I'm sorry about your Otto. I loved your tales of his exploits...reminded me of one of the episodes of All Creatures Great and Small with the cat who showed up at any and all functions where people gathered - a true social butterfly who just wouldn't stay at home. In our rural area, the biggest danger to cats are the coyotes. After losing 4 cats in a row, my late DH went out and adopted an entire litter - 4 female kittens. His theory was we might end up with one or two lasting a while. Well, here I am 14 years later with all 4, and a bunch of more scaredy cats you'd never find. They're terrified of everything and always have been. My 5th cat is a free spirit much like your Otto. I adopted him from a co-worker who told tales of this cat sleeping out on the warm pavement of the road despite cars driving over the top of him (tires straddling him, luckily!) We thought a quieter setting might help him survive and so it has - he's just turned 9. He is aggravating as all get out sometimes, but his antics are never boring. I guess what I'm saying is give me the Bon Vivant any day over one afraid of its own shadow. Otto used up all his lives in a fast and furious fashion, but he sounded like he surely had a passion for life. I know how you must miss him. I second the suggestion of telling "the kiddies" to get out and get their own patch of earth to design and plant. I don't believe gardening by committee can be successful; I'd have no trouble telling them where to get off, LOL. I hope the new garden turns out to be something you love.

This is appalling, but it's all too obvious any enthusiastic gardener could be targeted in FL. Believe it or not, much of the rest of the nation lives, and lives well, without homeowners' associations. We've lived all over the US, and only in FL do these parasitic entities exist. Right now we're living in an area with one, and a very ineffective one also. Due to placing a phone call to them about the abandoned property next door (it appears squatters have moved in)-a property complete with original landscaping that wasn't even visible for all the overgrowth, I was advised they don't handle those types of 'problems'. Many neighbors were using the yard for a garbage dump for compostable materials from their own yards. Two weeks after my pleasant phone inquiry, we received a letter that there is a certain standard for the neighborhood, and that we need to have the roof, front walk, driveway, and front storm gutter pressure washed to avoid financial penalty. Of course, our landlord immediately arranged for the work, but it sure seemed to be a retaliatory notice from the association. So, it's OK to have a weedy, overgrown mess with broken booze bottles and cans thrown into it (not food and medicinal plants, but simply non-native ornamentals and grass for original plantings). But the appearance of the hardscape is very important to the association. Might they be referring people to a pressure-washer contractor who gives somebody a kickback, when they send out these letters? Sorry, but that's the way those of us feel, who never had to live with the association plague. Without these entities, homeowners would have close to enough funds in the family budget to pay for a whole lot of pressure-washing, gutter and roof maintenance, outside painting, etc, which are really what are needed to keep homes up, not the 'overhead' of homeowners' associations. This same association neglects to remove coconuts from the palms they planted in the common areas prior to hurricane season, nor do they repair or replace loose, broken, or rotted fence boards in the common areas. Both could be said to be hazardous, and I'd venture to say, if found on a private property within their jurisdiction, would generate fines for the association coffers. And of course, the hardscape materials on the common areas are not pressure-washed, nor appear to ever have been cleaned. And, should anybody think these association entities are needed, all communities have more than enough laws on the books to enforce most anything somebody else could find offensive, from overgrowth, to peeling paint, to dilapidated fencing. Just call code enforcement and save the money for your own repairs rather than give it to an association. Now that I've been on my soapbox, please forgive. I'll get back off and just say that law enforcement needs to keep us healthy and safe and cease upholding wacky peoples' rights to overrule those few who dare to live a bit differently by growing their own food and medicinal plants. For shame! Just to clarify, we are renting from friends, which is a good deal for all concerned; a homeowners' association happens to be part of the deal, or we wouldn't be having any of that nonsense. girlsaylor

I completely understand your feelings. You move into a community because of the environment, but then neighbors decide to change it. Your statement,"It is their property and I suppose they should be allowed to do what they want with it." isn't really true. There are zoning laws that control what people do to their property. Also, there isn't a country in the world that lets people do whatever they want with their property, including ours. If a person thinks they own their property, they should stop paying their property taxes and see how long it would take the government to take it away from them and sell it to someone else, three years in this state. Point being, is that there are communities that regulate cutting down trees. Issaquah is one, you have to have a permit to cut trees down. Of course it doesn't take much to get that permit, but then I have seen land owners who didn't have the permit that were starting to cut trees down, being stopped by their neighbors who reported them. My own feelings is that any tree that isn't a danger to home or person shouldn't be cut down. But that leaves lots of open ground for people to cut trees down. With this State's population growing as fast as it is, with a projection of twenty million in twenty years, there will be a lot more trees cut down.

Kathy, I can just imagine the tears that fell on your cheeks as you wrote this story. I think I'm crying as much now as when it first happened. Banjo is such a beautiful creature. Thank God he had you and Lucky to take care of him. I hope you will be generous about showing us pictures of him and your new mare. The love you feel for your horses comes through in the posts you write and I never tire of hearing about your beauties.((((( Kathy and Banjo )))))) Linda