Sometimes, a litter produces one kitten who seems to have been created with the sole intention of being the joker of the family, the one packed with eccentric character who does the silliest things.

Sherpa was one of those kittens, and so was his older brother, Raven.

Raven was born to mother Dawn and came to the garden with siblings Cetti, Swallow and Linnet for weaning. Sadly, Swallow did not survive long, and we lost Cetti to the summer virus. But Linnet and Raven thrived.

Raven never had any aspirations to become an alpha-male cat; his father was BBC, a beautiful fluffy black cat who came from another garden across the fields, and it was from BBC that Raven inherited his placid but playful demeanour.

So today, please enjoy ten photos of Raven just being Raven – to be honest, it was hard to stop at ten

1. Only three months old but already packed full of attitude and refusing to conform.
We had erected a shade cloth barrier to reduce the direct sun in the summer; the shade cloth was turned up and over the bottom rail and fixed with cable ties, but obviously someone thought that they could re-purpose the bottom seam to make the perfect hammock. The life of the shade cloth had been considerably reduced, but Raven looked so proud of himself with his tail and one back leg poking out that it was impossible to be annoyed with him.

2. Raven was a willing playmate for his younger brother, Sherpa, who had been brought to the garden for weaning by their mother, Dawn.
Unfortunately, Dawn was not giving Sherpa the care he needed to thrive and so I placed him with another female, Cheese, who adopted him and took over his mothering. Big brother Raven became part of Sherpa’s life and they played together a lot.

3. Raven and The Cat’s great-grandson Pascha became sparring partner and tussle-buddies.
Raven seemed to realise that Pascha was partially sighted and was always controlled and sensitive in his actions.

4. Hide and seek for Raven and Pascha.
Probably due to his poor sight, Pascha’s other senses were highly developed and he wanted to do everything that the other cats did – he didn’t realise he was any different from them.

5. Raven and Pascha relaxing together after a sparring session.
Maybe it was share-a-box-with-a-friend day.

6. Raven practising his line-dancing moves.
This was a wire top which fitted over the barrel when it was the other way up, to prevent the cats from falling in when the barrels were full of water. Raven was picking his way around the wire, treading only in the gaps.

7. Paws-in-the-air was one of Raven’s favourite positions.
He would wriggle and squirm around until someone came to play with him, or a human came to scratch his belly.

8. This was Raven’s favourite box.
The hardboard tops of the greengrocer’s boxes absorbed the moisture from the air and soon sagged. Uncomfortable though they looked, the cats loved them – to find one which was moulded to your shape must have been the feline equivalent of having a memory-foam mattress.

9. He never wanted to miss anything that was going on.
Raven was inquisitive and nosy and nothing happened in the garden without his knowing.

10. Raven having the last word – he was an extremely chatty cat.
He would chatter away, following the humans around – looking for Raven was like following a GPS signal.