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Great pictures! Good luck!

Thanks Iris! I've never raised cats in enclosures before but we have so many lizards that are always in my garden that I am sure would find the cats very tasty.

Congrats on the BST!!

Not the most elegant solution but I wrap my host plants in reusable tulle (screen like fabric available at craft stores) bound together with wooden clothespins. I dont think anole predation is that big of a concern but wasps will eat everything and are not as affected by the chemical defenses of monarchs and swallowtails. this is working for me. The grain of mine is small enough that eggs and very young cats can enter but predators including tachinid flies and wasps cannot.

Sigh...I watched through my window as a juvenile anole perched itself right above my 7-cat fennel. It sat for a couple of minutes, just watching -- I hoped beyond hope that if he'd have seen prey, he would've pounced right away. I was wrong and saw the lizard jump at the fennel, grab a cat mid-air and land on the brick patio with its meal.

I ripped up some old curtain sheers and pinned together a make-shift tent:

Made a trip to the local fabric store and bought a lot of tulle -- spent the hour hand stitching a bag (for the giants on the orange tree, for now). Much better!

I think I caught this just in the nick of time as a couple of the cats had crawled beyond the organza bag (I didn't want to cinch too tightly), and there was a baby (2-1/2") anole lurking around on the branches.

Will sew bags to cover the potted fennel and dill, and will consider making up a few for the monarchs on the yard milkweeds.

Great job, Javiwa!

Thanks for all the info guys! I never thought about covering my outdoor plants with netting. Until this year, I always said that I wasn't getting in Mother Nature's way but I can't take anymore cats getting eaten or infected.

Ugh, I'm just sick about this. I watched as the same anole lurked. No way he gets through the tulle, I say to myself:

Within moments, he spied the cats through the netting and decided to take a chomp. :( He mortally wounded one or two of the little cats by the time I could rush outside. Had to quickly rework my netting by poking BBQ skewers all around the pot perimeter, then bagging the entire setup with another tulle bag. I've spent three days sewing up bags, and I now have almost every size imaginable! Quite a therapeutic way to spend some time, though. :)

Just checked my local nursery, and they are completely out of dill and fennel. I'll need to completely net a couple of fennel plants (that don't currently have any cats on them), and save them as a food source.