While the garden was primarily the domain of The Cat and her family, of course it was also accessible to the Visiting Cats. It was surrounded by a wall which could be accessed by agile cats from certain places in the fields, but cats could also come down the drive, onto a windowsill and wall, then onto the high wall, and carefully down through the olive tree into the garden.

Some cats felt at home in the garden and, so long as The Cat didn’t take a dislike to them, they started to join the Garden Family at mealtimes.

Thundercat (flying the flag for orange cats) and BBC (with his marvellous plume of a tail) had initially arrived together, and had always fitted in well. Thundercat was one of the younger males who was ambitious, but smart with it. He picked his fights carefully and on the whole managed to avoid the big names like NVQ; he was playing the long game, and playing it well.

BBC, on the other hand, while quite the ladies’ man, had no desire to be at the top of the alpha-male tree. He was more docile in his temperament, patient with kittens, and enjoyed being part of the group who ate in the garden.

Twilight, once she finally discovered the garden, could be very disruptive as she was so food-orientated that she could not accept that every single bowl of food was not for her delectation. She was also terrifically loud and insistent and, as the weeks passed, was becoming increasingly possessive of the humans.

For some reason, The Cat had taken a deep dislike to Kiwi, having famously chased her out of the garden when Kiwi was heavily pregnant. As Kiwi was a CH cat and not as nimble as the others, although she liked being in the garden, she stayed well away from The Cat as making a quick escape would have meant scaling the olive tree, going over the high wall, and down the other side onto the field wall and into the drive – all things that Kiwi found challenging at the best of times, never mind when running for her life from a furious tortoiseshell matriarch.

And then there was Gypsy. Gypsy was a free spirit. She knew the world was hers to enjoy and she would turn up in the garden, the drive, the front path, on the pavement outside, in the fields, on the windowsills, and the terrace.

She loved everyone and everything, and nothing would stop her from roaming to her heart’s content.