For littermates with different personalities, we needed to look no further than She-ba’s family of four.

She-ba was Visitor’s daughter and came to the garden regularly to eat. She was not friendly but tolerated the humans so long as no one came too close or made any sudden moves; after eating, she returned immediately to the field, which was where she chose to have her kittens. As the months and year passed, she came close to one of the humans at feeding time, eating half a metre away on the feeding station, or opposite on a low wall. But at the slightest hint of a sudden or unexpected movement, She-ba would disappear up the olive tree to safety.

She-ba’s kittens initially came to the drive and front path for weaning, as they were more easily accessed from the fields than was the garden. The family numbered four kittens – two boys (Orion and Cosmos) and two girls (Sundown and Moonstruck); this first photo shows Moonstruck and Sundown at the back, and Cosmos at the front.

Sadly, Orion (pictured below) was killed on the road as a kitten, but the other three discovered the garden, and came and went as they pleased as they grew older.

Cosmos, the one remaining male, was completely feral – his father was probably Izit, who was also feral. Cosmos was never friendly and was not happy with humans in the vicinity; he chose to make his home in the fields near the garden where his grandmother, Visitor Cat, had lived. He probably came to eat at night or when there were no humans around, and when we did see him, he was always on edge and very wary as is evident from this photo.

Sundown was very like her mother She-ba inasmuch as she would have preferred no human contact at all, tolerating it only at feeding time and eating in exactly the same places as her mother. Sundown became strongly bonded with her older sister Mini and helped Mini raise her kittens; as well as being sisters, their characters were very similar.

And then there was Moonstruck (also shown in the header photo), who was undoubtedly the daughter of feral alpha-male NVQ. Moonstruck was completely different to her siblings in character. As a kitten, she suffered badly with fleas and it was necessary to socialise her to treat her, something that took only two days to do as she was such an amenable little cat.

She-ba continued to visit the garden daily to eat but she never acknowledged any of her offspring and they never tried to approach her – it may seen strange by human standards, but it worked for them.