The Cat was an adult mother-of-two when we first met her. She was a long-bodied cat, lean and fine-boned; her legs were long and slender (but her paws were large) and her face tapered. Although obviously adult, she seemed quite young.

This is one of the first photos we have of The Cat. She was wary of humans, spending more time in the fields than in the garden, but coming to the drive for the occasional handful of dry food and to drink from a pail of water, both supplied by the owner of the property before we moved in.

As The Cat matured, her fur became thicker and her general appearance became more ‘mature adult’ and less ‘young adult’, although, if you were to stroke her, there was still as little as ever under all that fur. We knew her in total for ten years plus a few days and, in that time, she made the garden her base, enjoying keeping a watchful eye on the comings and goings of the other cats as their numbers grew, when we took over feeding.

This is one of the last photos we have of her, taken five days before we lost her on the road. She was not a particularly sociable cat but all the same she liked to be in the middle of things, watching everyone, as you would expect of the matriarch of the garden.

The Cat’s son Ana (who was living in the fields and the garden with his mother when we moved there) was probably the equivalent of a human teenager in years. He was lean and strong with his mother’s tapered face and long legs.

As Ana grew into his new rôle as protector of his mother and the garden and fulfilled his wish of becoming a neighbourhood alpha-male, he filled out, becoming thick-set and powerful. He grew into a solid, muscular cat, albeit with a stump for a tail as a result of The Tail Incident; he was a sociable cat with a lovely personality, doing his best to protect his mother and her garden, and the humans too.

Ana was the only cat who understood that there were two sides to a spoon, and always sat and waited for it to be turned over so he could lick the back.

Both The Cat and Ana flourished when there was more food available regularly; the garden was theirs for the taking with no other cats living there at the time, and they made it their own domain, The Cat assuming her matriarchal position as she matured.