That spring, Flora had also had a new family (Buffy, Dandy Grey, Swift, Checkers and Satsuma) so Pascha and Pascal grew up in the company of similarly-aged kittens … who were technically their uncles and aunts. But the kittens didn’t worry about that sort of thing – they were just one big happy family (although it does make you wonder whether they do sometimes feel a familial bond, something drawing them together).

Dandy seemed to understand that Pascal (pictured) and Pascha were somehow different; when he played with them, he was more forgiving and patient, and less competitive.

He was like a big brother to them, choosing to eat and nap with Pascha and Pascal rather than with his own siblings.

Also growing up in the garden were Dawn’s kittens Cetti, Raven and Linnet, and Mr T, Cracker’s son. This photo shows a normal feeding time with cats from top left clockwise – Lychee, Dandy Grey, Raven, Swift (top), Pascal, Pascha (bottom) and Mr T.

And Pascha and Pascal were not the only kittens with impaired vision as Cetti and Linnet had the same virus as tiny kittens, which had also left them partially sighted.

Checkers, like his brother Dandy Grey, was happy to play with Pascal (pictured) and Pascha – the boys tussled and chased just as much as any full-sighted kittens.

Here, Pascha is napping with Swift and Checkers in the shade.

In retrospect, it was all very bittersweet because of the virus which was waiting to take so many of them, but at the time they were carefree and happy, just as kittens deserve to be and there was no rhyme of reason as to why Pascal would be lost but not Pascha, Cetti but not Raven or Linnet, and why all of Flora’s kittens would be unaffected.

At the time, they lived each day as it came, enjoying what time they had.

The header photo shows clockwise from top left – Checkers, Linnet, Pascha, Sherpa, Pascal, Swift, Dandy Grey and Raven having breakfast together in the garden.