In order to keep track of which cats visited and when, there needed to be some way of identifying them, and of course giving them each a name was by far the easiest way.
Some cats were only ever spotted once; some visited more than once but there is only one photo of them. But almost all of them had names, because, at the time they were given their names, we didn’t know whether they would visit again. Maybe they would become regulars at the food bowls – who knew?
Some of these photos are not clear due to their being taken at dusk or early in the morning. But they were enough to be able to identify each cat, should they be spotted again.
Mrs Bright – this is the only photo of her, taken in the fields. She did however visit the feeding bowl in the front path although there are no photos.
Bodkins, spotted once only, eating dry food on top of the garden wall after sundown.
Ginger Nut, spotted once only on the wall in the front path.
Nizit – three photos of him/her exist, all taken on the same morning on top of the high wall between the garden and the drive.
Tiny – a small black-and-white kitten spotted in the drive at sundown one August evening. This photo and my recollection of a very particular marking on one leg were enough to identify her when a neighbour mentioned a week or two later that a new kitten had been welcomed into the family. One glance told me that it was Tiny who had found her forever home (and her new human kept her name too).
The Unexpected – who was this black cat? She was spotted once in the field with one or more kittens and it seems likely that she was Phantom’s mother who brought her daughter somewhere where there was food and water available before heading off back into the fields to continue her single life.
