Over the eleven years we cared for The Garden Family and Visiting Cats, there were surprisingly few alpha-males, taking into account the territory available.

NVQ was a black-and-white feral alpha-male who appeared around the time that the reign of the orange alpha-males was reaching its end. His territory appeared to centre around the fields on the other side of the road, where he came and went regularly.

He was a mature, confident, powerfully-built cat, determined and ambitious, and his intention was obvious – to add The Cat’s side of the road to his kingdom. He wasn’t particularly interested in courting The Cat; there were plenty of female cats in the fields who were happy to be his companions, so if The Cat fell for his bad-boy charms that would be all well and good, but NVQ wasn’t going to try too hard.

The fields surrounding the garden had been the territory of alpha-males such as Saturday and Mr Tiffin. With them gone and their reign over, NVQ no doubt saw a gap in the hierarchy and, cloaked in his usual level of confidence and self-assurance, he arrived in the garden and acted as though he owned it from day one.

But how did he get his name?’ I hear you ask.

Well, at that time there were very few visiting black-and-white cats, with the most recent being Quink. So while some might think NVQ is short for National Vocational Qualifications, it was actually short for Not Very Quink.

So now you know, and we will continue…

NVQ came regularly to eat but remained completely feral, eyeing the humans with deep dislike and suspicion. His reputation was legendary and he was not afraid to fight – in fact, he relished it. He would patrol the fields, looking for other male cats in the hope of terrorising them and making his mark on the neighbourhood (and on them).

Previous alpha-males such as Saturday had relied heavily on bullying other male cats in order to make his mark without fighting, but NVQ was not interested in niceties such as psychological warfare – he just dived straight in and went for the kill. The other males knew it and, with self-protection and their own survival in mind, avoided him wherever possible.

And while it was unpleasant to watch NVQ picking off the weaker males one by one, there was nothing that any human could do to stop him, and his single-minded pursuit of complete dominance had to be admired; such was the life of the feral alpha-male.

Mr Bright was not a push-over and had his own fierce reputation, but with NVQ only a metre away, the sensible decision (for a heavily-built male like Mr Bright) was to slink off. At least he was still in one piece, and, with NVQ’s reputation, that could easily be seen as a victory for Mr Bright.