What Makes Me Laugh

We sometimes (ahem) let our lawn grow a little long, maybe like our hair. A couple of years ago we noticed that our cat Peaches really enjoyed hiding in the tall grass so we decided to leave a little patch under the cherry tree, facing the street. 

Peaches napping in the jungle

What a hit! She naps there, and watches the birds go by, and the little kids on bikes, and the women jogging with their mondo baby strollers, and the occasional derelict (we have a few in Livingston, Montana) who crashes with a cigarette on our cement wall. Plus, the dogs walking by don’t even see her. What a bonus! 

Our next door neighbor walked over the first summer and said, “Hey, I see you grew a kitty jungle!” and the name stuck. Most recently someone said, “Hey, you’ve got a terrarium!”  I looked up terrarium, and our jungle doesn’t really fit the definition of a small, glass-enclosed natural area for frogs, but it’s pretty cute. 

The jungle in full bloom

So, it’s that time of year again when the kitty jungle is in full bloom, and the cats bed down, and once again we wish we had a hammock and better porch furniture and better mosquito repellant, but all in all, we’re pretty darn happy too.

If you’re looking for a life-size gorilla lawn ornament, you can buy one in the parking lot of the Holiday Village Mall in Great Falls, Montana. Doug and I had a good laugh imagining putting it in our front yard, but I have to say that the large chicken would probably have shocked the neighborhood more than the gorilla.

It’s hard to say what the market demand is for lawn ornaments, but I do see plenty of shadow people (those black cutouts of a man smoking a pipe) sitting around town these days. I do wonder what comes over people who buy them. There must be more money to waste in this economy than I previously thought. When we enquired about a small bunny rabbit, we balked at the $35 price tag. I’m sure the chicken would also be worth its weight in recycled aluminum.

After some deliberation, we passed up a frog. It just wouldn’t go with our shadow person.