If you’re like me, and at work before 6 a.m., and haven’t yet had coffee, any challenge you face better be an easy one. So here’s one: a picture sent in by reader Sarah, with this note:
I took this picture 24 years ago in Malta, and it has scanned surprisingly well. I was walking along and saw this wall overgrown with a prickly pear type plant. As I looked again I saw a cat, and then another, and then another, all sitting quietly and ignoring each other. I can find four in this picture but I have a feeling there might be more.
Some of the cats aren’t too cryptic, but first find the four and then see if there are others (click the photo to enlarge). What’s strange is that cats are sitting among prickly pears, which have annoying spines that easily detach and stick in your skin.
On to coffee. . .
Cats don’t necessarily hunt for the most comfortable place. On Sunday (washing and ironing day) when the bed has been stripped, the duvet rolled up into a big fluffy lump complete with tunnels waiting to be explored and piles of ironed and unironed clothes lie around, where does the cat choose to sit? On the bag containing metal and plastic coat hangers.
In the garden we have an old Belfast sink which we found buried at a depth of about 18 inches. It contains sections of branches from the neighbours rose hedge which have grown too long and are reused to prop up plants that might need some support. We don’t remove the thorns but their presence has not deterred the cat from making this his second favourite location in the garden.
The prickly-pear widely escaped in the Mediterranean is Opuntia ficus-indica. Since it’s domesticated for food, some forms lack all spines, including the tufts of tiny glochids that detach easily. On the other hand, my cats walk through my cactus garden all the time, spines and all. I assume fur helps protect against the glochids.
I see only four cats.
I’m just getting off a 12 hr night shift…took me a bit, but I found them 😉
I see four plus a possible. Below the guy sitting alone on the bottom right, is that another cat? or a prickly pear root and my best “nun-bun” interpretation? On my phone where I can pretty much infinitely expand the image it looks like the back of a cat’s head, but looks less so on the laptop, and the “body” is pretty root like, so I may well be imagining it.
Coffee time!
Nah, no real moggies there.
It’s just felidolia.
There’re actually dozens of cats in that photo. It’s just that the overwhelming majority of them are Cheshire….
b&
🙂
There… Are… Four… Cats!
[Yes, I haven’t had my coffee yet.]
Sigh! Which is presumably why my link failed.
I’m trying this instead (but with my luck it might embed):
There… Are… Four… Cats!
Malta has a cat problem
HERE IS ROSA’S facebook
[woman with green-framed sunglasses in banner pic]
The tireless Rosa [or maybe Roza?] has been running what she calls “Cat Village” on an abandoned lot for 25 years ~ a haven for stray cats that houses over 30 cats in fancy baskets, colourful sheds & even in stuffed pandas. It’s on Spinola Road, Saint Julian very close to the Hilton and Hotel Cavalieri. How many of her lovely cats can you count in this short video?
[She’s not running a “cat farm” as the video title suggests. Also cats are neutered etc.]
I remember being moderately surprised by the number of feral cats when I had to do some work on Malta a few years ago. Looks like the climate suits them.
I see four cats as well..but then I’ve had my morning tea..
I’ve blown it up now and had a really good look, and I don’t see more than four cats. At the time I took the picture it just seemed like an awful lot of cats parked around in an unlikely place in that nonchalant way cats have.
The better to psych you out, ‘m dear.
🙂 Fun shot!
I see an evil cat below the black & white cat. One of its viper-like eye can be seen, looking directly to the camera.
I see five — four on top, one in the middle right side of the photo.
Where’s the fourth on the top?
Four cats.
Saw the one at the bottom first then the orange, then the one next to the orange jumped out and startled me. Bad kitty!
4 cats showing most of their bodies, and the 5th cat showing its face.
Luther Burbank was a major proponent of spineless prickly pears as the solution to all the world’s problems, and he was largely responsible for getting them established world wide. I have the idea that the ones in Australia reverted to type, and are in the process of helping the cats, rabbits, and cane toads take over.
I see three cats: top centre, one next to it just to the right, one a bit further to the right. There’s a possible fourth below the third cat, centre right. I’ve stared at the picture for several minutes and can’t see any others.
There are four cats. Three across the top and one, which looks like a Maine Coon, sitting below the third cat in the shadows. Can’t see any others.
Too easy.
6 cats…t
Top of the wall, l to r:
Ginger, Calico, Tabby
Under the calico:
Blackie (Roberto’s evil cat)
Under the tabby, 1/4 frame from bottom, in a hole in the wall:
Tabby with white bib (Julian)
1/6 from left, 1/5 from bottom, sticking out of hole:
White paw (rest of cat is hidden).