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Friday, 13 September 2013

Rogue Potatoes and feral cats

I'm still working on the greenhouse veg beds at the moment, who knew they'd take so long! It's not actually the mess that is holding things up though it's more that I don't seem to have the time to get much done round there over the last few days. I'm not worried though, it's not getting me down as it once would have done (just last week actually lol), I know the work will get done and as I'm covering the beds as they're cleared I know I won't have to repeat the weeding any time soon - yay!
During the last lot of weeding there I dug up 2 Potato plants that must have grown from a rogue Potato I left behind - the surprise is that I haven't grown Potatoes in these beds for 3 years now, just goes to show what nature is capable of.
It's hardly a fantastic crop BUT it's an unexpected crop and further more it's given me the desire to grow them again next year in the hope that blight won't affect them as it has done so many times before

My unexpected but welcome crop of Potatoes!

I'm now going to introduce you to a cat! I know a cat has nothing to do with gardening but this cat is quite unusual because it isn't wasn't our cat due to the fact that he/she is was feral.
This is Felix (named by my daughter due to looking like the cat food ad Felix), he (we assume) arrived here about 4 years ago. When I say "arrived" I mean he simply turned up and decided to sleep in Mr TG's shed. We tried everything we could to entice the cat or catch it because we worried he was someones lost pet but everytime we approached him he ran off. Over the space of 3 years we'd see him around the shed eating and sleeping (we suspect we feed many feral cats) but then he'd be gone again, this cat would not let a human near it.
Then one day this feral cat actually stayed within 10ft of Mr TG while he prepared the cats food (all cats are fed outside in the shed) and over the next few days he would actually approach the bowl as Mr TG put the meat in it, eventually Felix was eating the meat out of Mr TG's hand. Felix still would not let you touch or stroke him though, attempt to do it and he'd run and not come back.
This year we realised that Felix has not actually disappeared at all, it seems he has decided this is where he wants to stay and one day early in the morning Mr TG left the kitchen door open while he fed the other cats milk inside (he's not supposed to do that but it's become a daily ritual) and surprise surprise in walked Felix. He may have drank the milk and legged it but that was just the start of his beginning to trust us and now he comes in every day for his milk and lets Mr TG stroke him. Felix has been getting friendlier by the day but he soon reminded us of his feral ways when we tried to pick him up to treat what looked like a very infected leg - he literally went mad and scratched Mr TG to pieces then ran off. The leg looked so bad that Mr TG did then try to catch Felix with a towel (at my coersion I admit) but that just resulted in a ridiculous comedy sketch of Mr TG running around flapping a towel unable to catch a limping Felix. We didn't see Felix for 2 days after that but when he did come back he was right as rain, his leg perfect and I suspect he hadn't actually gone further than hiding out in the shed.
We now have an understanding with Felix, he is happy to be around us, loves to be stroked (though until recently only by Mr TG) and comes in every day for milk BUT if you move when he's around he runs off, if you call him he runs off - everything has to be on his terms. This is fine by us, he's a great cat and we love having him around but this means we cannot worm him or treat him, we tried wormer in his food and he refused to eat it!
Anyway the last time I was weeding the veg beds I was surprised to see that Felix had followed me round there so I sat down just to see what he would do - well, he came straight over and was rubbing his head all over me. This is a complete first for Felix, he's never been so friendly with me, in fact I was sitting stroking him for a good 30 minutes before I had to break the spell by standing up, at which point he ran off. But I just had to share Felix' story with you


We had to pop to Inverness yesterday although when I say "pop" it's actually a 2 hour drive there and 2 hours back but I love the chance to soak up our scenery here and of course nosey in other peoples gardens as we go by



4 comments:

  1. Awwwww....what a wonderful heartwarming story, I loved it and Felix, what a gorgeous cat. How lovely of you to feed the ferals. I'm so glad Felix's leg got better. My stray was like Felix, it's taken years to be able to pick her/him up and pop a flea treatment on. Repsect to hubs for attempting to catch a feral cat!

    Lovely to hear you have spuds unexpectedly.xxxx

    Love

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  2. Ooh, little cat, so sweet! Makes me wonder where he came from and what makes him so cautious. Lovely to have a bit of company in the garden - I'm used to seeing foxes when there's no-one else around. Trouble is, they stick around at night and create mayhem in the veg beds! Love the bonus spud haul, brilliant that you've decided to give them another go next year, you're sounding very positive about everything!!

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  3. What a cute cat...and what a surprise to get all those potatoes...I have to still clean up veg beds but they are still producing. Soon though they will be finished.

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  4. Loved to hear the story of Felix. I've found that feral cats love to be loved, when they finally lose their fear. And I'm impressed with your potatoes! A nice haul!

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