Yet Another Long PostING, hope you enjoy it, if not the delete key is a
very powerful voting lever. I had lots of fun writing it.
Cats in the Garden
People always can be grouped by preference: those who sleep late and those=
who rise early; those for which coriander is a delightful spice and those
for which it is soap; those who like cats, and those who love cats. Love
cats deep-fried, saut=E9ed, grilled, fricasseed, blackened, baked, boiled,=
breaded, poached, roasted, stewed, steamed, shirred, or stuffed. Love =91em=
anyway and anywhere but in the garden. I will not say to which company I
belong, although I do enjoy picking fresh coriander as the sun rises to add=
to a succulent evening stew.
It is high summer now, the tomatoes are over five feet, branches bent under=
ripening green tomatoes, cerulean blueberries ripple in the breeze, and the=
black zucchini threatens to take over the garden, thankfully soon to be
destroyed by vine borers. There is little visible sign of the damage
remaining from this spring when I would walk my garden paths, warm coffee
in hand against the chill morning, and see the carefully planted rows of
spinach and lettuce dug up and used as litter boxes. Nonetheless, cats
have even bigger effects on the garden now then in the spring.
They are the perfect hunters and I can=92t but help admire a sleek body
hidden underneath my tiger lily foliage, waiting patiently, often betraying=
herself by quick flicks of a white tipped tail, for a bird or even a
chipmunk to careless expose itself. Then the prey becomes dinner or a
trophy to bring back to her owner. Cats, though domesticated, have never
been tamed like dogs.
Hunting is natural and good; without predators, as we have learned with
deer, populations explode resulting in disease, starvation and lingering
death. Culling the herd of dead weight or even culling CEO=92s is a great=
advantage to the general population. But there is a big difference with
house cats. In the wild, foxes eat rabbits, as more foxes are born, less
rabbits exist and, unable to find food, the fox population dips. As few
foxes hunt, the rabbit population increases so more food is available to
the baby foxes and their population increases. Such cyclic numbers have
been remarked on since history began by our keen observing ancestors.
House cats suffer no such natural constraints. They always have a bowl of=
kibble and bits to return to, a safe warm computer monitor to sleep on, and=
an owner who repairs the cuts and bruises of a chance encounter with
another breeding tomcat. They can, and do decimate populations of
chipmunks and birds and suffer no consequence of over hunting.
This is no mental masturbation. When I first moved to my house the birds=
would gather and sweep down into my garden, like the Alfred Hitchcock
movie, and rip the snow peas vines from the trellis, eat the bean shoots,
and even uproot small strawberry plants. I fought them, covering the peas=
and young shoots with floating row covers and netting the strawberries,
wining mostly and losing with accepted grace.
Then my next-door neighbor moved away and in moved two house cats. The
neutered male basically did what over the hill, overweight males always do:=
lied around and dreamt about his proud past conquests, but the mother cat
was a magnificent hunter. Her stripes blended into my lilies and my
birdbath became her abattoir. One year I was busy and did not cover my
snow peas. Low and behold, they were not touched and later I stopped
netting my strawberries.
In this way the effect of cats made my garden easier but I also noticed a
tremendous increase in the damage by insects. Birds, even seedeaters, feed=
their young massive numbers of insect, slugs, maggots and larva. Not
controlled, the slugs slimed my lettuce and bean sprouts; the floating row=
covers helped not. No longer could robins hop on my tilled soil hunting
worms and grubs; that hop became their last. The cats ate their fill and
so did the insects.
Because our neighbor cats could return nightly from a failed hunt to fill
their stomachs, they do not have to move away to pursue more fertile ground=
or fight another male for territorial hunting rights, the bird population
remains preternaturally low, the toads are extinct and the insects and
slugs have ascended to the mastery predicted by countless science fiction
B-movies. Thus my garden is different: in some ways better, some ways
worse, then B.C.; but it was markedly changed by only two house cats.
We tend to think that ecology is something outside of ourselves, something=
that lives beyond the walls of our house, something we simply observe. But=
everything we do, from watering the lawn, to planting basil or hostas, to
building a deck and feeding our cats all profoundly affect the ecosystem of=
our and our neighbors=92 yards. Remember, we are not just passive=
bystanders
but active parts of our ecology. Always garden with that in mind.
-John_Mertus@Brown.EDU
From the sands of Rhode Island
July 20, 2002
Zone: Twilight
Then there is the 80 lb lab that brought me a dead possom last week. Wha=
t
did I to do with that? I put it in three separate garbage bags and put i=
t
in the trash. Of course the bear could smell it anyway, so, so did the r=
est
of us until garbage day came. Phew!!
Anne in FL
zone 9b, sunset 26
Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all
evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still
savages. -Thomas Edison, inventor (1847-1931)
Yet Another Long PostING, hope you enjoy it, if not the delete key is a
very powerful voting lever. I had lots of fun writing it.
Cats in the Garde=
n
People always can be grouped by preference: those who sleep late and thos=
e
who rise early; those for which coriander is a delightful spice and those
for which it is soap; those who like cats, and those who love cats. Love
cats deep-fried, saut=E9ed, grilled, fricasseed, blackened, baked, boiled=
,
breaded, poached, roasted, stewed, steamed, shirred, or stuffed. Love 'e=
m
anyway and anywhere but in the garden. I will not say to which company I
belong, although I do enjoy picking fresh coriander as the sun rises to a=
dd
to a succulent evening stew.
It is high summer now, the tomatoes are over five feet, branches bent und=
er
ripening green tomatoes, cerulean blueberries ripple in the breeze, and t=
he
black zucchini threatens to take over the garden, thankfully soon to be
destroyed by vine borers. There is little visible sign of the damage
remaining from this spring when I would walk my garden paths, warm coffee
in hand against the chill morning, and see the carefully planted rows of
spinach and lettuce dug up and used as litter boxes. Nonetheless, cats
have even bigger effects on the garden now then in the spring.
They are the perfect hunters and I can't but help admire a sleek body
hidden underneath my tiger lily foliage, waiting patiently, often betrayi=
ng
herself by quick flicks of a white tipped tail, for a bird or even a
chipmunk to careless expose itself. Then the prey becomes dinner or a
trophy to bring back to her owner. Cats, though domesticated, have never
been tamed like dogs.
Hunting is natural and good; without predators, as we have learned with
deer, populations explode resulting in disease, starvation and lingering
death. Culling the herd of dead weight or even culling CEO's is a great
advantage to the general population. But there is a big difference with
house cats. In the wild, foxes eat rabbits, as more foxes are born, less
rabbits exist and, unable to find food, the fox population dips. As few
foxes hunt, the rabbit population increases so more food is available to
the baby foxes and their population increases. Such cyclic numbers have
been remarked on since history began by our keen observing ancestors.
House cats suffer no such natural constraints. They always have a bowl o=
f
kibble and bits to return to, a safe warm computer monitor to sleep on, a=
nd
an owner who repairs the cuts and bruises of a chance encounter with
another breeding tomcat. They can, and do decimate populations of
chipmunks and birds and suffer no consequence of over hunting.
This is no mental masturbation. When I first moved to my house the bird=
s
would gather and sweep down into my garden, like the Alfred Hitchcock
movie, and rip the snow peas vines from the trellis, eat the bean shoots,
and even uproot small strawberry plants. I fought them, covering the pe=
as
and young shoots with floating row covers and netting the strawberries,
wining mostly and losing with accepted grace.
Then my next-door neighbor moved away and in moved two house cats. The
neutered male basically did what over the hill, overweight males always d=
o:
lied around and dreamt about his proud past conquests, but the mother cat
was a magnificent hunter. Her stripes blended into my lilies and my
birdbath became her abattoir. One year I was busy and did not cover my
snow peas. Low and behold, they were not touched and later I stopped
netting my strawberries.
In this way the effect of cats made my garden easier but I also noticed a
tremendous increase in the damage by insects. Birds, even seedeaters, fe=
ed
their young massive numbers of insect, slugs, maggots and larva. Not
controlled, the slugs slimed my lettuce and bean sprouts; the floating ro=
w
covers helped not. No longer could robins hop on my tilled soil hunting
worms and grubs; that hop became their last. The cats ate their fill and
so did the insects.
Because our neighbor cats could return nightly from a failed hunt to fill
their stomachs, they do not have to move away to pursue more fertile grou=
nd
or fight another male for territorial hunting rights, the bird population
remains preternaturally low, the toads are extinct and the insects and
slugs have ascended to the mastery predicted by countless science fiction
B-movies. Thus my garden is different: in some ways better, some ways
worse, then B.C.; but it was markedly changed by only two house cats.
We tend to think that ecology is something outside of ourselves, somethin=
g
that lives beyond the walls of our house, something we simply observe. B=
ut
everything we do, from watering the lawn, to planting basil or hostas, to
building a deck and feeding our cats all profoundly affect the ecosystem =
of
our and our neighbors' yards. Remember, we are not just passive bystande=
rs
but active parts of our ecology. Always garden with that in mind.
-John_Mertus@Brown.EDU
From the sands of Rhode Island
July 20, 2002
Zone: Twilight
