As soon as The Cat had approved the first pod (which we had bought to help her through the winter), we ordered two more and they were raised from the ground, set back on wooden pallets which were against the garden wall.

The initial arrangement was with two pods on a pallet, then another pallet, topped with one more pod. After a few months, this was rearranged so all three pods were in one row, and this is what became the feeding station, with the pods and sheltered areas topped with pallets, forming the feeding station surface.

But early on, it was only a few weeks after the arrival of the second and third pods that The Cat and Sprocket’s kittens arrived, and we could never have imagined that the pods would be as well-used as they were during that first spring.

Within a day or two of Sprocket carrying the seven kittens back to the garden from the first floor terrace, the kittens discovered the pods. And immediately they knew what they were for and, as dusk fell, they all piled into the same pod, curled up on top of each other and slept all night in a furry pile.

There was sufficient room for one of the mothers to join them (usually Sprocket), and the bottom right hand pod became the kittens’ bedroom for their first couple of weeks in the garden.

They explored around the pods, played and clambered, and for some time that was their safe area, somewhere that they could run to if they needed to feel secure.

There was enough room in front of the pods for the kittens to play or the mothers to lie, and a small kitten such as Snopake could walk all the way around on the very edge of the pallets.

And so the one speculative purchase became the focal point of the kittens’ first week or so, back in the garden.