Sunshine on Her Shoulders

The new apartment doesn’t have the views that the house did. I enjoyed eating breakfast on weekends with the rising sun coming in through the dining room window. Certainly the cats liked the sun. But even in the house, sunshine didn’t always fall where we would have preferred. In the winter, the sun travels south, like the geese. Its low course near the horizon in December gives one a clear indication of why the sun vanishes all together in the winters of some Hyperborean latitudes.

With the exception of the kitchen window, which the cats cannot reach, all our windows now face west. In the summer, that will provide a blazing heat in the evening that may require some countering on my part. But for now, the sunlight is desired, and slowly, day by day, it is moving north. Later in the afternoon, subsequent to its trip through half the sky, but before the neighbouring buildings blot it out, the sun’s rays manage to flow into the sitting room.

Josie has always fancied the sun. She never lies in it enough for me to worry about the consequences of direct sunlight on a white cat, but she enjoys the warmth. This past weekend was a mild one in southern Alberta, and the sky, though it was cloudy now and then, even overcast, permitted some of the time to be called fair. My Chubs took advantage of it.

The Great White is looking forward to spring, and will no doubt spend much of her time at the open windows. And come summer, I will find her like this, for sunshine on her shoulders makes her happy.