A Garden Cat Named Basil

Deberah and I had talked about how we needed a garden cat to keep the critters out of the garden. Another solution to our critter problem, besides using cages, especially since we had something eating watermelons, as well as, tomatoes. So last Sunday, she called and let me know some of her friends had free kittens to give away. Well as you can see finding a cat is history, now its just growing this itsy, bitsy tom cat into a lean, mean garden cat machine that will rid unwanted critters from the garden and love to hang around the garden spot when needed.

 

The first thing we had to do was name the kitten, so Deberah, Jerry and I took him out to the garden, sat down on a bench under the pecan tree and began to think of names. We thought about Catnip, Green Bean, even Sweet Potato, but unanimously, we decided to call him "Basil."

The next thing for me to do was to introduce Basil to Tia and Todd then make sure they would all get along since he is still so small. But, I didn't have to worry because immediately Tia took on a mother role. The first night she didn't even eat or sleep, only laid by the pet carrier like seen above.

Everyday I take Basil out in the garden and let him roam around, smell and play. Above I placed him in the strawberries, but he runs around so fast it's hard to get a good picture without holding him.

As you can see Tia just loves Basil and only licks him or nudges him with her nose.

Here's basil in the herb bed, already learning about garden critters, playing on a cement frog.

Even Todd seems to get along with a new friend, but even though I don't think Tia or Todd would intentionally hurt Basil, we'll wait until he gets bigger to leave them alone outside.

Even though he's itsy, bitsy, Basil already loves the garden!

Next spring, Basil will be big enough and trained to do his job in the garden. Plus he'll probably have Tia and Todd trained to help him.

Until next time......

Happy Gardening 2012!

Posted by Wima Smith