Today, another four Visiting Cats who we saw growing old. Some had attendant health problems, some caused by their lifestyle (for instance the alpha-males), some maybe genetic, some possibly due to viruses they carried. As ever, it was impossible to know any details as they had all arrived as adult cats and we had no idea of their history, and very little knowledge of how they spent their time (outside of coming to eat, and what we saw of them in the neighbourhood).

Sabiħa was a cared-for cat from another garden across the fields.

She was mature when she first arrived, and, as the years passed, we saw her showing all the signs of old age with her coat become less sumptuous, and her weight reducing. It was good to know she had people who also cared for her somewhere else.

Gypsy was one of the cats who arrived during the pandemic; unlike some of the other cats, Gypsy decided not to return to her previous feeder/home.

Gypsy had probably been a colony cat somewhere else and was ear-tipped and neutered. Looking back, we feel she was probably a lot older than we thought when we first saw her, and her decline in health was probably natural, although sadly hastened by the virus which swept through the garden that awful summer.

Mr Bright was one of the neighbourhood orange alpha-males, feral and fierce and a force to be reckoned with.

Mr Bright picked up a couple of injuries to his front leg but refused to rest up, preferring to continue his very successful alpha-male lifestyle. This led to his leg healing crooked, but despite this and the signs of old age, he remained one of the front-runners when it came to the dominant males of the area.

And even NVQ (who also seemed as though he would carry on as alpha-male forever) showed signs of aging in later years.

He lost some weight, and his coat was thinner, but the younger males were still in awe of him, and his reign continued with himself and Mr Bright being the longest serving alpha-males of the neighbourhood over the years.

Cats came and went, some quicker than others. Those who grew old were in some ways the lucky ones; the average life-span of a feral cat is low due to the mortality rate of kittens, so to survive kittenhood and make it to adulthood can be a feat in itself, and to grow old naturally a luxury for some.

The header photo shows The Cat in her last year with her daughter Whitefur.