I saw the momma lay the eggs on a single strand of dill I had left growing in a pot on my outside porch so when the Cats got bigger and ate that stalk, I moved them to some potted fennel (Dill is not available in this Fla summer heat) and she stayed and turned to a chrysalis on a nearby plant. I don't know where the other babies went off to. She is lovely!

Susan, To the rest of the world, the netted melons we call cantaloupes in this country are muskmelons. The rest of the world calls them muskmelons but we incorrectly call them cantaloupes. Actual cantaloupes aren't grown by a lot of people here in the USA. Most years I grow both. Here's a brief intro to the melon family tree. All melons are Cucurbitaceae and are either Cucumis melo or Citrullus lanatus. Cucumis melo includes melons classified as: Cantalupensis--(cantaloupes) and examples are Early Frame Prescott, Prescott Fond Blanc, Charentais, Ha'ogen and Petit Gris de Rennes. These are the true cantaloupes and are usually round, sutured, and have fairly prominent ribs. Netting, if any, is very sporadic. Most of them have salmon-orange flesh and they do not slip from the vine when ripe. Most of the ones I know of are originally from Europe. Reticulatus--(Muskmelons and Persian Melons). This group includes most melons erroneously referred to as cantaloupes in this country, like Jenny Lind, Emerald Gem, Schoon's Hard Shell, Cochiti Pueblo and Old Time Tennesee. These are usually netted to some degree. Most have some ribbing or suturing. Many are round but a few are quite oblong. Most of these will form an abscission layer and slip from the vine when ripe. Many have salmon-orange flesh but some are green and some have almost white flesh. Momordica--like Cob Melon are Asian melons (from India, I believe) and are seldom seen in the typical American garden. They are not sweet and split open easily as they ripen. Dudaim--This is a group of fragrant melons that are of poor eating quality. The only one of this group I've ever grown is Queen Anne's Pocket Melon which has a delightful aroma that will scent the whole yard and attract tons of wildlife but which isn't tasty at all. In olden times, ladies carried these in their pockets as a sort of walking air freshener. Flexosus--These are the ones we call Armenian Cucumbers or Snake Melons. These grow long and narrow. If you grow them on some sort of trellis, the melons hang down and grown straight. If you grow them on the ground, they curl and twist. In both flavor and texture, these are almost more cucumber-like than melon-like, only they don't have spines. Their flesh is not as watery as cucumber flesh, so they're a bit crunchier. Inodorus--These are the wonderfully flavored but not very aromatic melons that we often refer to as Winter Melons because they ripen late and have a long shelf life. This group includes Honeydews (probably their most famous member), but also Cranes, Crenshaws and Casabas. Some of the varieties of melons which are members of this group include Collective Farm Woman (one of my personal all-time favorite melons), Amarillo d'or, Bidwell Casaba, Sweet Freckles, Piel de Sapo (aka Frogskin melon) and Orange-Fleshed Honeydew. They have very hard rinds which helps them keep for a longer period of time than melons with softer rinds. Conomon--These are Asian melons and they are not sweet, but instead are crisp and sort of crunchy. They are pretty bland and if their flavor can be described at all (almost no flavor to speak of), it is bitter. In Japan, they are pickled. One of the sweeter ones (and it isn't that sweet compared to the melons we grow and eat here in the USA) is Sakata's Sweet. The melons classified a Citrullus lanatus are what we know as watermelons, and include Blacktail Mountain, Carolina Cross, Sugar Lump, Sugar Baby, Ali Baba, Chris Cross, Black Diamond, Georgia Rattlesnake and Yellow Doll. This group also includes Citron Melon which is grown strictly for processing as it has to be boiled in sugar to make it edible. Eaten raw, it is rock-hard and poorly flavored. That is much more than you asked, Susan, but I figured if I was going to describe Cantaloupes and Muskmelons, I might as well throw in the other members of the family. When I first had space to grow lots of melons, I experimented and grew up to 20 kinds per year, but now I just grow a few kinds each year. It is hard for just the two of us to keep up with the melon harvest so I try not to grow too many. I don't like them as much preserved as fresh, so a surplus is a headache to deal with. Of course, as I was typing this I kept thinking "ooh, I need to grow this one (and that one and that other one too) next year". Dawn

These cute little birds are growing so quickly! My concern is that another poster said that they return to the same nest, after fledging, to live for the next few months. Do you think that they will be able to safely find another place to live if we have to take down their nest, for our house project, after they have the ability to fly? Thanks to anyone who can help us make the right decisions!

As I wrote in my post, my reference was to domestic cats, not to feral or barn cats who live their lives without being fed or receiving immunizations, deworming, external parasite prevention, and other routine veterinary care. I have precise first hand knowledge of what species my cats have killed over the past 40+ years and a good idea of how many of each because they bring their quarry home to my front porch and, being well fed, only occasionally do they eat one of their game animals. I could probably count on my fingers the number of birds my cats have killed over the past decades, and among these were a few English sparrows. I would say that on average 6 to 11 baby barn swallows have fledged from nests on our front porch and eaves of the barn each year, despite the presence of our cat(s.) The parent bird who fell victim this year is the only swallow killed by one of our cats ever, so I'd say that the survival rate is highly stacked in favor of the swallows. (Seven on average x 40 some years is a large sum of swallows that have come into being on my felines' terrain.) Toxoplasma gondii only poses a threat to developing fetuses and those with severely compromised immune systems. It is important that pregnant women avoid contact with litter boxes. Other than this caution, the risks posted on the inflammatory website you posted are highly exaggerated. As I also stated, this is a moot point since my current kitty has only perhaps another year of going outdoors and I do not intend to replace her when she is gone. We will have to agree to disagree on this point.