Pets + Seeds = Unhappiness!

I hardly believe what happened today so I thought I'd share.

I had my most recently collected and dried seeds packed in individual kitchen towels in a carrier bag here in the box room/office, tucked well away. I only had them up here just to make a note of them before they were packaged properly and set with the other seeds.

I came in to sort through them for a round robin only to find the bag ruffled up and the kitchen towels soaking wet. My sense of smell at the moment is pretty poor but I guessed it was one of the cats not wating to go outside in the rain. Mother smelled in the bag and confirmed it was so by screwing up her face and exclaiming EUGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH loudly.

In the cats defense, they are very good normally, this sort of thing is a very rare occurance and the rain has been particularly heavy but why oh why choose my dear, defenceless, little seeds??? The kitchen towel is good but not that good! Mother and I spent a short time this evening, hands clothed in plastic bags removing the seeds from the sodden kitchen towels. (The things we do!) It was bad enough that the cats killed my Toadlilies by lounging in the pots all summer despite our efforts.

Needless to say the seeds won't be going out to anyone until I can work out a way to clean them. On second thoughts perhaps the Urea will prepare them for sprouting ;)

Nitrogen, Baa, kitty nitrogen. If I can send out seeds that I've run through a bear first, why not kitty nitrogen seeds? Years ago when I had my beloved ol' kitty Spike, I was dismayed to find him using my seed flats as a kitty litter box. That's when I began using the plastic dome lids.

I know it is not that funny(I am still heheing a bit) but I think we all have something horrendous to tell about when it comes to pets!
My cat decided that a freshly sprouted flat of Plumerias would be a nice place to take a nap ! Broke all but 5 out of the flat Oh well...
My dog pulls every plant out of the ground that comes from a trade that has a house with dogs...
Hope you did not lose many of your seeds, But i would think after they dry they should be fine. Maybe you were spending too much time with those seeds and your kitty is jealous.
Someday it will be funny to you

I caught my usually litter trained cat urinating right in front of me on the carpet. After he finished (what's the point of interupting her then.LOL) I looked to clean it up.
There shredded to provide litter was a marigold seed head. Guess they don't like the smell either.
Now I am careful to place all drying seeds out of their way.
If you do send the seed, just mark them so they do not become the new recipients cat's litter box. LOL

When you think about it, we have no idea whether some dog or cat has annointed our seed heads outdoors before harvesting, do we? That might be a contributing factor in the indoor annointing.

hmm, might be a new way to break dormancy on stubborn seeds, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it.

WG, through the bear? must have missed that story!

OK, here goes... I've never grown Echinopanax horridum http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/51534/index.html from seed, so when I wanted to collect seeds and trade them, I looked them up in my 'Growing Alaska Natives' book. He said they germinate best after stratification and acid scarification, and the best method for this was to run it through a bear. Our local black bear eat the berries in the fall, void them, and go into hybernation. I collected scat in the spring, so both scarification and stratification was completed!

WZ, I wonder if I could make that into a selling point, coated seeds seem to sell well, perhaps we could list them as an organic version for cat lovers? ;) If another cat had been annointing the seeds outdoors, it must have been 4-7 feet tall so I'm staying indoors LOL but yes that's definitely a consideration for smaller plants.

Chicory, I find it a bit funny already, annoying but what's done is done so may as well laugh about it. I wonder why your dog reacts like that, does he like other dogs? Ours asks to be allowed onto the borders to retrieve a toy although he must go on there when we aren't looking because we dig up bones (either that or we need to get the archeologists in!)

Windy LOL marigolds are slightly 'cat' smelling aren't they, perhaps he was getting rid of the other cat! I wonder how I'd mark the seed packets in a nice way ... "Leucojum autumnale (Feles-urina)" *G*

Kathleen, I was wondering the same, I hope not since some of these can't be sown until spring. I suppose I'd better keep them here for a month to check.

Baa
I have a Border Collie , and no he dosen't like other dogs. He won't show aggression, he just turns his head away when they come up to him or he plain just ignores them. He seems to think he is my daughter's little brother and not a dog. He is great fun to have in the garden though, except for the pulling up foreign plants.

Weezinggreens
Kopi Luwak is coffee that has been ' processed' through a civet from Indonesia. Very expenisive Japanese luxury . So see what goes out IS better than what goes in. LOL

Marigolds do smell like cats must be why they are such a good bug repellent

Chicory, if you can find a market for coffee steeped through an old Alaskan woman, we can both be rich! I drink at least a pot a day!

LOL!

I kept plopping the cuttings I took from each plant to dry and collect its seed on my
kitchen table (with a label for each). Some in boxes, some on newspaper. (I have a big table).
The day after I had promised to trade some of them, my big fuzzy cat decided that it
would be grand fun to roll onto of them, scatter them all over and generally create a
total mess. It wasn't stinky to clean the seeds, but I only found enough of one variety
to send out and had none left for myself. I couldn't be mad at her - she had way too much
fun with the temptations I'd left out for her.
Tam

This story doesn't involve seed, but in retrospect is very funny. I had a Pekinese several years ago, and when we put up the Christmas tree, he seemed entranced by it. Would find him by it several times a day. I would do some shopping, come home and wrap the package and put it under the tree. Well on Christmas Eve, I went in to sort the packages and retrieve the ones to take to DH's mother's for that night. When I reached in to get a package it was wet. Well started looking, and all of them were wet. I was thinking what the hey is going on? Then is hit me, this male dog, thinking this was a real tree (it wasn't) was hiking his leg on it don't know how many times. Probably quite a few, with as much moisture as there was. So pulled out all the gifts, unwrapped them, checked and the contents weren't damaged, so got new boxes and rewrapped them, but definitely did not put them back under the tree, but on the highest surface in the house. After we came home that night, I completely dismantled the tree and put it away. Got to keep my eyes open this year as I have a 1 1/2 year old male Jack Russell Terrier.!! Hope there is no repeat of this story. LOL

You need to post this over in the Pets Forum - under the "most horrendous thing your pet has ever done"
thread. And you'll enjoy hearing about all the troubles other folks' pets have caused/gotten into.
Tam