Cats....either you love them or you hate them. Many people would go out of their way to run over one. This sums up the attitude of many gardeners towards cats, which is why there are moves to outlaw them (cats). I'll admit to having the same feelings myself, on occasion, especially after too many visits by the same cat to the same flowerbed. But on balance, I don't mind cats. I own one myself-if you can own a cat. Dave is his name and he's ancient at 21 years of age!
The cats that drop by my yard seem particularly free spirited, especially Midnight, and I've concluded, after years of observations, that they come to my place for one or both of two reasons: to find something to eat or drink, or to find a comfortable place to relieve themselves ( I do worry when they show up with a magazine).
No, there are worse things than cats in the garden, and I've had them all - rats, mice, groundhogs, raccoons, rabbits, squirrels - everything but rogue elephants, which are a nasty little problem for gardeners in Africa. Elephants there have been known to clean out the cabbage crop and drain the pond at one sitting, and they make an awful mess of the patio furniture. I count my blessings that I live in a neighborhood that has an effective elephant control by-law. The irony of it is, although cats can be a nuisance, they do a darn good job of keeping down vermin.
I recently read somewhere that the majority of people on earth are never more than ten feet from a rat - scary thought (who makes up all these statistics?) So, I'm all for a few cats running wild if they can increase that distance by a foot or two. We do need a few predators around to keep the neighborhood in a state of ecological balance.
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