Caption This

Photo by Tomas Tuma of Brno, Czechia on Unsplash

Garden Professors Post Boosts Garden Cats

Screen capture of the Garden Professors Facebook Page - Garden Cat Thread

Recently, on the Garden Professors Facebook page, page admin Linda Chalker-Scott  posted about garden cats. She said, "This is an interesting article about people's attitudes about their cats. While cats and gardens don't seem related, cats do have an impact on beneficial garden wildlife, including pollinating insects and songbirds. When you read this article you'll find the 5 categories of cat owners based on their tolerance of their animals being allowed to roam outside. Which one are you? (For the record, I am a "Concerned Protector." We let our cats outdoors under supervision. They can be trained to learn boundaries when the result of not staying within boundaries means going back inside while we are outside.) Feel free to add a photo of your kitty in the garden if you are so inclined. This is Boo, who has claimed the lounge chair as her domain when we are outside. She watches squirrels and birds but does not try to go after them (after negative reinforcement training as mentioned above.) No judgmental comments allowed here! I just found the article really interesting."

Surprisingly, the conversation stayed mostly sane and civil. Many posts were positive and folks shared their garden cat stories and photos. Then, a few negative comments crept in the thread. Comments are now turned off, but you should scroll through to see the many wonderful garden cat images and varied attitudes from their owners. 

Stripes - Part 2

Jamie Moore of Frederick County, MD, previously shared a photo of her cat Stripes with us here and we couldn't resist adding these two additional images to our blog posts as he is just so photogenic. 

 

She writes, "This is Stripes in his garden, making sure everything is in order on his morning patrol."

You can find more photography by Jamie at her Instagram address: @reverieinblue.

The photo below is captioned: "This is my garden, hear me roar!"

Jamie notes that it was actually a yawn...

Deck Dwellers

 

KC from DC shared this photo of stay cats napping on her deck garden. And yes, I said "cats" plural - there is a black cat in this photo, but you have to look really close to see it. (A close-up of the black cat is posted below.) 

KC writes, "I think there is a stray circuit in our general area. We have some regulars and some mornings we have newbies and infrequents that show up. Blondie, the bright one in the photos, is a relative newbie. The black one is a sibling of the kittens born on our deck year before last." She took this through her screen door, which is about how close she normally gets to these feral felines.