Over the years, we gave names to a lot of cats. As regards the Garden Family, sometimes there were themes to a family’s names, sometimes the mothers ‘told us’ what names they wanted, and sometimes names were random and individual.

During the last two years in The Cat’s garden, orange kittens were named after fruits.

First was She-ba’s daughter Lychee (sister to Rummien (meaning pomegranate) and Mini). She-ba was bringing her family up in the fields, coming to the drive or path to eat so it was puzzling to find one of her kittens in the garden. It seems that She-ba realised that Lychee was unwell and had left her in the garden, knowing that we would look after her. Sadly Lychee had health problems most of her life, but in between being unwell she had some lovely, happy times in the garden where she had the company of the other cats and kittens, and where Lychee’s sister Mini later joined her.

Next was Flora’s son Mango (brother to Black Tulip, Pippin, Brunel, Calypso and Vi). Unfortunately, Mango was not a strong kitten and passed away at only a few months old.

Then came Flora’s daughter Satsuma (sister to Buffy, Dandy Grey, Swift and Checkers). Not only was it unusual to have an orange female cat, but to have one who had been born with a stump for a tail made Satsuma extra-special. She was a lovely compact cat with a gentle disposition.

And finally there was Pippin’s son Mandarin (brother to Smokey). Mandarin was rehomed thanks to our local SPCA and went to his forever home at a few months old. He was full of life and quite a handful too (Mandarin is also featured in the header photo).

Even after subsequently moving to a new home, we continued this tradition by naming one of the feral cats in the fields Mr Melon!