Perhaps Phoebe was rescued and hand-fed by people when it was young. Or it just likes you.

My regular garden stalkers are my cats, who follow me about, supervise, inspect holes, and want their tummies rubbed. There are a couple of mockingbirds ad jays that then follow the cats, keeping an eye on them. I also I have deer who I started feeding several years ago when she broke her leg during a bad winter. The leg healed w/o my help, but I worried about her getting enough to eat. Now she appears and wants apples, carrots and Ritz crackers. I oblige. She has had several bambis since then, but none of them have picked up her habit. The bambis grow up and join the local herd, all of whom help themselves to my garden, but only Misty (Ms Deer-Ms D, Misty) asks for handouts.

Then there's Mrs Raccoon. She gets the remains of the cat food every evening. If there's anything left, Mrs 'Possum gets it. In the late spring, Mrs Raccoon will ask for more because she has babies. She brings the babies about the 1st of August. I put out for them but gradually wean them. By October, the babies have left and Mrs R. is alone again. She is well-mannered, eats daintily from her bowl. The babies toss their bowls around and make a mess. On very bad weather nights I'll put out a little extra for Mrs. 'Possum.

All I have is Lola, the very sweet but very large (25 lbs+) cat next door. She's been extremely friendly and attentive as I've been working in the rose garden, but alas, as I've discovered firsthand (or first foot), what's she's really interested in is my fresh layer of dry, fluffy compost. Too bad cat manure doesn't do for roses what horse manure does.

Kay

Aside from my omnipresent dogs, there are a few hummingbirds that religiously follow me from spring thru fall when I hand water. They love playing in the stream of water, and in the little puddles left on the ground. Sometimes one will hover in front of me just staring like I'm an alien to be understood. They are magical little creatures. I never used to see them, but now my hears are honed in to the sound of their wings, and I'm amazed at how many we have. Of course, we also have 3 feeders out! Learned the hard way about how territorial they are, and the male that "owned" the one we had, wouldn't let anyone else even close.

I used to have a neighbor's tom cat, Opie, who would sit with me while I weeded the beds. Sadly he passed on a few years ago and I really miss his company. Otherwise it's just me, the birds and bees and the dratted squirrels!

There's a little bird who comes when I water and then waits until I move so he can hunt for bugs. I have had hummers come and inspect me and also one used to wait for me to put up a fine spray so she could bathe. Some prefer the droplet shower in the pine needles while others like laying on large broad leaves and splashing.

My best garden friend is gone. He was always with me and we spent almost every day together. He battled cancer a good long time and even after losing a leg, he was able to enjoy life and could out run me. He was so clever and kind and I miss him every day. He came down the street and had tried out a few homes before he chose mine. Neighbors called him big red and other names but we just called him tabby The only other thing I ever knew about him was that he was the son of a big orange tom cat named brutus. He was a big powerful cat who walked about like he owned the neighborhood.
In his later years, he stayed close by and watched over the garden with me. In his later days he needed a fresh towel to lay on wherever he decided it would be and he kept me washing towels all the time. The garden so full of plants seems empty without him now and I miss seeing him in the old places he loved to spend the different times of day in. He was buried in a soft old linen damask tablecloth in a wooden wine box surrounded by the petals of at least 2 dozen PJPII blossoms and then every single other fragrant rose petal I could put in. He is in the spot he loved in his best days where he could watch the world. He would sit there at the close of the day looking toward the setting sun at the end of the street where he was born, and made his way down to me. One of my very best friends. I decided to put a clivia "Golden Dragon" there where he is now. That name would have suited him very well.

Here he is in his prime, fascinated by something and ready to jump out of my arms to see what it is.

Well, there's Kya the pain-in-the-butt dog we got almost 2yrs ago. She's gotten a little better, but she still has to go chase the birds and bark at everything that walks by the front. But she lets the deer in to do whatever they want.

The bratty squirrels love to "plant" their walnuts and acorns in my potted roses. In the fall, they kept uprooting a couple of my baby rose seedlings out of their gallon pots. I had to check every day. For weeks I'd have to stick this one back in the pot almost every day, because they'd pull it out. Luckily it was getting just big enough that the roots were hardened and it didn't die. It's not looking great right now, but it's been so cold.

I have hundreds of birds in the backyard. Ever since I started putting out suet cakes and keeping up on the birdseed refilling, I've had tons of birds. Even in winter. Usually, they don't come around much in winter. The CA scrub jays are my favorites. Most people don't like them, but I do. They're funny and fairly tame. I give them peanuts in the shell. Of course, they often have to fight with the squirrels to get their share. When their peanuts run out, they squawk at me and follow me around the yard.

There's nuthatches, finches, black-headed grosbeaks, woodpeckers, stellar jays, brown towhees, rufous-sided towhees, and recently the juncoes have been coming. I never used to have them before. And this is the first yr I've had the hummies stick around for winter. I heard the Anna's stay here, but had never had any luck keeping them thru winter. But a couple of them are still flitting around even tho the temps have been around 27-30. They're so funny when they chase each other all over the place, swooping past me just missing me sometimes! I love 'em!

Now those darn deer I could easily do without. They sneak in pretty frequently, and Kya rarely sees them. The brat! She can sure bark at the neighbors walking their dog, but just ignores the deer. Altho she does chase the neighborhood cats out of the yard most of the time. One of them got one of my birds last fall.

Kitty, that is a truly lovely picture of you and your furry friend. Your story reminds me of my beloved Maine Coon cat Casey, who also passed away. My husband dug a deep hole under a large tree and I wrapped Casey into a soft towel and put some flowering rose branches of Souvenir d'un Ami (translated as Memories of a Friend) between his front paws. My husband put large rocks on tops so predators would not find him, buried them and then put a flat, rectangular rock over him as a headstone. I now have birds, squirrels and bunnies in the garden, including one little bunny with three legs who has become quite tame and lives close to the back of the house in the shelter of trees and a large juniper hedge. I feed him rose petals, apples and greenery, which several of his friends share with him.

I do love bunnies. A good thing for bunnies is violets and violas. The flowers are high in vit.C
We had a dwf. bunny once who loved to chase us and be chased. He grew up with our kitten and was very happy sleeping with cats. It would upset him when they would jump up on chairs where he could not go. Then I got a beautiful white kitty who was rescued from the backyard of a home about to be sold. She lived in my closet for a few months until she was brave enough to trust me and come out. She had soft fine long white fur and and reminded me of the cat Duchess from the Aristocats with her elegant face and slow graceful walk. She came out and befriended this bunny and they slept together on a soft bed by the window. Sometimes she would sit quietly in the moonlight and looked luminous then. When I was little I always wanted a long haired white cat like that and then later, this elegant gentle kitty found her home with me and my bunny. I decided to use the name kittymoonbeam remembering her.

We are getting our first squirrels now to add to the raccoons and possums. It would be a boring garden without animals. The most striking animal I ever had in the garden was a great turkey buzzard with his wings outstretched in the morning sun on the top of my tree. The most surprising animal I ever had was a green iguana in my old hibiscus munching on the red flowers.

ARRGH!! Kitty, you don't seriously try to invite the bunnies in do you? I'm at my wits end trying to keep them form eating all my roses to the ground at the moment! They have mowed every one of my minis to the ground already and have started on the larger ones now. I hate bunnies!!! BTW, I love the picture of you and Tabby! He looks a lot like Opie did.

Our bunny was a house bunny. He had a fenced in part of the yard where he could run under supervision and chew on his wooden playhouse. I gave up planting little bands because of raccoons. No we don't have any wild bunnies here. Once we found a lost bunny. When we put him in the kitchen for exercise he went straight for a certain corner every time. A neighbor's son was going door to door trying to find him and when I told him about the bunny going to the spot he said that our kitchen was the same plan as theirs and that's where the rabbit treats were stored.

I do like it when animals stay near in the garden and am partial to the old kids' Sunday school Garden of Eden pictures with the animals and people all getting along. I used to give peanuts to a friendly blue jay and after a while he started pecking on the window from a hanging basket when he saw me get up for breakfast. My 2 kitties don't care for chasing birds. They mostly concentrate on sleeping in fresh laundry.

I've seen hummingbirds up at Tahoe in the winter. Some really amazing pictures of multiple birds at a feeder show up, because there's enough pressure on them in the winter that they WILL share the feeder, and not drive each other away as they do in more normal conditions. They're really territorial, and we have big 'dog fights' happening over our front bed and driveway. Some fun!

Here's this mornings handicap to the hummingbirds - it was about 25 degrees when I got up at 6ish this morning.

Kitty, you made me cry with your story about Tabby. My three cats follow me all around the garden, grabbing me around the legs if they aren't getting enough attention.

I have a pair of Sandhill cranes that hang around, but I think they're hoping for a handout of horse feed.

Lots of fun birds here, but don't forget the lizards who have stripped my garden of earwigs. Go Lizzie! :)
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And the Mantis ladies have gobbled up whatever the lizards didn't.
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Oh Kitty, what a darling picture.
Hoovb, I now know what weather trade off is! Think I 'll stay in my cold zone.
Aside from my dogs, there is ONE robin that follows me all day. She usually builds a nest in my downspout, so she keeps a close eye on me.
If I get too close to her nest she swoops down and glances off of my head.

floridarose, he was really a good friend to me. He would always watch to see where I was and stay nearby. Even when he got old and lost his hearing, he would look around to find me before settling down. But he would meow until I brought out that clean towel for him and wouldn't settle in until he had one. Even on my bed he had to have his towel or else some soft old tablecloth I would buy at the thrift stores just for him. I built him ramps to get to his favorite places after he lost a back leg but then in time he got stronger and could do it on his own. He never quit trying. Every night when I got under the covers to sleep, he would come up and nudge his head into me or lick my cheek a few times and then go to the other end of the bed to sleep. He would always tuck me in like that- even when he was so sick, he still made the effort. I always felt we were watching over each other.

Kitty...your story is lovely. One I have enjoyed reading time after time. It always amazes me how connected we humans are to our animal friends. I am sure that he was watching over you just like you were watching and caring after him. A beautiful story and the picture adds so much to the story. Thank you for sharing it with us. Lesley