looks so oddly comfortable as a potted cat!
congratulations --such a fine container specimen

Uh, say what? How did this get posted??? Is this from you, Dirt?

I love this picture. Black cats rule!

I didn't realize that the judging was over when that photo got posted - it completely confused me! I have to add that so many of the ferals (we have a sort-of refuge/colony) enjoyed lounging in that pot right after I got it, and before it was planted, that I was wondering if I would have to keep it empty for them!

Yup, that's from me! You had a lot of great shots in the contest Alex--good eye!
but I had to go find this one right away and get a thread going on it cuz, indeed
Black cats rule!

Yes! Black cats definitely do rule around here! There are 9 on this property; the other 7 are grey tabby mixes. Apparently black is the dominant color in our gene pool!

All my barn cats are black as well. I've named a few - Hunter (I think this one is a mom with a litter next door, she hunts every morning in our front field), Bruiser (big ol' burly thug, but friendly as can be, he often lays right where your next step was going to be and rolls over for a belly scratch), Boots (long hair with white feet), and Boots-2 (short hair with white feet). A couple others come and go, not as regularly. I'm not sure if these cats are feral or just opportunists, some are quite friendly, others skittish. I occasionally set out food for them when it's cold, although they all appear fit. Whenever we get a house cat, I usually go with a gray tabby. Our last one took 'the long walk' after 18 years. If/when the mice infiltrate the house, we'll get a pair of kittens.

The story with these ferals around here (with the odd exception) is that they are probably all descendants of barn cats who went wild when the farms all around us closed down. Long story short, after a population explosion, we stepped in and started trapping and spaying. No kittens now for the past couple of years in our area, though this may change since we have 2 new families moved into the area who are rebuilding the farms. I'm glad they're there, but I do hope the cats stay near the new barns. If they decide to move to our property, we may be doing some more TNR.

What is TNR?

I voted for this one - LOVE this photo

Deb - TNR stands for trap-neuter-release. We have had 33 spayed or neutered, though not for awhile, thankfully. I love kittens - cute as can be! But they grow into cats...which make more cats. And more cats. It had gotten pretty crazy-out-of-control here, and as much as I love kittens, I don't love seeing them hungry, sick or dead in the road, which was becoming all too common an occurrence. Now, instead, they're fat, mostly healthy - and in my way most of the time!
Vicki - thanks!

Good on you Alex

Our current pair of brothers (one black; one orange) came from the farm store/nursery...went to pick up a couple of plants and came home w/kittens they had trapped instead
Thinking on it, I realized that I'm old, yikes--as old as I've ever been, and I've been serially bestowed with one dang extra-special black cat after another for many decades...I always tell them, and myself mostly, just how generic and imminently replaceable they are and we both know I'm lying

Dirt -
Me, too!