A Lion in Waiting

This photo is by Vladislav Nikonov on Unsplash. He is a photographer in Russia.
This appears to be a raspberry patch, but maybe someone else can make a positive plant identification. 

Seasons Change

On the Bored Panda web site, a community member named Magdalena Grześkowiak shared a wonderful post of her cat, Kate, through the seasons.

Magdalena wrote, "Seasons change but the cat remains the same. When you live in the city your cat looks at the outside world through the window. I decided to take Kate with me on my excursions, so she can taste what it's like to live at large. I've selected 4 photos from each season to tell the story of her adventures."

Every one of her images are stunning, but I selected two out of them to share here that are particularly evocative of the season they depict. 

Go to view the rest of the photos here. I think you will agree that this garden cat is enchanting and the photographer quite talented.

Wear Your Green for St. Gertrude!

Here is an update of one of our most popular posts:

Thank you to the Crazy Cat Ladies Community on Facebook for letting my know about Saint Gertrude of Nivelles, who is the patron saint of Cats AND Gardening. I'm Catholic, adore both cats and gardening, and had never heard of her. No lie! 

The 17th of March is her Saint's Day, which she shares with St. Patrick. "Fine weather on her feast day meant it was time to begin spring planting." This may also explain why we think of St. Patrick's Day as the traditional day for early spring crop sowing -- especially peas -- even though St. Pat has nothing to do with gardening.

She lived from 626 to 659. According to Catholics Online, "Gertrude was a mystic, gifted with visions. She befriended the Irish saints Foillian and Ultan." You can read more about her life here and here.

Let's reclaim the day for St. Gertrude and wear your green proudly in memory of her love for gardening and for cats!

Cats and Ladders

Photo by BRIGITTE SCHUSTER/CC BY-SA-NC 4.0

Apparently, the people of Bern. Switzerland, are crazy for garden cats! They have deployed hand-made cat ladders all over town and even more surprising, given the typical intractable feline nature, the cats are actually using them!

Several people have called this article to my attention since it was published last June on Atlas Obscura, so I thought it was time to share it.

IMHO, the best parts of the piece are the quotes from Dennis C. Turner, a veteran cat behaviorist, who I was not familiar with before. He maintains that: “Once an outdoor cat, always an outdoor cat.” That once a cat has known the outdoors, it is cruel to keep them always confined inside.

He also notes that cats are trainable... on their own terms. “Cats only learn when they want to learn,” Turner says. “Punishment never works with them, but positive reinforcement does.”