The younger generation of the garden cats who were not directly related to The Cat also continued to do well.

Shady had put on weight, and her mother Phantom and brother and sister Tuxedo Joe and Braveheart were still regular visitors to the drive. Shady didn’t seem too bothered about returning to her original family group; she was happy in the garden, and, in any case, she could soon go over the wall into the drive if she wanted to see her mother and siblings.

Dawn still visited occasionally, and her daughter Linnet and son Raven were growing into fine young adults. Like Pascha, Linnet had grown up partially sighted, and was used to coping. She went as far as the garden perimeter walls, through the olive tree, and was happy climbing the fruit trees in the garden. Up to now, she had not seemed too bothered about exploring the fields or going outside the garden boundary, which was probably wise with her poor sight.

Linnet’s brother Raven was growing up unto the image of his father, BBC, who was happy to spend time with his son when he came to eat. There were times when it was becoming hard to tell them apart, but these periods were punctuated by Raven’s growing spurts when he looked really lean and scrawny for a few weeks before he filled out and his fur became more sumptuous once again.

Sundown had become strongly bonded to her big sister, Mini, and her littermate Moonstruck was happy to play with Sherpa and other members of the Garden Family in the garden while Sundown and Mini went out into the fields. Sundown was not friendly; like her sister Mini, she had inherited her mother She-ba’s temperament and was averse to contact with the humans.

Mini had not changed since she had first come to the garden. Sadly, we had lost her sister Lychee during the summer virus, but Mini now had a strong bond with her younger sister Sundown and they were comfortable with each other, spending most of their time together.

Moonstruck was by far the friendliest of the family. She had been the runt and would never be as big as Sundown or her brother Cosmos, but she was an easy-going, happy girl with a sense of fun and fitted well with the Garden Family.

And Sherpa was busy being Sherpa. He was an independent, lively, clever and cheeky boy, playing with anyone and everyone who would give him the time, and still closely bonded to Pascha and acting as his guide. Sherpa was a success story, the only one of Dawn’s four kittens to have made it past their first few weeks, and it had been a team effort to get him this far with Cheese taking over mothering, and input from Checkers, Pascha and other members of the Garden Family.

Although we didn’t know it at the time, we only had a few months left living in the house with the garden, so, in retrospect, the stronger and fitter the cats were, the better. They were all able to hunt, and many of them were already familiar with the farmers in the nearby fields and with our neighbours, who had been feeding the outdoor cats long before we had arrived there.

It was good to see them all blossoming through the winter months, after the awful spring and summer they had lived through.