The Cat’s first litter after we met her couldn’t really have been more colourful. There were four kittens, all with completely different coloured fur. Neither The Cat nor her kittens were friendly in these early days so we never knew which kittens were male and which female, except for Splodge who would almost certainly have been female as she was a calico kitten.

Ginge had beautiful, opalescent eyes and quite a fluffy coat compared to the others.

Tabby was a traditional grey-and-white tabby with a little white scarf. Tabby and Blackie were best friends.

Splodge was a calico with a black spot under her nose. She was an independent kitten, often whiling away the afternoons by lying in the drive, watching the world go past the gates while her siblings slept in the garden.

Blackie was the brains of the family and the first to discover the short cut from the drive to the garden by way of a drainpipe through the wall. It seemed in later years that the black cats of The Cat’s litters were the smallest – but also the smartest.

None of them resembled each other; they were a real pick-and-mix of a family. If we were to guess, we would have said that Splodge was the only girl but, in retrospect (and having been surprised in later years) we were probably wrong!