Fourteen years ago I was trying to sunbathe out in the yard. Slapped on the baby oil, grabbed my towel, found a little piece of grass and laid down. All of a sudden I felt something warm and fuzzy at my side. I jumped up to find a gray and white cat laying next to me on the towel. This was the most pathetic looking cat I ever seen. You could count every rib as well as both hip bones. Apparently my daughter must have been looking out the window, cuz when I came in the house she started apologizing. She said she felt bad for the cat so she was feeding it cat food (we already had three cats). She told me to look at the cats eyes they were the prettiest color green and so big. They were so big cause she was so skinny. She had the extra toes was grey and while, so my daughter named her Mittens. We all no the pattern: feed a cat and it'll never leave. My plan: go to work tomorrow, get a copier paper box with lid, go home for lunch while my daughter is at school, grab the cat, stash it in the box, take it to the animal shelter. My daughter will never miss it. Got home at lunch cat was nowhere to be found. Plan B: Go home after work, find cat, still have time to take it to the pound before she gets home from school. Got home, no cat. Didn't know my daughter was getting out of school early that day. Found her upstairs crying her eyes out. When I asked her what was wrong, she said: Mom, please don't be mad at me Mitten's came running up the driveway with something in her mouth and ran in the garage with it. I thought it was a rabbit, so I covered it with a towel to take it out of the garage. When I grabbed it, it started meowing. When I looked in the towel it was a kitten. Mom, please don't be mad at me. I didn't know." We made her a box and left the garage door open. By morning she had brought us three kittens total. We fixed the garage up as a playground, and had a kitten fest all summer. Well all good things must come to an end. September came and she went off to college, but made me promise to keep the older kitten who had trouble walking on her paws, she walked on her elbows. My son liked the runt, and I liked the siamese. We decided to keep the oldest because we figured nobody would want her. As she got older though her legs straighened out. When she stands for too long now she'll pick one up then the other, like they hurt. When I had her spayed the vet removed some of the extra toes. She had two paws at the end of each leg. I found a home for the siamese, but when it came time for the woman to pick him up I couldn't part with him. To make a long story short we kept the "whole famn damily." We lost Mittens a few years back to a mammary cyst that burst, and the siamese to kidney failure. Bear and Boa were 14 on July 4th. Bear is my baby. She picked me, I didn't pick her. Boa walks with a limp now due to arthritis in her shoulder, but I wouldn't give them away for a million bucks. They are old ladies but we still call them "the kittens." My future s-i-l can get over how playful (and spoiled) they are. Bear loves turkey breast and I buy her a pound at the deli every week. My son knows to keep his hand off her turkey. Boa loves milk and whipped cream. So every week she gets a fresh can of whipped cream. I used to grow them catnip in the yard, but it attracted every stray cat for miles. I keep saying when they're gone, that's it, no more animals. But cats always seem to find me. Jenny

Saucers will act as salt collectors in the long run. I feel their use has more cons than pros. Since the pots are on soil and not hardscape I would just leave the pots without the saucers. In due time the roots will penetrate the soil and you will have hybrid potted x planted plants! (plus nice fat weeds growing round the pot base...)

Adam, you certainly know how to make roses flourish in pots. They're so robust they're practically climbing out.

Anna ,that's so silly sounds like a typical loving hubby! Lol- I love ur screen name by the way it's awesome..... Honestly, Lonnie will help me if I ask him to. But he hates snakes, insects & being in the hot sun . He's 6'3, a little overweight ( 52years old ) & doesn't like anything to do with outside unless it's being in a boat fishing- lol- but he will bring me cold drink & if I ask him to dig a hole or till an area up for me, he will but that's ab all I get out of him. He's not a Nature lover, outside person like I am :( I can spend all day outside with my flowers working on projects !! He would rather be hanging out with other people doing something fun as long as it's inside - lol- I was thinking of using soaker hoses but I only have two sources of water ( front n back of house hose hook up ) how can I get soaker hoses ran around 3 acres?? I'm worried if I hook them up from the water source by the house the pressure won't be hard enough to run thru that much yard?? I don't really understand how all that works. It confuses me, so I guess I need to do my research. I'm not sure how to get soaker hoses out that far. I do enjoy hand watering, Especially my roses , like u said. I can check them over but due to the number of plants I have and my crazy schedule, if I plant anything so many feet out of the circumference of my house. more than likely, I will forget to water it or run out of time to do so. An Example- I planted fruit trees all along one side of our fence ( in my site but a ways away from my house) I had no water ran to them. I connected a few 100 ft. hoses together and would drag the hose out to water them often. Well, that got old quickly. I would forget to do so at times so, the trees ended up neglected and half of them are dead now :( I figured any plant that's not in the close proximity of my house ( on my back lanai or against my house) is considered out of sight out of mind plant and Usualky ends up neglected :( So I Need some kind of water ran n figured running underground is the best way. I was going to run piping underground to the planted area so I have a water source to hook up soaker hoses / sprinklers or whichever works best n is easiest :) I have all the piping and connectors for running the water but not a clue how to do so! any ideas ?? Or advice on what I need to do? I'm going to make a new thread on my projects as soon as I have the time with pictures!! So please look for it -I'll let u know when I post it bc I need all the help I can get !!! I'll prob name it my Florida gardening projects or something like that - the water being ran is a project on its own :)