I guess no matter where you live there are stray cats and the angry screeching sound of two angry tomcats fighting or a cat that has run across some other nocturnal beast like a raccoon or a opossum is familiar to us all.
I’ve definitely seen a number of strays in my neighborhood a black and white and black and grey cat are the most common lurking about at the end of our dead-end street, yesterday I caught a black cat stalking a California Towhee in my backyard and chased him off and there is a skittish little grey, long-haired, fluffball I have seen in my side yard a few times.
Last night those cat fighting sounds were all too close. It sounded like a riot and it sounded like some damage was being done so I turned on the porch light and went outside. Even with the light it was too dark to see the cats but I did scare them off. And not a moment too soon. Their brawl was right in the middle of my path garden and they tore through parts of the surrounding beds and knocked over some succulents in containers that are waiting to go in the ground.
This was Calceolaria integrifolia ‘Kentish Hero’ last week…
and this is what it looked like this morning.
The one next to it is in even worse shape. All that is left is one precarious stem and I’m not sure it will bounce back.
Here are the corpses of the victims.
My sole red California poppy lost a huge chunk as well and a few other nearby plants had some leaves and branches shredded. Alas Calceolaria is a beautiful plant but it is quite brittle and for some reason even though it is in a fairly sheltered spot animals love running through it. About six weeks ago a neighbors dog raced though the garden (a large dog…foot prints were left as evidence) and snapped another one of them in half.
Still the damage could have been worse. And luckily I had just picked up some six packs of Linaria ‘Flamenco’ to fill in some empty spots so after cleaning up the area I planted them out today. Animal damage is always frustrating though. Particularly when you wait months and months for something to bloom and it gets demolished right when it is at its loveliest.
Wildlife is something we can’t really control but cats belong INDOORS! If you don’t care about the birds they hunt and kill (baby quails will be born soon!) think of the safety of the cats themselves. There are after all Coyotes living nearby.
Garden Propaganda 
It’s so sad. Reminds me of what the dogs sometimes do to some of my plants. Why does it always seem like they know what your favorite plants are?
Yeah I was so excited about these plants! Well I got to enjoy them for a week. And I have 4 more so all is not lost.
Oh no! I can completely empathize with you. The strays here love climbing our walls and use my seedling shelves to climb either up or down. I have lost numerous seedlings because of them.
Your Calceolaria are/were lovely. I hope they bounce back after this.
At least I don’t have deer! (yet)
I got tired of my cat digging in my freshly planted vegi garden so I picked up this motion sensor sprinkler! http://www.amazon.com/Contech-CRO101-Scarecrow-Activated-Sprinkler/dp/B000071NUS It kept him out of the planter boxes, but forced him to look elsewhere. Yesterday morning I noticed a recently planted Moonflower vine had been dug up… I am never getting another cat again!!
I sort of wanted a dog (someday not any time soon) but now I’m thinking it would just drive me crazy training one to stay out of the garden.
ROOT THE CUTTINGS!!!! make some more to fill in the space.
Cut back the flowers and root the stems – Many Calceolarias are easy from cuttings.
Eh. I have 4 more that weren’t hit. I have too much propagation going on right now to do any more cuttings. I filled in the spaces with a dozen Linaria reticulata ‘Flamenco’. Should look really nice. 🙂
Oh, your poor Calceolaria! I agree, cats belong inside. They’re healthier, and they live longer kept indoors. We have no stray cats here, even though we’re rural. Our coyote population is too strong, and outdoor kitties simply don’t survive very long. Certainly not long enough breed. I wonder if you could have taken cuttings from your Calceolaria? I had an Asclepias speciosa chewed up, and spat out on the ground by a curious deer. I was able to salvage the top of the plant, trim it up, dip it in rooting hormone, and now it’s growing happily in the greenhouse. Sometimes with damaged plants you’d like to try to save, it’s worth a try.
Luckily I have 4 more Calceolaria that were spared. If those get trampled by some other form of wildlife I will definitely take cuttings.
Even though I’m rooting for the coyotes, you probably wouldn’t want them in your yard, either!
We do have coyotes. When I first moved here I used to hear them yipping in the nearby field at night. I haven’t heard them for a while but one of my neighbors told me that a few years ago one of them came right up on her deck and grabbed her cat.
That royally sucks, dude. That was a gorgeous plant. Glad you have more.
Me too! Though I am almost afraid they will tempt some other wild animal to come stomp on them.
I live with all sorts of critters around: coyotes, groundhogs, voles & moles, farm cats, deer, wild turkeys, raccoons, chipmunks, red squirrels, rabbits and other stuff too. Yet the most recent enemy was drought and fierce wind which snapped clematis stems. Grrrr.
So glad to re-connect here!
‘bug
Hello Marie! Nice to see you here. Gophers, cats, and constant winds are my enemy here. Hopefully deer don’t discover the garden. I know they are around but I think most of my neighborhood is fenced off from them. Hopefully it stays that way.
I feel your pain…I’ve been replanting things dug up by our neighbors cat after it poops and then does it’s “hide it under dirt” digging. As if dinner on the patio being ruined by the smell wasn’t enough already. I would love to have the coyotes come visiting….
The cats are using the upstairs decking of my landladies unused grandma unit on my property as their litterbox. Not ideal but better there than my yard. I’ll let the coyotes know you need their help.
Use a possum trap to catch cats and take them to the cat home – we have the same problem here in Australia – cats are feral pests in some areas, eating wildlife and crapping in newly dug vegie gardens – cats can carry a disease which can cause miscarriage too. – A dog digs up garden too, so they can bury bones. – this dog is definitely my last pet. – cheers, Rose
So sorry to read about your cat problems. My experience is completely opposite, I have actively encouraged feral cats. Before the cats came the gofers and rabbits chewed up my vegetables. I finally made friends with A couple of the better hunters, I no longer have any gofers, rabbits or mice, and my neighbor is also very happy with the clean up that the cats have accomplished. I will never be without a cat… or two.
Maybe I would like the cats more if they ate some of the gophers around here. Alas they do not.
If you have a gopher problem you might try a rat trap, they look like a mouse trap except a lot bigger. Or you could build a live trap. See (http://mdc.mo.gov/discover-nature/how/woodworking/how-build-rabbit-live-trap-i) for building instructions, I built one of these when I was a kid, except I used hardware cloth on the top and back. It was great fun and I would let them go at school.
I use these little traps specifically for gophers called Macabee traps. They work pretty well. I would never use a rat or mouse trap outside for fear of accidentally catching a bird (or a skunk!). Definitely not going to use any sort of “catch it alive” trap. I want them dead and gone!
Sorry the cats wrecked your plants. Rabbits do the most damage in my garden, but neighborhood cats like to hang out and eat the birds. And the neighbors don’t seem to care when they flattened by a car. They just get new ones.
Your garden is really filling in nicely. You have a lot of beautiful plants.
Thanks! I’m pretty happy with it. There are a few little areas that didn’t work out but I am already making mental notes on what to do with those areas in the fall/winter. I’m looking forward to seeing how it all looks next year when most of the perennials will have filled in. I’m glad I did a lot of annuals for instant results.
For some reason I don’t have rabbits. Seems kind of strange because I just assumed that rabbits were everywhere. Maybe the coyotes in the area wiped them out.