Ann, one year, we made a long leisurely journey across Southern TX, then up through Louisiana, to Tennessee.
Along the way, we were interested to see any number of old gardens where the only long-surviving roses were
huge, full, floriferous mounds and hedges of R. roxburghii.
I've always liked it, but that sure increased my respect for it.
Curiously, it's not a rose we've run into in older CA locations.

Is the deaf cat white? Or white across the head and ears? Usually that sort of congenital deafness
is an expression of the piebald gene.
It's why Dalmatians in the U.S. are about 10% either uni- or bi-laterally deaf.

Our mockingbirds have been frantically busy going after a kestrel.
The kestrel shows up every year about this time, and I think nests somewhere very close to us.
He sometimes perches on our fence, as close as 5 ft. from where I can watch him, through the window.

Jeri

R. roxburgii is new for me this year. I've admired it at Sherando, and I added it to my haul the last time I was there.

I'm glad your boat is back in action.

I posted a photo of my own deaf cat in the Gallery earlier this month, without mentioning that she's deaf. We found her in a hay loft when she was about 3 weeks old, and I brought her home when we figured she was 6 weeks old -- took her as soon as we could so she wouldn't get all 'barnified'. Noticed within a week or so that she didn't seem to listen to us . . . thought it was just a kitten-thing at first. Then, one morning while I was on the computer and she was sleeping on the external modum (in the stone age), I dialed up the internet and the cat didn't flinch. Hypothesis confirmed -- cat can't hear. Amy is 12 now, and she has served as a valuable lesson for our kids as they grew up. They've learned that having a handicap doesn't really have to handicap you.

Ann, does your cat howl? Amy will go off to herself and sing at the top of her lungs. We call it opera.

Connie

Here is a link that might be useful: Amy

Ann,

I have several Rosa roxburghii in my garden. One is a couple years old in about 6 hours of early morning sun. The other two are in much more sun, but just planted this year. I've yet to see the first bloom on it. Do you think this rose needs age to bloom or more sun? The older one is about 4-5 ft tall and about 3 ft wide. I've seen a huge specimen of the single Rosa roxburghii, so I know it can get huge.

Robert

Re this particular cat, then to roses.
This is Twitchit cat, who hobbled up the hill to our solar porch, collapsed with a broken left front leg. She'd been dragging her paw so long that there was no fur left on the top of it. She could (I think) hear then. Probably not well. The leg healed in a sort of odd orientation and she now struts like a bulldog. It's that past four months that she's been more cautious as to where she sleeps and prefers to sleep with her tail over our feet. (So she can tell when we are moving?) I've been trying to teach the herd to use a second door from the kitchen; but with Twitchit, I couldn't get even an earflick as I called her. Only when my shadow crossed her did I get attention. So we'll have to learn that underfoot is by her choice and she has a reason for not responding to "Move!"

Our original roxburgii double came with the 200 year old farm house. It bloomed spring and a little in fall. It was at that time shaded by some massive silver maples. Well, (roses can smile at this) the maples have been wiped out by a tornado, by the loss of a sugar maple and by old age and the sunlight situation is much better. The original plant is still going, but now that there's more sun, it's suckering tentatively. It really did wait for more sunlight to move into new territory. One of its suckers in now down in the species garden in really crappy clay. It blooms right on cycle with its parent even though it's usually 5 degrees colder there during winter cold. I do try to improve the soil for the older one. It doesn't really show any perceptible appreciation. The one thing that was really interesting this spring was that we had a wet winter, and there was NO dieback at the ends of any stems. I had come to expect that dieback every winter, regardless of temperature. But this winter, it kept all of its growth and bloomed everywhere.'
The single form of roxburgii is a different story for me. It's down in the species bed and it hasn't bloomed yet. Stephen Scaniello tells me it takes time. It's been five years. I also have the bald hipped version of roxburghii down there and it managed a few blooms in year three. Same soil as the other one in the species bed.
I talk to them a lot down there. Right now I'm not sure the single is as close to the double roxburghii as the nomenclature suggests. And there's one genejockey paper that doesn't have them close. But the plants have different leaves and different growth styles...someday, I'll be able to compare blooms and bloom times. Right now, they are just interesting to watch.
To get bloom, I think age may trump sunlight as my slower ones are in full day sunlight except for shade just before dusk.

"Species" and "double" are of course contradictory. The double is a garden form, as opposed to the single flowers of the species (and all wild roses). A nice one seen here is R. roxburghii hirtula, with dark edges and paler centers. There's a picture of it in Phillips & Rix Roses. I had one doing well in another garden but part of it broke in some wet snow, and a tenant cut on it as well with the result that it is currently unshapely.

Helpme find says it's zone 6. I wonder about that..........You could mail one over here for testing.
Nothing exciting going on here. The rock and roll band still shows up and goes to the basement but its owner moved out. Jenny got married again. Kaylah and Jake, ringbearer and flower girl broke the record for getting to the altar. I said to them, "The music hasn't started yet. Oh, well, just stay there."
I'm still putting in the rose garden. The naturally occurring concrete busts up, little by little. It has a cement pond now and a solar powered waterfall. And an arch. It acquired an angel, a pink crabapple and two phlox. Next comes the stone path from the arch to the pond with the creeping phlox, saponaria, and thyme mingled through which will never stay weed free. We all know that.
Rosa gallica has made a sport which is bright red and thornless. It's mildly double and the jury is still out on scent and repeating. Possible parent nearby would be Zaphirine Drouhin.
I don't know how that works on sports or what happened there. It is under a bush near the gallicas.
I'm glad to hear about the boat. Thanks for a little trip to a lazy Southern day.