A love triangle: tomatoes and kitties.

Remember these little garden boxes that Jason built for me? And the itty bitty baby plants that I planted inside them?

Turns out, a little sunshine, a little water, and some good earth is all plants really need to grow. Who knew? As weeks passed, our itty bitty garden quickly became this:

And our yellow squash in fact is quickly becoming this:

Bullying the other plants into submission. It's already tried to eat Lucy once. We're pretty sure it will try to digest the house soon. Can I donate some yellow squash to any of you? I'm being serious. We have too much. If you'd like to exchange some of mah yellow squash for some of your nothin', you've got a deal. That's what I call a bargain. And again, being totally serious.

So, Lucy loves tomatoes. Loves to pick them and eats them immediately, like an apple. Has even developed an innate sense for when they're really ready for her to pick (The red ones only! RAARRR!!). She has a real special knack for living off the land. She even told us she'd like to start going by "Katniss". Two year-olds.

She also loves this kitty. (Remember this post? From about 6 months ago?) Well yes, this on again-off again love affair has been on-again for quite some time now. Despite her mother's warnings that neighbor's kitty is just not that into her and she's just an easy place for him to fall back on, she goes back again and again. And way too eagerly for my liking.

Look at her, showing him around her garden.

I was trying to tell her not to follow too closely and to give him his space, but alas, there was yet another scuffle between Lucy and kitty the very next morning. And another battered arm resulted. And again, I chased that cat away barking and howling like a dog. Temporary rage took over me. He was lucky I didn't catch up to him. But he was afraid. I could see the fear in his eyes. He ran like a little girl. I mean, not like my little girl. But he ran. You know what I mean.

The saddest part is that she covers for him. I overheard her telling the other neighbor kids that she got the scrape falling off her bike.

Cries to mom behind closed doors... saying, "kitty mean!"

But she reverts back to warrior princess outside, determined to not let her personal relationships affect her work tilling the land.

The problem is, she doesn't know how to healthily express her anger and frustration about the abusive relationship she's in. The tomatoes end up getting the brunt of her wrath. Poor, poor defenseless tomatoes. Gory remains I found the other day on our counter top. Gory indeed. (I really did find this tomato exactly like this. Except when I found it, it had a little piece of paper pinned to it labeled "kitty".)

P.S. Please take some of our yellow squash! I mean, not in the middle of the night while we're sleeping or anything. But let us give you some. Please.