Flinging Felines

Last month, I was touring gardens in and around Buffalo, New York, with the Garden Fling.

I am always on the lookout for garden cats during these events and Buffalo did not disappoint. Here are a few of the kitties I saw along the way.

Pictured at top is Socks, who lives at Murray's Hosta Farm. He was a bit shy, but did pose nicely for this photo.

You know how when you travel, you miss your kitties at home the most. So I was grateful when this one-eyed Jack let me pet him:

This kitty was napping in the shade on a hot afternoon while his owners chatted up all the garden visitors:

There were lots of buffalos in the gardens we saw, of course, but also many flamingos and dragons as well. Not surprisingly, many gardens had cat art, cat sculptures, cat cut-outs, etc. This cat-friendly garden had cat silhouettes on back garden entrance gate:

And it wouldn't be an urban garden tour without some window cats too!

See more garden pics from the Buffalo Fling 2026 at: 

https://www.facebook.com/WashingtonGardenerMagazine/photos_albums

Cofer's Cats: Oliver and Star

 

Here are two store cats that I met back in April during the Azalea Society of America conference in Athens, Georgia. They live at Cofer's Home & Garden (https://cofers.com/). I believe the female tabby is Star and the male orange is Oliver.

In the bottom picture, Oliver is inspecting my purchases there that day. I planted this trio of strawberries in a basket and have gotten berries -- but not had the chance to eat any! The birds or some other critters are getting to them right as they ripen. My two current kitties (Kimba and Fancy) are both indoor cats, so I'm hoping a neighborhood "Oliver" comes along to protect the berries soon... 

Frannie the Urban Farm Cat

On a recent visit to the Franciscan Monastery in Washington, DC, I was able to meet Frannie, the resident garden cat and her litter of kittens (three are shown below). 

Frannie is Instagram famous. You can follow her at http://instagram.com/fmgg_farm and learn more about the monastery gardens and urban farm she patrols at http://www.fmgg.org/. She is fed and cared for by the FMGG volunteers.

I asked about the five kittens and they are all spoken for -- thank goodness as I was ready to take one home in each of my pockets that day!

He's Got Moxie!

 

Matthew Von Hendy shared this photo of his cat on LinkedIn.

He wrote, "Moxie is a loveable tuxedo getting into everything. In this case, he got into a bag of produce we had gotten at the farmer's market."

Sweet Pepper

Rich Crider, owner of Three Shovels Farm, shared this garden cat photo that he took while touring daylily gardens.

He writes, "This is Pepper in Peggy Jeffcoat’s South Carolina garden." Peggy is a daylily hybridizer and has an amazing garden, that I'm sure Pepper enjoys exploring,

Rich previously shared a cat photo with us here.

Cat and Magpie

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Karin Reber (@cinamonkairbear)

Landscape Designer Karin Reber shared some adorable photos on her Instagram feed from her recent trip to Norway of an orange cat and a magpie interacting.  See the linked post above. The yellow Norwegian poppies are beautiful as well. PS No worries, the bird was just fine.

A Shady Rest

Rich Crider, owner of Three Shovels Farm, shared this garden cat photo that he took while touring daylily gardens.

He writes, "This is Milo. Taken in David and Doris Bishop’s Shady Rest Gardens in Cartersville, GA." 

In their garden description, David and Doris write, "You may be approached by a friendly kitty wanting his/her head petted." Clearly, they are big fans of garden cats!

Milo certainly seems to be taking advantage of that shady rest!