The Cat and her daughters were not the only tortoiseshell/calico cats in the neighbourhood.

As there are a multitude of colourways and shades, tortoiseshell and calico can range from predominantly white with patches of other colours, all the way to brindle or dark shades where the colours are more muted and less clearly defined.

The first tortoiseshell Visiting Cat who came to the garden for food and water was Visitor Cat.

Like The Cat, Visitor had quite a luxurious coat in the winter (and an impressive tail), but looked more slender in the summer. The Cat disliked Visitor with an unusual intensity – the sort of intensity that takes energy, which was something The Cat was not inclined to dispense without good cause.

Next was Sniffly Cat who was a calico cat; her base colour was white with muted grey and orange patches and her eyeliner was always perfect.

The Cat was indifferent to her, and Sniffly was never completely relaxed around the humans. She was a true feral and always returned to the fields.

Nosewipe lived in a carpentry workshop up the road. Her colours were very muted and lacking white, and her nose was much paler with a little peach-orange stripe.

Nosewipe’s name was self-explanatory inas much as she really did like to wipe her nose on your shoes. She probably had a much more sensible name back at home, but, with so many cats to keep tabs on, naming cats after their traits was something that meant they were instantly recognisable to us.

Sabiħa had a black-and-orange head, but more white on her body.

Her colours were quite strong and clearly defined, and she had a white ‘shawl’ round her shoulders which made her easy to identify. She was either someone’s garden cat, or even maybe an indoor-outdoor pet. She was definitely used to human contact and her number one priority was food (also numbers two and three).

Then came Twilight. The bottom half of her face and her nose were white, with black above, and her body was mostly mottled black/brown/orange with white paws and a white patch under her chin. At first glance from a certain direction, she could sometimes look like a tuxedo cat.

Twilight liked living in the fields; for a female, she roamed a wide area from the edge of the next village through the fields to The Cat’s Garden, and even as far as the vineyards on the other side of the road.

And finally there was Polka who, like Nosewipe, had a peach striped nose and a marbled body with no white whatsoever.

Polka was an occasional visitor, usually during the winter months only. Maybe her usual feeder was a spring-and summer-time farmer, or someone who was only on the island for part of the year.

There were no two tortoiseshell or calico cats who were so alike that is was hard to tell them apart; their colours were so particular that it was hard to imagine that each did not have a unique coat pattern. And, like The Cat, their characters were feisty and determined, just like tortoiseshell and calico cats everywhere.