Happy Easter!

 
Keep cats away from Easter Lilies and other Asiatic Lilies as cats can suffer acute kidney failure within a very short period of time from just a licking a few pollen grains off their fur.
 
See more about Lilies and Cats at:
http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm393028.htm
 
Read more about Cat-Friendly Gardening here:
http://catsingardens.blogspot.com/2015/10/gardenig-is-more-fun-with-cats.html

Here is a List of SAFE Plants for Cats:
http://catsingardens.blogspot.com/2015/11/nontoxic-plants-for-cats.html

Photo Source: FDA 
(This is an updated blog post from Spring 2014)

Boo Boo Kitty

Malus 'Royal Raindrops' and Boo Boo

Robert Selman of Blue Ridge Daylilies in Alexander, NC, shared this beautiful kitty:

"Boo Boo is about 10 years old. She came from a family of  'barn cats' that all looked exactly like her. She used to get into a lot of trouble when she was younger. She has no fear. She once was attacked by a raccoon or other wild animal and was missing in action for almost a week. After she recovered from that, she fell from a tree and broke her leg, which cost a fortune in vet bills. She looked like the bionic kitty for months. She's a one-person-kitty and I'm her person. Now that she's getting older, she seems to stay out of trouble for the most part and mostly loves to follow me around the garden. She licks my face to get me up in the morning if she's ready to go outside to explore. I wouldn't trade her for anything!"

Salix caprea 'Pendula' and Boo Boo

Toasty Warm Feline

Sarah the Gardener of Sarahthegardener.com shared this sweet kitty:  

"Toast the Cat is a sweet wee thing.  We chose her from the SPCA, here in New Zealand when she was 8 weeks old way back in 2002.  So that makes her 14, which is quite a good innings for a cat.  We named her Toast because when she was a cute little kitten the stripes down her side were quite pronounced it resembled grill marks on a slice of bread."

"She started out life as a city cat and we had to put our phone number on her collar as she was fond of getting into cars and being driven away.  Maybe back then she had a yearning to escape to the country.   Finally, in 2007, she got her wish and we moved to the country and she has flourished out here. "

"She loves being in the garden and when I�m working there she is not too far away.  She loves to rest in the shade of whatever is growing over the edge of the beds in the summer and in the winter she can often be found curled up in the warmth of the greenhouse.  We even made a small garden bed for her with her favorite cat nip.  She loves that bed. " 

"She also loves being a bit of a star and whenever I�m making my YouTube cideos she is never far away and always trying to get into the shot. "

"She has such a sweet nature and loves cuddles and is always waiting in the driveway for us to come home � even if we�ve only been gone an hour." 

A Warm Batch of Cookies

Zweetie Zuzie shared these adorable kitten photos. She wrote, "In the fall of 2012, one small calico cat was hanging around my house  I fed her and called her "Cookie" and, after that, this was her home. In winter, she lived in my garage. It was very cold (about minus 30c) and I made a bed for her with an electric heat pad and heated bowl."

"Then in the spring (about May 2013),  she gave me four kittens.  They are good helpers in the garden. She taught the babies how to catch the mice."

 

"But I was heart-broken late that summer when someone came and stolen all the babies. (I have a security camera, but at night-time it is impossible to ID who it is.) I was very sorry for Cookie, the mother as morning and evening she waited for her babies at our front step and cried to tell the babies it was food time  ... It makes me tear-up .. every time when I look at pictures."

You can view more cat photos from Zweetie Zuzie at her Picasa album here: https://picasaweb.google.com/104154037305555726266 or at her Google+ page here: https://plus.google.com/+ZweetieZuzieAngel/about.

Back-in-the-day with Behnke Cats

Stephanie Fleming of Behnke Nurseries in Beltsville, MD, shared these vintage photos of cats at her family-owned garden center. She wrote, "All of these were with Albert and Rose Behnke's children on the Beltsville, MD, property. Most of where they are standing is around is where the garden shop is located today"

If any of you know the Route 1 area near the University of Maryland, you will be amazed at the changes and development happening there now. These cats and kids speak to a simpler time.

Calico Corner

Brenda Haas writes, "These are images from my sweet Calico Betty's baby album! She's been a member of our family since 2004."

She previously shared her kitty, Kink, with us here.

Brenda Haas is a gardener, blogger, photographer, and the founder and administrator of #gardenchat on Twitter. She can be found at http://bggarden.com/.

Home on the Range

John Liz Dodson of Boise, Idaho, wrote:

"Homer was about 18 years old when he died. He was in fact a stray. We had just lost our sweet cat Phoebe to diabetes. We were heart broken. On July 4th, after fun with friends, we were laying in bed and heard this loud, but young, meow. It went on and on and Liz finally got out of bed and went out to find this tiny little kitten in the middle of the street. She scooped him up, fed him, and then put him outside in the backyard hoping he would go back home. The next morning when we got up we opened the back door, no kitty. Good, we were both still pretty traumatized by the death of Phoebe. But as Liz went to close the door the sweet little kitty crawled out from the shelf of the BBQ. At that moment we knew he was home and so did he."

"Our neighbor who had goats, pigs, dogs and chickens told us that Homer guarded all his animals. He would stroll through his yard like he owned it! First time we ever had a male cat. He was so smart and sweet. When I would be out digging in the garden, Homer always insisted on getting in the hole to help!"

"One thing that stands out was he was a hunter and when he caught a mouse he would bring it home, but he would eat the whole thing except for the liver. Somehow he ate around the liver. So we would find these little mouse livers around the garage and patio. And, Homer loved our friend Mary Ann Newcomer's dog, Lily. Homer followed Lily around our yard and would rub his head on Lily like cats do when you are filling the bowl of food! It was amazing"