Winter in The Cat’s garden could mean anything from hours of warm, winter sun to strong winds and heavy rain. Luckily, the cats were resilient; there were plenty of places to shelter in the fields and the garden, and they adapted to whatever challenges the weather presented. Food and water were available 24/7 and, as soon as the summer had passed, the cats started to build up their winter reserves, laying down fat to keep themselves warm (and just in case they were stranded in the bad weather and couldn’t come to eat for a day or two).

The last December in The Cat’s garden was quite typical weather-wise with a mix of rainy days, strong winds and some lovely warm sunshine in between. There were windfalls from the citrus trees giving a splash of colour (and occasionally delivering a bop on the head to a passing feline), and the grass and undergrowth was starting to grow after the rain. The cats had their winter coats and were well-insulated.

There was pruning and gardening to be done, and, as usual, nothing happened without Sherpa’s ‘assistance’. Everything was a source of excitement and wonder to him – something he didn’t lose as he grew up over the next few months.

The downside of the longer grass was damp cats, especially in the morning, so we cut pathways for them so they could walk around without getting wet. But when the dew had dried, there were opportunities aplenty for the cats (especially the younger ones like Dandy Grey, Linnet and Moonstruck) to play their hide-and-pounce games.

For feline connoisseurs, having a lovely muddy puddle from which to drink was obviously so much more tempting than boring bottled water or water from the well, although Pascha here was a little perturbed to find his well-trodden path from the feeding station to the verandah had become a lake following the rain. Drinking it was one thing – wading through it, quite another.

But when the sun came through, there was real warmth in it, warmth for napping on the verandah, warmth for sitting in the sun and grooming, and warmth for finding some dry wooden panelling to sharpen claws as Raven was doing here.