Most of the cats who visited the garden, drive and front path were feral cats who lived in the surrounding fields. There were a few cats who could possibly have been labelled as ‘stray’ inasmuch as they were accustomed to humans; whether this meant that they had at one point been ‘owned’ cats who were now living outdoors, or whether they were essentially feral cats who just happened to have got used to having humans around, there is no way of knowing. The likelihood is the latter, based on the fact that some initially completely feral cats did become quite tolerant of having humans around over time.
NVQ was on the ‘completely feral’ end of the scale and remained resolutely there, avoiding human contact at all costs, despite the passing of the years.
Initially we saw him only in the fields on the other side of the road.
Maybe he came to eat at night under cover of darkness and without being spotted by the humans; records show a lapse of almost a year between our first sightings of him opposite and the first photographic evidence of him in garden, path or drive.
The ruthless ambition which kept NVQ at the top of the alpha-male hierarchy for so many years made him a feared figure in the cat community and younger males would scatter if they saw him coming. Other mature alpha-males were more likely to take him on, or the occasional younger male with alpha-male aspirations.
Here NVQ is pictured at the end of the front path, head-to-head with Mr Bright while NotNVQ tried to avoid getting involved…
…and here on the wall between the drive and the field making a point to Mr Bright…
…and once again, this time on the high garden wall, asserting himself over NotNVQ who was looking for a way out of this confrontation.
Having progressed to the garden wall, here NVQ is seen jumping up onto the aviary roof.
And last but by no means least, a final photo of him strutting through the garden.
NVQ was a cat with a plan, and that plan was for complete domination of the neighbourhood. He was ruthless and single-minded in his endeavour, and one of the most long-lived and successful alpha-males that we met.
