First Robin of Spring

The cats and I took our daily walkie to the river. Right in front of Max was a plump robin strutting in the yard. Max is still in his spring nervousness, so he missed it.
Down at the river, there is still ice on the banks and islands, with an occasional floe sliding by. 27 geese and a pair of teals were in the water. Max was stalking, trying to pretend that the male geese displays don't scare him to death. Not too much geese poop yet and little evidence of deer rutting.
There'll be days next month, when the sky is dark with the geese and the honks are deafening. After dark, the frogs will be mating, almost drowning out the geese. The groundhogs are running about in daylight now and bird songs fill the air.
It was 2 years ago, on a March day like this that I carried Max in his kittenhood down to the river. It was the end of February when he was rescued from the slammer of a cage in the Humane Society, who had rescued him in turn from an infancy of neglect and starvation. He shook all the way and when he sighted the river for the first time, he screamed. That seems to be the common cat reaction to the river, as Butchie and Sandi both screamed and shook when they first saw it and they were both full grown adults.