Illnesses which spread through the cat population were impossible to control as the cats roamed far and wide, interacting with other cats and visiting other gardens and fields.
But one-off injuries and illnesses were a different matter, although if the cat in question was not reasonably friendly, it was not be possible to help.
Lightning was with us for almost exactly six months. He arrived out of the blue, a small, lone kitten with no siblings or family that we knew of. In time, he became a member of The Garden Family and gradually became more friendly.
Around two months after he came to the garden, he arrived for breakfast hopping on three legs. Where he had been overnight and how he had been injured was a mystery, and he was not friendly enough to handle. So all the humans could do was observe from a distance as he hopped around the garden, holding one of his back legs up at an odd angle. It is lucky that kittens heal well, even from an injury like a broken leg, and Lightning was blessed with a lot of common sense which told him to stay at ground level for a few days to rest his leg, before he started to tentatively place his foot down and test it out before putting his full weight on it.
Within a few weeks, he was as good as new and climbing the olive tree and play-fighting with Dinky once again.
But two months later, Lightning became more seriously ill. This time there was no obvious cause. He was disorientated, acting strangely, not interested in eating or playing, walking around in a state of complete confusion, and obviously in a lot of discomfort. His condition did not improve over the next week and he continued to pace restlessly, going from the garden to the terrace and back over and over again. He was losing weight fast, and we feared the worst.
And then one day while Lightning was roaming on the terrace, we saw him go to a plastic plant tray and lap the water. This was water than had run through the plant, and it only took a split second to realise that the water contained fertiliser – a well-known brand of liquid plant food, in fact. Lightning had been poisoned – he had been led astray by his abiding love of plant pots.
With the reason for his illness now clear, all plant pots were emptied and removed before being washed and replaced – this time with holes drilled in the bottom of each so they didn’t hold water.
That evening Lightning ate a few pieces of dry food on the terrace (the no-food-on-the-terrace rule had been temporarily waived). It was a turning point for him – from then on he drank only water, and liquid plant food was never used again.
