Phantom had arrived out of the blue 18 months earlier, brought to the neighbouring field by her mother, introduced to the food bowls in the front path and, after a couple of days, left on her own. There is only one photo of her as a small kitten, taken on the first or second day in the field when her mother was still with her, showing her mother’s anxious eyes looking straight at us, and a flash of white below her – presumably Phantom.

For quite some time, Phantom was very nervous around us and we spent the first five weeks of her visits for food believing that she was a he, as s/he would not allow us to come close.

As Phantom matured, she chose the far side of the fields opposite as her base, trekking through the crops and crossing the road twice a day for food and water, later on with her kittens running behind. Phantom was a petite cat with a lot of determination and common sense, and these attributes she passed down to her kittens as best she could.

Phantom’s kittens were very well disciplined, as they needed to be to come across the fields and the road safely to eat. There was good hunting and water available on the other side of the road where the farmers worked, but Phantom had decided that the food we were providing was preferable, and she was prepared to make the trek.

For the most part, her kittens were not sociable and avoided human contact, but they were strongly bonded to their mother and there would always be a dominant male in her brood whose job was to look after mamma (as Tuxedo Joe illustrates so well in this photo).

Unusually for feral cats, Phantom, Kiwi and Gypsy struck up a lasting friendship; three feisty, independent ladies enjoying time together, while Phantom took a break from the demands of family life. They would meet in the path, lie on the wall together in the sun and then share some food before having a nap and heading off in their individual directions, back to the fields.

Fortunately, Phantom was not personally affected by the virus which swept through the cat population than summer, although sadly one of her kittens, Mohi, succumbed and passed away.

And Gypsy was one of the adults who we lost; touchingly, she and Mohi both passed away on the last day of the outbreak, choosing the same spot in the drive to take their last breaths, together forever.

But for Kiwi and Phantom and the other kittens, life went on – they were the lucky ones and they had their lives to live. Phantom’s offspring, like The Cat’s and Twilight’s, remained completely loyal to their mother even as adults; she had earned their respect and admiration, something that would never change.