Following the demise of The Cat, it may have felt that everything had changed but, for the Garden Family and the Visiting Cats, life continued pretty much as before.

In terms of the direct descendants of The Cat, her son Blackfur, daughter Flora and her older offspring Swift, Dandy Grey and Satsuma, still came to eat regularly, as did Flora’s daughter Pippin and her older son Pascha.

The Cat’s departure meant that the position of matriarch now passed down to one of her daughters and, as Whitefur had made her home with her brother Greyfur in the fields opposite, the title passed to Flora who still considered the garden to be her home.

Pippin was closely bonded to her mother Flora, as Flora had been to The Cat before.

The weeks and months passed and the humans still hoped for some sign from The Cat, something that would tell us that she had ‘arrived’ somewhere, that she had found peace in the next world … but nothing came.

And then, six months to the day and around the time in the morning when we lost The Cat, a paw made of clouds appeared in the sky. A fluffy paw, very like hers.

And we realised that she hadn’t gone anywhere; in fact, she was everywhere – under her favourite trees, on the tank, in the long grass, on the verandah – just out of sight, round a corner, watching everything, still a part of life, just as she had been before.

The following year, The Cat’s daughter Flora and Pippin were the ones to continue The Cat’s line with a new generation of kittens. It would be nice to think that somehow the story of Grandma’s Paw In The Sky would be passed down to Flora’s new family…

…and the story of Great-Grandma’s Paw In The Sky to Pippin’s sons.

Life went on. It had to.