The beginning May marks the anniversary of when two weary humans first arrived at their new home, not knowing that this would mark the beginning of a long journey into the lives and love of feral cats.

At the start as the humans came and went, the cats were just part of the novelty of the new surroundings, passing through the garden just as they passed through the fields, mysterious and distant. It was only later with the humans in permanent residence and taking over cat-feeding duties from the landlord, that individual cats started to take on more of an identity and that the humans started to pay more attention. .

The now-considerable photo archive contains only a few photos from those first few months featuring The Cat (at that time a young, leggy tortoiseshell, wary and suspicious), her two sons Ana and Pea Cat, and just one Visiting Cat who was spotted one afternoon in the garden. Of course there were other cats – the property was surrounded by fields, after all – but they came and went without being noticed, the food which we placed in the drive being intended for The Cat and her family only. Food and water for the other feral field cats was being provided by our local farmers and a few neighbours, and there was good hunting in the fields.

Rumour has it that The Cat was gifted to the property owner in order to keep rodents at bay. For all the time we lived there, mystery surrounded The Cat’s past and she certainly never gave us any clues. Obviously, The Cat had not yet started training us – that was still to come, and she was taken aback by the appearance of these new humans, as you can see in this photo which is one of the earliest we have of her.

Ana and his brother Pea Cat were old enough to be independent, and as they matured, they realised that their respective hormones were not going to accommodate two alpha-males in the garden, and thus it was that they fought for the right to stay, and Ana was the victor. He and his mother settled into life in the fields and the garden; they got on well and spent a lot of time together.

Ana was still endowed with his full tail – this was some time before The Tail Incident and the blossoming of his name into Ana Half-Tail.

Pea Cat could not have been more different from Ana in appearance. He disappeared off into the fields and headed towards the next village (which wasn’t far, as the property was on the very limits of the town).

And the one Visiting Cat photographed during this time was this splendid tabby cat.

This was just the start – not that we knew it then, of course.