Some cats were friendly, some weren’t, and the humans never encouraged cats to be friendly. Distances were respected, rules were adhered to, and, if any cat or kitten chose to be friendly, it was a huge privilege.

So what swung the balance one way or the other for kittens? Could it be down to to how they were raised by their mothers?

When The Cat and Sprocket raised their families together, some of their kittens were friendly, and some not. And it wasn’t a case of 100% friendly or 100% feral, as there were plenty of points in between. Both litters were born in the garden and spent two weeks living on the humans’ first floor terrace with their mothers before returning to the garden for weaning. So all the kittens had had the same amount of time in close proximity to the humans – they were used to having the humans around, but that didn’t necessarily mean they were friendly.

Oranjiboom, Tippex, Big Bang and Prince were The Cat’s kittens. Oranjiboom and Tippex were adopted and left the garden at between 10 and 11 weeks old. Tippex had always viewed the humans with a great deal of suspicion and had never let a human come close; Oranjiboom was much less wary.

This is the closest he allowed humans – the slightest move, and he would have run off. As he grew bigger he became even more distant. Naturally the kittens were more relaxed around the humans while their mothers were there; on their own was a different matter.

Big Bang was a real mother’s girl and was not interested in any human interaction; Prince was a free spirit, the runt of the litter but also the most independent. Friendship had to be won, and that was difficult with such a busy little cat.

The runt of Sprocket’s litter was Snopake. Again, she was a free spirit, happy to interact with the humans, but with the slightest distraction she would run off to join in some feline fun. Early Lately was a very loving kitten although he lacked confidence and was happiest within his own comfort zone. He and his brother Little Bang were closely bonded with their mother, and Little Bang was probably the most friendly of all the brood.

Little Bang was the only one of the kittens to seek the humans out on the terrace.

So, on the whole, Sprocket’s kittens were friendlier with the humans than were The Cat’s, but whether that was down to their inherited character or purely coincidental, is impossible to know.