In many ways, Sherpa’s story was one of the happy ones. He may have had a poor beginning, but it didn’t stop him having a happy-ever-after ending.

The saddest part was that he was the only one of his litter to survive, but maybe the memory of his siblings Scruffy (who passed away after an accident in the garden), Fosbury and Bechers (who succumbed to a virus as small kittens) urged Sherpa on and gave him the extra strength he needed to pull through his first few months.

In the end, the turnaround in Sherpa’s fortunes was rapid – it needed to be, as he would probably not have survived another week had it been left to his natural mother, Dawn, to nurture him.

This set of photos documents Sherpa’s first two weeks in the garden. Dawn had every opportunity to mother him, but she was distracted and impatient, and not the attentive and caring mother she had been when she brought her previous family to the garden.

This is one of the first photos of Sherpa in the garden.

Without his mother to guide him, he was struggling – although he was trying so hard to do all the right things, turning to solid food because he was getting no milk from Dawn.

‘Will you be my mum?’ There was a big gap in his life. Not only had Sherpa lost his siblings, but his mother was not inclined to spend any time with him. So Sherpa took to Shady, but Shady herself was unwell, malnourished and weak. But she didn’t turn him away, and they found comfort together.

Sherpa knew he needed sustenance, and he joined the older cats on the feeding station, eating with his mother and older brother and sister (plus other members of The Garden Family) at mealtimes.

But despite Sherpa’s valiant efforts, he wasn’t thriving. This photo was taken 11 days after the first one, and he had hardly grown.

Drastic measure were necessary if Sherpa was to survive. I took him away from Dawn, away from the group, and offered him gently to Cheese. She knew exactly what to do. ‘Just copy what I’m doing, youngster, we’ll soon have you on the road to recovery.

‘Look! I’ve got a new family!’
L-R Dawn with Sherpa’s older sister Linnet, Pascha (who became Sherpa’s best friend), and Sherpa, still assiduously copying his new mother, Cheese.

‘Now look at me! I’ve got my own clan!’
The family unit which breathed life back into little Sherpa –
L-R Shady, Flora’s son Checkers, Cheese with her paw on Sherpa, and Sherpa in playful mood with Pascha.

Luckily for Sherpa, his adoptive mother and new family were just what he needed and, after the sad losses of that summer, a success story was just what the humans needed too.