him. I put him in at night. . .and more and more I give him an hour or two inside during the day. Its a slow taming process. Dell-Roy Jackson is on the right. The cat on the left is the mirror image of Dell-Roy. More than once I've attempted to pick up the incorrect cat.



Sitting in the bird bath is one of the neighborhood feral cats that we're calling 'Helen Keller'. . . when she first arrived she had a raging infection in her left eye. Her eye is better but she is now blind in that eye as you can tell in this flash photo. She kind of talks to Dell-Roy. . .and eats his leftovers before I put him away in the evenings. I have no idea where she goes during the daytime.