It’s autumn. The hot summer has passed and it’s time to start the cat chronicles once again with a round-up of life in The Cat’s world.

It has been a busy year so far for The Cat, ruling with (not such) an iron paw in The Cat’s Garden and overseeing her extended domain including the drive and path. Kittens, visitors, foster kittens and her own family from last year keep her busy. For the most part she is content to watch the world go by, the comings and goings, occasionally intervening when the fit takes her with the occasional hiss, spit, growl and flail of her fearsome claws.

The Furries, her three 2018 offspring (Whitefur, Greyfur and Blackfur), use the garden as their base. Sometimes they stay, sometimes they strike out into the fields staying away for hours or days. But eventually they return to refuel, eat and drink, and sleep off their adventures in a safe place, spending another few days recharging their batteries before venturing forth once again.

This year The Cat had her litter out in the fields, bringing them to the garden at a couple of weeks old, then removing them somewhere for another few weeks before carefully carrying them back, over high walls and up and down trees, ready for weaning. The Fourpaws (Flora and Furrileesa) were successfully weaned and spent a happy kittenhood in the garden before a virus sadly claimed Furrileesa at the age of nearly 5 months.

The Cat has once again permitted (after intensive negotiation) her arch-rival Visitor Cat to bring her kittens to the garden for safety and weaning, presumably on the proviso that Visitor heads off once the kittens are settled. This is the second year that this surprising arrangement has been in place, much to the benefit of the foster kittens (the Nearbys) who now have a safe home and provide companionship for Flora who would otherwise be the only one in her age group.

Feline visitors are fewer than in previous years, old age and illness having depleted numbers in the feral ranks. A new feral hierarchy is establishing itself gradually with old faces moving up the pecking order, and some new faces arriving.

Life goes on, cats come and go, but The Cat remains The Cat, the fierce alpha-female, affectionate when and if she feels like it, unpredictable, feisty, and who knows how old? Long may her reign continue – long live The Cat!