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The Daily Post’s Photo Challenge theme this week is “Express Yourself.”
My companion, Ollie, expresses himself quite plainly.
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Ollie enjoys his cat mint garden last June.
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He is happiest, this winter, when he entices me to spread a blanket on the couch, so he can jump up and sleep beside me, as I read.
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And he has devised a dozen ways to grab my attention and convince me to sit with him awhile, where it is warm, and he can ignore the world beyond the windows.
A companion’s face, whether feline, canine, avian, or human, is the epitome of expression.
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Photos by Woodland Gnome 2015
Find more expressive photos at
Weekly Photo Challenge: Express Yourself
Forest Garden 
I love those colours on cats – Ollie looks like an adorable companion. Expressive!
He is 😉 these beautiful orange and white cats are so sweet natured and affectionate. Best wishes, WG
What a beautiful cat!!!
He is, and a sweetie, too. Thank you 😉
He’s a very handsome chap, WG. Unfortunately I’m allergic to cats, so have never been able to have one as a pet. It’s a shame because they look very cuddly loyal creatures. However, I do now have a dog, who is a huge part of the family. I can’t imagine life without him.
Thank you, Hugh. Dogs just work their way into a family like a little child, don’t they? It is a different relationship with cats, and yes he is very cuddly and warm- just watch for the claws! 😉 Thank you for visiting FG Hugh 😉
He’s beautiful! Looks like he thoroughly enjoyed the catnip. I will have to plant some for my kitties.
I thought of you this morning when I saw this:
http://el-nogal.tumblr.com/
You’ll have to scroll down a bit. Ignacio Canales makes the most amazing sculptures from dried flowers.
Hi Robin, thank you for the link. The carved roots are magnificent! That walnut root in someone’s garden brought back memories of our oaks going over nearly 2 years ago- wish I had presence of mind then to find a wood worker to take them 😉 What beauty from those old walnut roots! And the pressed flowers are lovely, too. Never seen pressed art sculpture before 😉 Our cat nip plant attracted ALL the neighborhood kitties, I’m afraid…. but it was a fun addition to the garden. It is such a reliable perennial for flowers, feeds the bees- and drought tolerant! I’m hooked and will plant more this year in other areas with sun. You might enjoy the new “Gardens Illustrated” (UK) which features Penelope Hobhouse’s ‘100 plants every gardener should know.’ I didn’t know them all, but found our little volunteer ‘Autumn Olive’ on her list . 😉 Hope you and M have your boots and slickers handy. What a lot of rain! Best wishes, WG
What a handsome kitty! I’ve wondered if you have pets, so it’s nice to make his acquaintance. 🙂
He is such a sweetie. He was a rescue, and still has a wild side. But he is a great companion and leaves our birds quite alone. Thank you, Eliza 😉
Glad to hear the catnip keeps him happy and away from the birds. My two cats used to go outside, but the past 18 months they have stayed indoors – the rodents and birds rejoice!
Since we have owls, hawks and catbirds most of the time, Ollie tends to watch the birds but leave them alone. He leaves us the occasional vole, but nothing else. We’re glad he’s not much interested in hunting 😉 Why are you keeping your cats inside? Are they hunters?
I used to let them out but it was a report via Cornell where they stated the numbers of birds domestic cats kill annually – 3.7 BILLION. They put sm.cameras on cats and studied what they took in a day – pretty staggering and most owners didn’t even know.
Aside from that, all that catch gave them parasites, then I had to worm them. Then of course, there are coyotes, fisher-cats, etc. So now they stay indoors. They will be healthier and hopefully live longer.
That makes a lot of sense, Eliza. Was it a hard adjustment for your cats? Ours is very demanding when he is ready to go outside… and just as demanding when he is ready to come back in 😉 I hadn’t read the Cornell study….
For the first few weeks they wanted to go out, but were easily dissuaded. My Maine coon wouldn’t have put up with it, but he would go hunt in the neighbor’s barn for mice. He passed in ’09. It was a 2013 article by Cornell that I read the stats quoted from a Smithsonian study. The average owned cat killed 30+ birds/yr. Feral was est. at 50+. There are 86 million owned cats and 60-100 million feral. That adds up to A LOT of birds. I just couldn’t let mine add to that total anymore. If they only went after rodents I wouldn’t mind, but the state of the birds is just too tenuous these days, I couldn’t conscience it any longer. It took me many years to come to that – it took 3.7 billion deaths/yr. to make me wake up.
Aw Ollie is beautiful!! We have an orange male cats too but he doesn’t have any white on him except on his nose! There is a pic on my About page with him mother. How old is he?
Orange cats are so sweet natured, don’t you think? I’ll check out your photo- It is always comforting to have cats around. I brought Ollie home as a kitten in early 2004 or 2005. He has been with us for quite a while 😉