Cat Among the Lilies
A and I are very fond of cats. He is particularly fond of them. He thinks I am one (i.e. I am contrary, finicky, flit quietly around the house and scare him by suddenly appearing etc).
But the neighbourhood cats have recently worn my nerves to shreds.
The other night A was sitting watching television when he heard a crash outside. At first he thought it was a burglar. He went out to investigate (if it really was a burglar that would have been a very silly thing to do) and found that one of my large ceramic flower pots was lying on its side, broken. On the roof of the shed stood a cat, meowing indignantly, “learn to balance your pots properly human, for my nightly prowls!”
Luckily the root ball of the plant wasn’t damaged, and it had just been putting out shoots, so there wasn’t much plant to damage. A managed to make it stand up and came in to tell me about it.
“It’s that plant that was in the green ceramic pot,” he said vaguely, “it has little green shoots”.
“That’s the lily plant”, I said, panicking that it had been destroyed. It’s one of my best performers. “It dies down in the winter, but it grows back in the summer, with those giant, lovely smelling flowers you like so much” (plants dying back in the winter and reappearing is something A has recently come to terms with).
“What”, he yelled. “I’ll wring his (the cat’s) neck with my own bare hands.”
I knew he was upset only because he likes the lilies (he doesn’t notice some other plants unless I point them out to him like an anxious mother) and that this rage wouldn’t last long because cats have a way of winning him over and vice-versa. Sure enough the next day he met the same cat, who, he was convinced, had diarrhoea (don’t ask for details about how he knew). He came home feeling sorry for him, going “poor fellow”.
But I am in no mood to be kind. Because of the spring weather they are out in full force. They’ve been digging holes in my pots and beds and pooing all over the garden and in the flower pots. I have to clean the poo and it smells. My garden is not their litter box. Cat repellant is now being liberally applied.
“But you’ll only end up repelling yourself,” said A.
The Lily plant in a previous year, at the time of flowering.
Lovely lily plant, Pink and in full bloom!
Thanks. The picture is from last year. Right now they are just remerging now from the soil and haven’t bloomed yet.
so what would you do if he gifted you a pet cat?!
Ok you got me there. I would love it
Are yours scented lilies? Those are among my most favourite flowers, next to fragrant old roses!
I’m not a cat person, and if I was to be described in animal terms, I’d probably be a dog – large, clumsy, shy-but-friendly and loyal
I love dogs! Just as well I dont love cats, because Pete’s seriously allergic to cat dander. Give him 5 minutes in a cat-friendly room and he swells up like – actually, like Will Smith in Hitch (if you’ve seen it) 
They are highly scented! We are dog people too, but cats have insiduously crept into our affections. I have a friend like Pete. She’s a doctor and medicates herself religiously before meeting cat people.
I think you’d be an elegant, tall dog in animal terms…
So funny, that last sentence!
The lily is beautiful.
But who do these cats belong to? Are they allowed to roam around and destroy people’s plants? They would be sued in America!
Like Shyam, I’m a “dog person”.
This neighbour is a bit like the cats-very messy. Wish we could sue him for his mess! We’re dog people to-always had dogs but seem to have developed an affection for cats in England after one adopted us in our previous flat. He belonged to someone else but spent hours with us.
While I like cats from a distance .. they sometimes do scare me by suddenly creeping behind or running around – that scares me the most.
The lily looks lovely. So does your header image. Absolutely gorgeous!
Cats scare me. Tremendously. Brrr..