Cat Adaptation

The assignment was issued by the Gardening Gone Wild group for their Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshop at the beginning of February. This month’s topic was pets in the garden. Uh oh. We have indoor cats. How can this get turned into a semi-interesting post?

Here are the subjects, the actors of the play. Hazel the black long hair plant eater on the left, Kitty the numbingly ubiquitous named gray male door opener on the right.You may remember the movie that was made from the terrific book by Susan Orleans, The Orchid Thief, titled “Adaptation”. The person entrusted to take the story from the written word to the visual screen was unable to make that jump, so they wrote about that inability. The same idea will be tried here. Meryl Streep can play the part of the Fairegardener, but let’s keep it G rated please.

A prop was used to attempt to arouse some kind of non sleeping activity from the players, the never fail piece of styrofoam. Hazel eats this material. When packing peanuts are used in parcels of mail ordered merchandise, she will eat them like kibbles. The boxes have to be retaped to keep her out, and she will still chew at the taped edges trying to get to the tempting plastic pieces. Kitty is less easily attracted, but has lifted a cautious paw to give the illusion of playing to humor the stick wielder. Pathetic. No wonder the cats here were deemed *not cute enough* to win the bad poetry about our cats contest even though the poetry was more than dreadful. The actual quote is “Frances at Faerie Garden had strong poetry but her cats were not quite cutesey pootsey enough.” So said the judge James Alexander-Sinclair of Blogging From The Blackpitts. Sigh. Why even bother? It is no use. Maybe a good car chase, gunfight or love scene can liven things up. Strictly plantonic love, of course. Speaking of plant love, Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Arnold Promise’ is in full bloom, arousing deeply hidden stirrings of lust in the loins of Faire Diane.Who could resist this specimen of raw masculinity?This is the most exciting shot we have, kitty on the roof. Whoopee.This just won’t do at all. I am falling asleep myself at the lapto……But lo, what is this bit of cuteness, out in the veggie bed path?It is the neighbor’s cat, Rondo. AKA Ronnie Ron, so named for the bull’s eye circle on his tiger striped pelt. This is our own name for him, not the humans that feed him name. There is a matching mark on his left side.Rondo and Kitty are pals. Kitty has been known to open the door to let Rondo come inside to visit. As long as the humans are downstairs that is. Climbing the stairway to do some cleaning I happened upon the two males yucking it up while sharing some vole chasing stories. Rondo freaked and nearly broked the door down in the effort to escape. That happens sometimes when a creature is caught in the act.The truth of it is, there are no pets in the garden here. But plenty of wildlife, another topic for another month.Riding the downhill side of February brings us that much closer to spring. We realize this is not the stuff of Oscar statues, but the sun shining on the flowers and foliage are nature’s own awards.
Frances