Two weekends ago, I attended the annual gathering of American Pilgrims on the Camino, the US advocacy group for the Camino de Santiago, held at Mission Santa Barbara. On the way home, I decided to make a small tour of some of the other California missions. I stopped at La Purisima, San Luis Obispo, Soledad, and San Miguel. My favorite, however, was Mission San Antonio, because it had cats.
This fluffy black cat was soaking up the sun on the front porch of the mission.
These two find old gravestones to be a fine place for a rest. (There were two identical fluffy black cats. Twins?)
This tortoiseshell was shy, and thought my presence disturbed the peacefulness of the inner courtyard.
My favorite was this little calico. When I bent down to pet her, she leaped up onto my leg and then clambered onto my shoulder, purring like a diesel engine all the while. We had a nice little lovefest until it was time for me to go.
(Another guest post by Melissa. SH is not the only crazy cat lady in the family!)
Hi Melissa.
I had the pleasure to meet these heavenly beauties in January when we visited the Mission. I have a picture of 4 cats all running to greet visitors to get attention! It’s interesting how the tourists are all polite and ‘quietly friendly’ to each other until all the cats are fighting for us then everyone is instant family. The power of animals!
Chris
Oh I’ve never been to that mission church. How fun. I went to college in San Luis Obispo and love that church. So many memories…
Welcome home. :o)
We visited that very lovely mission complex a couple of years ago. I didn’t see any cats that day though. Maybe it was because it was so cold. We were there in November. The little calico reminds me of our cat from long ago called Pepper. Pepper was a sweet cat.
oops, I didn’t read far enough. Thank you Melissa for sharing all the cats!
Lovely photos, Melissa! Glad to see that you’re holding the fort for S-H with such aplomb! I particularly like the fluffy black cat in the second photo.
I have your beautiful Camino Santiago print of the cat framed now, and hung on one of my walls. I love it!
Hi,
I just bumped into this site and was fascinated by the kitty posts — being a cat lover that I am. Is this a kitty knitty bloggers’ community?