The Cat’s Garden was bordered on three sides by fields (well, almost three sides as part of one border was occupied by our neighbours’ aviary), the fourth border being the road which ran past the front of the property. Within those borders lay four distinct areas accessible to cats – the garden (including the veranda), the drive, the front path, and the terrace (both the latter were in an ‘L’ shape).

The terrace was at first floor level, accessed by the humans through the house and out of the kitchen door. It was surrounded by a limestone balustrade through which cats could look down on the garden and drive (or they could choose to lie on the top and nap, as Thundercat was doing in this photo). It gave a good view of the surrounding fields, the drive, and The Cat’s garden.

Cats were not fed on the terrace, although there was always fresh water available. For the cats, there was only one way on and off the terrace – via the high wall at the bottom of the drive under the olive tree. Just in front of where Muffin is sleeping was where cats would have arrived, jumping up in between the balustrades after crossing the high wall under the olive tree.

Given the lack of easy access, it was a surprise that so many cats found their way to the terrace, especially Visiting Cats whose base was not the garden. During the day, they seemed to regard it as a quiet area, somewhere peaceful to nap and relax as NotNVQ is so nicely demonstrating here.

At dawn and dusk it was a good place from which to pester the humans as feeding time approached – as Polka was doing in this photo (and also Ghost, pictured in the header photo, as she made her point on the kitchen windowsill).

Today, here are photos of five Visiting Cats who found their way to the terrace; none of these cats were happy with human touch and it was thus surprising that they chose to come to relatively enclosed area which was potentially so close to the humans.