Ferny weed with little pink flowers, need ID!

I was unable to get very good photos of this plant, but hope maybe someone can ID it. I walk dogs at our animal shelter along a path thru a meadow and the woods, and have found caterpillars on the plants recently, and it might be easier id'ing the caterpillars if I know what plant is hosting them. It's a tall plant (some 5' and more) with one main stem up the middle, and ferny foliage on long arms all the way up. Right now it's got small pink flowers. Can anyone id it from these terrible photos?

here's another photo:

and here's one of the cats, just in case anyone can id it as well!

It's a Gerardia (Agalinis ssp) but I'm not completely sure which species - maybe A. linifolia?

It looks like your camera is more interested in focusing on the background than the plant, probably because the plant is so slender. If you are using a point-and-shoot camera that claims to have "intelligent autofocus", try changing the focus settings to focus on the center of the frame (check the owner's manual).

Once you have better pictures you can post in the plant ID forum to get input from more people. http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/plantid/all/

The way I solve the problem when my camera wants to focus on something else is either put my hand or a piece of paper behind what I want to shoot then focus and remove hand/paper.

X

Wow Tom, you're good. I had found a torn butterfly wing in a nearby spider web, the remains of which looked like that of a buckeye. So when you gave me the identity of this plant, that gave me my answer for sure, buckeyes use the gerardia as their host plant. So nice to know, thanks so much!
My biggest problem taking the photos was that I didn't have my reading glasses with me on my walk, and couldn't see the monitor on my camera. What I thought was a decent photo out there in the woods didn't look so good transferred onto the computer back home!
Thanks again for the help Tom, and you too X!! I love the pretty buckeyes and am glad there is so much of this particular host plant around.

LOL, I had to laugh Thea, I do that all the time.

Good sleuthing!