Apart from The Cat’s new grand-kittens, there were other new families in The Cat’s Garden.

Dawn, Twilight’s daughter, had her kittens in the fields and brought them into the garden for weaning. She cleverly decided to stay close to the bottom of the garden (an area rarely frequented by The Cat) and she tucked the kittens away in the long grass behind some plastic barrels. Dawn had one calico, one orange, one black-and-white and one completely black kitten and she named her calico daughter Linnet so we chose birds’ names for the others – Cetti (a local warbler), Raven and Swallow. They adjusted well to their new home, although they all had a virus which soon claimed Swallow and left Linnet and Cetti with impaired vision.

Visitor’s daughter Cheese also had her own family which her best friend Souci, Flora’s daughter, was helping to raise. There was Persil (or parsley), Turmeric, and Oregano. Souci had been adopted by Cheese’s twin sister Cracker at the age of twelve weeks when Flora tired of mothering, so maybe this was a way of putting something back into Cracker’s family.

Oregano was a very loving kitten and formed strong bonds with Lychee, which was lovely to see as Lychee’s health was sadly not improving.

And of course there was Flora’s family. While her oldest daughter Souci was helping Cheese, younger daughter Calypso was happy to be part of the kittens’ early days, helping her mother with her new brood. Flora had five kittens, so extra help was doubtless very welcome.

Flora named her calico daughter Swift (continuing the avian theme), and we named the others Buffy, Checkers, Satsuma and Dandy Grey.

They were a relaxed and contented bunch and all looked reasonably well, although Satsuma (the runt) was noticeably smaller than the others and had a stump for a tail.