Let Sleeping Cats Lie

A new game called Cottage Garden came out this year and I was amused to see the game includes both garden building skills and sleeping cat tokens.

According to this review, "You score by completing flower beds, six-by-six grids each strewn with a random scattering of flower pots and glass planters that must be kept visible as you place flowers and watering cans around them. The pieces are sumptuously watercolored by Andrea Boekhoff, and the art makes it a pleasure to fit everything together. Undoubtedly, though, the best part is using tokens representing sleeping cats to fill in the last few spaces just in case, as often happens, you can�t quite fit any of the shapes. More games�perhaps every single game?�should feature cat tokens."

Santa, you know this is on my Christmas list!

Georgetown Cats

A new game called Cottage Garden came out this year and I was amused to see the game includes both garden building skills and sleeping cat tokens.

According to this review, "You score by completing flower beds, six-by-six grids each strewn with a random scattering of flower pots and glass planters that must be kept visible as you place flowers and watering cans around them. The pieces are sumptuously watercolored by Andrea Boekhoff, and the art makes it a pleasure to fit everything together. Undoubtedly, though, the best part is using tokens representing sleeping cats to fill in the last few spaces just in case, as often happens, you can�t quite fit any of the shapes. More games�perhaps every single game?�should feature cat tokens."

Santa, you know this is on my Christmas list!

Gift Ideas for Garden Cats

Stumped for what to get your outdoor-loving cat for a holiday or birthday gift? Here are 5 suggestions that are sure to make your garden kitty purr-purr-purr.

1.
The catio will make your kitty the envy of the neighborhood and keep him safe and the birds too!

2.
If your kitty loves to chew on every houseplant you have, grow her this alternate -- a safe pot of fresh cat grass all her own to munch on.

3.
This safety collar is a great way to ensure your garden kitty doesn't get into danger and so any prey can her him coming.

4.
This heating pad is the purr-fect thing for that barn cat or any kitty who prefers to sleep in an unheated space.

5.

This sling pet carrier is all the rage now and is worth a try if you have a sociable feline who might like to go on errands to the garden center with you.


Finally, one bonus gift suggestion, for you -- if you have lost one of your garden kitties, this cat-angel is a wonderful way to remember them. I have one placed near the spot that my late Chantilly loved to sun herself by my water garden.

Snow in Fall

Pam Beck, a garden writer, lecturer, and photographer, shared these fun photos of her cat. He is one of 4 felines in her household.  

She wrote: His name is Yuki, which is Japanese for 'Charmed' or 'Lucky' as well as 'Snow,' perfect since we rescued him on a Friday the 13th from the middle of a bridge as a 4-week old, injured kitten. He is fully recovered and loves to follow us when we are in the garden. 

In the photo above, "The crape myrtle is 'Townhouse', one of the lovely cinnamon colored bark crape from the JC Raulston Arboretum. It is a white-flowered form. The bees seem to make the entire tree hum and the petals fall as summer snow. Love it. The green grass-like plant is the winter foliage of Hurricane lilies or red Spider lilies (Lycoris radiata)."

Karl's Cats

Karl Gercens is a horticulturist and garden lecturer, who works at Longwood Gardens. He does a great deal of garden traveling and takes terrific photos. Here are a few of his shots of cats in gardens that he shared with us.

"The playfull garden kitty was Helen Bodian�s garden in (I think New York.) Her garden was open for the garden conservancy open days and the kitty was greeting every visitor that walked through the garden."



This kitten hugging a Carex was at the JC Raulston Arboretum in North Carolina:



This orange kitty yawning was at the botanical garden in Madeira, Portugal:



This colorful cat was at the Gibbs Garden outside of Atlanta, GA:

Gray Ghost

Both of these photos are by Marko Bla�evic on Unsplash. No other information is available about this photographer or this cat, but the photos were likely taken in Croatia near Zagreb and the handsome cat is obviously a skilled hunter. 

Ejected from the Window Seat

Sharon Gentry Beasley, the garden columnist for Newcastle Pacer weekly newspaper in Newcastle, OK, shared these pictures of her fluffy boy-cat, Pearly. 

She writes,"This is the bay window in the sunroom (where the computer is) and it is full since I started bringing plants indoors. Pearly-cat likes his perching place near the plants."

 "Pearly was one of 5 kittens brought to us by a stray calico momma cat about 16 years ago. Pearly looks like a high-dollar cat with beautiful blue eyes, long hair, and his paw markings match with the opposite foot. He was the "pearl" of the 5 kittens. The others were short-haired; 3 were black and 1 was yellow. Pearly also had a white area on one side of the mouth which reminded me of a pearl by his mouth. I had hoped he was a female cat and named him Pearl before the vet said he was a male. I decided to keep his girly name anyway. I don't remember how the "boy named Sue" turned out, but Pearl turned out fine with the girly name. No one has bullied him. He didn't use to be very vocal, but the last couple of years he lets me know he wants that food faster in his bowl. He is a bit of a chunky boy so I try to limit his food. He has become kind of a sneaky-naughty cat to the other remaining cat, Rascal, who used to be top cat, but Pearly slowly is trying to take over the position. So far, he has no known health problems, but he does seem to be getting a bit deaf in the last year. He is very lovable."

Pearly close-up

 a rare moment when the two cats act like they are friends