Magento 'Featured Categories' Images Not Loading on Frontend - php

Question

In my Magento (1.9.3.3) Admin panel, I have images uploaded for each category, and I'm able to see them from the category edit form. However, on the front-end homepage, my featured images are not showing. If I inspect the home page, each category image src is blank:
<img alt="" src="">
The code that generates this is as follows:
<?php
$_subcategories = Mage::getResourceModel('catalog/category_collection')
->addAttributeToSelect('*')
->addAttributeToFilter('is_active', 1)
->addAttributeToFilter('is_featured', 1)
->addAttributeToSort( 'feature_position');
$_subcategories->getSelect()->limit(7,0);
$categories_count = count($_subcategories);
?>
<div class="row">
<?php
$count = 0;
if($_subcategories): ?>
<ul id="myList">
<?php foreach ($_subcategories as $cat):
$count = $count + 1;
if( $count > 6 ) {
break;
}
?>
<li class="col-md-4 cat-item col-sm-4 col-xs-12" style="display: list-item;">
<a class="image-link" href="<?php echo $cat->getUrl($cat);?>"><div class="feature-cat"><img alt="" src="<?php echo $cat->getImageUrl();?>">
<div class="feature-cat-name"><?php echo $cat->getname(); ?></div>
</div>
</a>
</li>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>
<?php endif; ?>
</div>
So, the final HTML output for each category looks like this:
<a class="image-link" href="http://127.0.0.1/product-category/product1">
<div class="feature-cat"><img alt="" src="">
<div class="feature-cat-name">Batteries</div>
</div>
</a>
Any ideas what $cat->getImageUrl() is coming back NULL, but all the other category attributes are fine? I've tried a number of things with no success. Thank you!

Answer 1

Also add below attribute to filters and then try.
$_subcategories = Mage::getResourceModel('catalog/category_collection')
->addAttributeToSelect('*')
->addAttributeToFilter('is_active', 1)
->addAttributeToFilter('is_featured', 1)
->addAttributeToSort( 'feature_position')
->addAttributeToSelect('image');
Then get the image for each category in for loop.
foreach($_subcategories as $subcat) {
echo "Image : ".$subcat->getImage();
}

Answer 2

Try this
if($_category->getImageUrl()){
$catimg = $_category->getImageUrl();
}else{
$catimg=null;
continue;
Or just
$catimg = $_category->getImageUrl();

Answer 3

This worked:
$_subcategories =
Mage::getResourceModel('catalog/category_collection')
->addAttributeToSelect('*')
->addAttributeToFilter('is_active', 1)
->addAttributeToFilter('is_featured', 1)
->addAttributeToSort( 'feature_position')
->addAttributeToFilter('image', array('notnull' => true));