When it came to coat colours, what we think of as traditional tabby cats (the brown-ish variety) were a rarity in and around The Cat’s garden; in fact, in eleven years, only nine tabby cats were spotted.

The first tabby was actually the very first Visiting Cat to be photographed in The Cat’s garden. He was a big, well-built cat who spent an afternoon relaxing under the citrus trees before disappearing, never to be seen again.

Next was Mr Grey, who went on to become The Evil Grey and then returned a few years later, rebranded as Sunday. He was tabby-ish with grey more prevalent than brown in his coat.


And then Dinky arrived, a dumped Bengal cat with the tabby markings typical of his breed. He had black pads, silver ticked fur, and a good thick coat.

The following summer, a young tabby cat called Flash appeared. Sadly, she looked quite unwell and we only saw her for a few days before she disappeared back into the fields opposite.

The next arrival was a male cat from the fields. In appearance, he resembled Mr Grey who, by this time, was known as Sunday, so the newcomer was named il-Ħadd (meaning Sunday). He was completely feral and avoided humans at all costs.

And il-Ħadd might have been the father of Cracker’s tabby kitten Mr T who was part of the Garden Family but sadly succumbed to the virus which swept through the cat population one hot summer.

We named the seventh tabby il-Ħadd 2.0 as he was very similar to the original il-Ħadd, but was partially sighted, having only one good eye.

And maybe history repeated itself and il-Ħadd 2.0 was father to tabby twins born to The Cat’s daughter Flora, enabling the tabby line to continue, albeit not in great number.