For years this was a garden blog, but it took a new turn in 2020. At the start of the COVID-19 lockdowns, I decided to begin a Ministry of Cats. On March 14, 2020, I posted my first cat of the day (you can see the post here), and I’ve posted a different cat photo every day since. I meant for it to be a moment of joy or comfort especially for my friends who were isolating at home alone.
I know that people continue to enjoy seeing a cat a day (including some of the same folks who led me to create the cats of the day in the first place), so they’ll continue into the future. My cats are great and continue to provide me with new photo ops.
The cast of characters:
Ladies Morgaine (left) and Ygraine (right) of the Vanderburgh Pittypats
Lady Ygraine and Lady Morgaine are the only two cats around here that we actually adopted from the Humane Society. They joined our household in January 2017. Lady Ygraine is Lady Morgaine’s mother, so we named them after Arthurian Legend. Ygraine was King Arthur’s mother and Morgaine (often known as Morgan le Fey) was Ygraine’s daughter and King Arthur’s half-sister. They are fluffy royalty. Ygraine is a queen who loves sunbeams and vigorous scritches. She’s “smol” but has a big personality. Morgaine is athletic and fun-loving. She loves both burrowing into things, napping in high-up spots, and chewing on strings.
Percivale von Huggenstein (aka: Perry)
Perry wandered up to our house in Summer 2017. First he gave me a huge hug. Then he bit me. It’s been like that ever since. We decided he shouldn’t be wandering around outside, so we took him in. He’s a badly-bred Bengal cat who is constantly overwhelmed by his feelings (hence the hugs and bites). We named him Percivale after Percivale, a youth that the Knights of the Round Table found wandering in the woods with poor social skills. The other Knights of the Round Table taught Percivale the art of chivalry and he was eventually knighted, which is what we’d hoped for Perry. However, he’s still a jerk—a compelling, hug-dealing jerk. He goes on daily walks outside on a leash, and these walks serve as his “attitude adjustment time.” He’s super smart and also super lazy. He’s kind of like your college roommate’s friend who you said could crash in your basement till he got his life together but he’s still there years later, eating pizza and playing video games.
Spike
Spike wandered up to our house in Summer 2019 and quickly named himself Top Cat among the various outdoor cats who were hanging around our house at the time. He has also named himself the guardian of our side porch. We have no idea where he came from or how long he’d been out wandering. He’s an elegant gentleman and he loves human attention. He has only one tooth in his head, and it’s a pointy one, hence his name. He’s forever bossing the other outdoor cats around to remind them who’s in charge.
Mark (rear) and Junior (front)
Mark and Junior are the remaining two of the band of brothers who came from our neighbor and regularly hang out at our house. They’ve been around since 2018-2019 and have adopted our yard as their home. For some reason, all the other cats smack Mark around, putting him at the bottom of the pecking order. He’s a sweet guy, though, and comes to “help” me whenever I’m working in my garden. Junior is a bit of an enigma. He’s a bit skittish but clearly has adopted us as his humans and our house as his house.
Boo Boo (Rest in Peace)
Boo Boo was another of the same band of brothers that Mark and Junior belonged to. He started hanging around our yard in 2019. He was a rotund tabby with a golden belly and a huge personality. He and Spike struck up a sweet friendship, and he became Spike’s second-in-command. They spent a lot of time together, and he was the “muscle” to help remind everyone that Spike was in charge. He also looked out for his brothers, cuddling with them in the cat beds on the porch to keep them warm with his big body. Sadly, Boo Boo died in a terrible dog attack in April 2023. Boo Boo loved to lounge in my garden, so we buried him in the yard and I created a cat-friendly garden over his grave.
Squirrels and Tomatoes 