Alison's Menagerie

Alison Levey (@papaver on Twitter) shared this photo and commented:"his gingerness has found his place on his favourite bench in the garden." And what a beautiful bench it is!
   You can find Alison's garden blog at https://www.blackberrygarden.co.uk/ and here are some recent garden cat shares from her Twitter feed.

"When you put netting over a raised bed to keep the cats off it - thanks Trev."

"The greenhouse is this warm using the ‘Flossy is happy’ scale."

"An Esme in the snowdrops moment."

The Orange and The Gray

Tom Hammond and Mark Holler of Ginkgo Gardens in Washington, DC, shared this story about their late garden center store cat, Ginkgo:

"Tuesday (gray) and Ginkgo (orange) joined us way back in 2000, when Tuesday, his mother, gave birth to a litter of 5 in the store. Believe it or not, Ginkgo was the runt of the litter. (All the other kittens went to Capitol Hill homes.) He was so small, in fact, that no one would take him. So here we are with the runt of the litter, he was one of the largest cats in the District. 

"Ginkgo spent most of his time lying in the cardboard box on the front counter, or as we call it, the Casa del Gato. If you have been in the store before and seem to remember a huge orange mass next to the cash register, it is actually a real cat (people are surprised by that sometimes). Tuesday spent a fair amount of her time exploring Capitol Hill, and most likely finding other families to spend her afternoons with. Mark recalls a story when there was a large snow storm and one of the employees found Tuesday trotting through over 3 feet of snow!

"Tuesday and Ginkgo greeted customers for over 18 years. They were sweet, loving animals and the nicest cats we’ve ever known.

"Tuesday passed away several years ago, and most recently we lost Ginkgo to old age in January 2019. The cats were our dear friends and we miss them greatly. We look forward to meeting the next kitty that decides to have Ginkgo Gardens as their new home soon."

Mossin' About

Mossin' Annie, author of "The Magical World of Moss Gardening," and owner of Mountain Moss Enterprises, shared this photo of "BunBun, boy kitty, taking a stroll in my moss garden in Pisgah Forest, NC, US. "

Annie said, "Having mainly been a dog lover, after serving as a cat grandmother, I am now quite attached to BunBun, my official mossin' kitty. For the first five years of his life, he lived indoors and his paws never touched real ground. However, once he came to live with me in the WNC mountains, he is enjoying exploring the outdoors. BunBun is such a chill kitty... in the old days, we would've called him copasetic. When he is not strolling around, BunBun hangs out with me while I'm weeding in my moss garden."

You've Got Cat-Mail

Sally Meitz of  Munith, Michigan, shared this photo. She said, "This is my neighbor’s cat. We don’t know her name, but we call her Lily. My neighbor is elderly and living with her daughter a few blocks away, and it falls to the daughter to come over and care for her mother’s four cats. When the weather was warm they spent much of their time in my yard, but now that it’s cold out, fortunately they are indoors most of the time. Lily is very vocal and very affectionate."

Oh Mama!

Shannon Ball of  Pensacola, Florida, shared this photo and story:

"Mama cat is a feral cat that has hung around our house for years. I managed to trap her. (I do the TNR for the feral cats around here.) When I released her back into the wild, I did not see her for approximately 6 months.  Then one day, I looked out of my kitchen window to see two birds bomb diving a cat. It was Mama cat. I went outside to see her, but her foot had been severely severed in one place and she was limping. I tried to catch her to bring her to the vet, but to no avail. All I could do was sit out water and food for her. This I did through the winter, and come spring she was hanging around on a daily basis. She still walks with a limp, but she now makes our front yard her home.  She does not like to be petted, but will come around so I can talk to her and she enjoys hanging around all our plants and in the summer the occasional cool bird bath.  I do not fill this bird bath, because I feed all the birds in our backyard with the dogs, and feed all animals that come from the woods in the front of our yard. She enjoys laying in the bath in the middle of summer with our Florida heat to cool herself." 

How to Submit YOUR Garden Cat Photos/Stories

Being enchanted by both cats and gardens, I decided to start this blog for fun to combine the beauty of both. I know that many of you share my interest in and I hope you will submit your own images of your garden cats.

Here is how to submit your image:
- Email to KathyJentz (at) gmail (dot) com
- Put "Cats in Gardens" in the subject line
- Attach your image(s)
- In the body of the email include:
  ~ your name or you can choose to be "anonymous"
  ~ the cat's name (if known)
  ~ where the photo was taken (city, state, country)
  ~ if you have a blog or web site you would like to be linked back to
  ~ a note about the cat or the garden or both, we love to hear your stories!

Top Garden Cat Blog Posts of 2018

Looking back at 2018, we had a few posts that performed heads and whiskers above the others. Who says black cats are unlucky? They are clearly the most popular among garden cats fans! Here are the top posts in reverse order:

3. The Allotment Cat

Robert the Allotment Cat is a cat living on an allotment site (community garden) in Birmingham UK. He is doing a great job trying to teach us humans about cat ways.

2. Wonk Cats

These kitties making a home at DC's Armerican University are a hit with the college students and cat lovers everywhere.

1. And the Black Belt goes to... Farm Ninja

Bethany Karn shared these photos of Jack, the Flower Farm cat at M and M Plants in Dickerson, MD. Jack (pictured at top) is the perfect garden cat companion - full of abundant energy, but he also know when to stop and smell the posies.

Honorable Mentions:

- Sunset Kitty is a legend in my neighborhood and is gaining a following outside the area.
- Little Wizard has an irresistible kitten face that makes you want to squeeee.
- Warning: Pemethrin and Cats was an important notice that was spread far and wide.

What were your favorite Cats in Gardens posts of 2018?

#gardencats