no subject

[firecat]

B and I went to the Strybing Arboretum at Golden Gate Park. We walked around for about half an hour. The sprinklers were going and we made a game out of dodging them. We sat for a while on a bench in the "South Africa" garden, which featured trees with long silvery-gray-green leaves. They are, unsurprisingly, called silver trees. (They are a member of the protea family. I love those weird prehistoric-looking protea flowers.) We saw a quail run across the path near there. We also spent some time in the Moon Viewing Garden watching red dragonflies courting each other.

We had lunch at a "refreshingly unpretentious" restaurant on 9th Avenue called "Park Chow."

On the way home, I stopped at the Holly Street Pet Hospital to pick up some prescription low protein food for Selkie. As I entered I saw a large plexiglass enclosure with a cat condo in it. There was a gray cat in there. When the cat saw me he jumped up, all excited, and plastered itself against the glass on my side. I tapped on the glass against his belly. As I was getting my stuff, a boy around 9 years old came in and said "I can unlock the cage if you want to see the cat." I said I'd like that. I played with the cat for a few minutes and talked to the boy, who turned out to be the son of the owners. The cat was up for adoption. The pet hospital also boards animals. The boy said that some people come in and leave an animal and never come back for it. The cat was a male, large and soft, attention starved and rambunctious. He kept stalking my hand.