When we first met her, The Cat’s two offspring, Pea Cat and Ana, were living with her in the garden. They were young cats but not kittens, and the whole family was feral. No one was friendly and, in the end, it took years of socialising before The Cat herself allowed human touch; she was a fiercely independent feral, the matriarch of the garden, and respected by the other cats who passed through.

Pea Cat (so named for his habit of lying in the vegetable plants to keep cool) was a handsome young tuxedo.

And Ana (who we first thought was female) was a handsome (or pretty) young ginger-and-white cat. Life would have been easier, and considerably less messy, if The Cat had had one son and one daughter, but it transpired that this was not the case.

They were living together as a family, but apparently not a happy family, as we found out almost immediately we moved into our new home.