The first glimpse of one of The Cat’s new kittens was always a hugely exciting moment for the humans and raised so many questions – how many were there? Where were they living? When would they come for weaning? Were they boys or girls?

Two of The Cat’s litters were born in the garden but the others were born in the fields, so the very first photos are sometimes indistinct – a glimpse of fur in the hedgerow, a kitten under some long grass – but nonetheless, exciting.

Fleckle was the first kitten of an early litter of The Cat’s. Obviously we knew that The Cat was raising her family in the fields, but more than that we could only guess at. So when we spotted Fleckle, it answered a lot of questions – we knew the area of the field where the kittens were living, and we knew that, with patience, we would soon see any other kittens making up the family.

And, in the following days, we did indeed get to see Fleckle’s three siblings – Fickle, Fred and Drip. Fred was the only boy, the three girls were various tortoiseshell/calico shades. They were a happy family, spending their first weeks in the field and then being brought to the garden by their mother for weaning.

Next were Pedal, Ratchet and Sprocket who were probably around seven weeks old when we first spotted them in the fields.

Even from a young age, Pedal felt the need to look after his two sisters, just as Fred had with Fickle, Fleckle and Drip a couple of years earlier. They were a tight-knit family, once again coming to the garden for weaning and dividing their time between the garden and the fields. Sadly Ratchet was the weakest of the three and only lived for a few months, but Pedal and Sprocket grew up into fine young cats.

The following year, Sprocket became a mother a few days after The Cat had her litter. They formed a colony, bringing the kittens up together right from the very beginning, each of the mothers having given birth to four kittens. They were only a few days old in this photo.

They spent two weeks in the garden, followed by two weeks on the terrace, and were then taken back to the garden by their mothers for the weaning process to commence. They were one big, happy family with both mothers looking after the kittens, although The Cat and Sprocket had very different styles of mothering.

A few years later, The Cat gave birth to Whitefur, Greyfur and Blackfur under long grass in the garden. Despite having her kittens in the garden, we gave her space and did not approach them until she was comfortable with our presence close to her new family which explains why they were around four weeks old when we saw them for the first time and took this photo.

Whitefur and her brothers Greyfur and Blackfur grew up into fine cats, living independent lives in the fields and continuing to come to the garden to eat as adults.

The Cat’s final litter was once again born in the fields so we didn’t know how many kittens there were until The Cat brought them to the garden at the age of approximately two weeks; they stayed for a couple of weeks before their mother took them back to the fields.

Flora (pictured) and her brother Furrileesa were then brought back to the garden once again for weaning and spent most of their time there. Why The Cat removed them from the garden in between, we don’t know – maybe there were too many cats coming in and out, maybe there were unwanted attentions from male or female adults.

The Cat obviously had her own reasons, and she didn’t care to share them with us.