That spring, there was an influx of new Visiting Cats. After a few weeks of an usually high number of new arrivals, we realised that it was due to the pandemic, as local businesses and offices had been forced to close due to the national shutdown, with many outdoor cats losing their regular food source.

Some of the new cats came to eat for a few weeks while they explored their options in the fields and beyond. Some returned to their original feeding stations when shops and offices reopened, but some carried on coming to eat and became regular visitors.

One of the latter was Thundercat, an orange-and-white young male. He was fit and healthy (although only partially sighted in one eye), he had an extraordinarily long tail, and he was keen to work his way up the pecking order of alpha-males. He was completely feral but fitted in well with the other cats; he was ambitious, but not too pushy.

CoffeeCat was very similar to T (hence the name). He visited for three months before he disappeared, probably back to his original base. Then he reappeared the following winter, so maybe his usual feeders left the country for the winter months every year, or maybe he was being fed by a local farmer who didn’t have any crops to tend to during the winter months. Either way, CoffeCat was very wary and humans were not allowed close to him.

AOK’s name was a pun on ‘another orange cat’ and he was very similar in appearance to Thundercat, although he only visited for a few weeks.

And then there was Izit, a big alpha-male with peach-coloured fur. Again he was a feral cat and did not like being close to humans. He gave his name as Izambard The Italian – a grand name for a grand cat – and he disappeared at the same time as CoffeeCat, also reappearing the following winter. It seemed there was a pattern emerging.

Of course, food and water was always available in The Cat’s Garden, the drive and path, and all were welcome so cats were free to come and to as they pleased. They knew where the feeding bowls were, and they knew that they were replenished daily.