The Cat’s kittens were always perfectly presented. Standards were high; kittens always had clean faces and bottoms, and their fur was fresh and washed. Growing up in the fields involved a lot of feeding, grooming and napping, and sometimes all three happened at once.

Feline mothers seem to know when their kittens need that little bit extra, and The Cat was no exception. For instance, Sprocket had runny eyes for quite some time as a kitten; unfortunately, the kittens were not friendly at that time, so we were unable to help out, but The Cat rigorously cleaned her daughter’s eyes over and over again and, after a few weeks, Sprocket’s eyes were back to normal. As an adult, no trace of Sprocket’s earlier problems was evident.

When The Cat and Sprocket later joined forces in the garden and brought up their litters in a single colony, the different aspects of mothering were shared between them. They both groomed the kittens – not only their own birth kittens, but any of the colony kittens. It was hard to know whether the kittens knew which mother was actually theirs, although it’s likely that the mothers knew which kittens belong to which female.

In some ways, this tradition was carried on into adulthood where it turned into mutual grooming (or allogrooming), which The Cat and her daughter Sprocket enjoyed. Here, Sprocket is grooming The Cat’s daughter Big Bang while The Cat grooms Sprocket. Sprocket’s daughter Snopake is hoping to edge in on the group and steal some grooming for herself.

Being fast asleep would not excuse any of The Cat’s kittens from being washed. Whether they could sleep through it was another matter, as Greyfur was about to find out as The Cat’s tongue descended into his ear.

But grooming wasn’t all about keeping clean; it also einforced the bonds which existed between mother and daughter. Here, The Cat is washing her daughter Flora; their relationship remained strong throughout The Cat’s life as it had between The Cat and Sprocket.

It seemed that the purpose of grooming went well beyond the basics of keeping oneself, or one’s kittens, clean – it also had a social aspect.