Excuse Me, Are We Related?

Alpha-males were notoriously unpredictable. This behaviour was tactically very effective as the younger males, once they learnt their lesson (and that usually happened quickly) were not going to take another chance on being caught with their guard down. So, thereafter, the mere glimpse of a certain alpha-male would encourage the younger ones to disappear very quickly. This was demonstrated clearly by Thundercat, who shot out through the small gate at the end of the path rather than have Mr Bright walk past him; unfortunately Thundercat ran straight across the road without looking and under a passing car and was very lucky indeed to be only struck a glancing blow rather than being badly injured. But he would rather have taken his chance on the road than have had Mr Bright walk past him in the front path.

And then there were certain younger males who were consistently ignored by the alpha-males. A possible reason for this could be that they were known to each other, and maybe the younger cats were the offspring of the alpha-male, or related in some other way.

The first time this was noticed was when Saturday was in his heyday and favoured by The Cat. There were times when Saturday would arrive in the garden followed by other orange cats, almost as though he was providing a mentoring service for the next generation. The biggest of his cohort was Durante aka G4 and it is quite possible that he was a son of Saturday as there was never any aggression shown towards him.

Saturday…

…and Durante aka G4.

NVQ and NotNVQ had a similar relationship. Their features were a little different as were their characters, yet NVQ very seldom turned on NotNVQ. It would be hard to work out what their relationship might have been – NotNVQ could have been NVQ’s son or brother.

NVQ…

…and NotNVQ.

The third case study is Bala, who was the son of Twilight. Twilight was one of NVQ’s favoured females and it is very likely that Bala was NVQ’s son.

NVQ on the garden wall…

…and Bala on the aviary roof.

NVQ certainly never rounded on Bala as he did with other younger males, making sure to teach them a lesson before they were fully mature – on the contrary, NVQ seemed almost protective of Bala, lying down in the drive behind Bala as he ate to protect him.

The lives of feral cats were private and mysterious and there were so many questions to which the humans would love to have had answers.