This is The Cat. Its not a great photo, but sadly the only one we have. He never had a proper name. Nothing really seemed to suit him. Shadow might have been appropriate because that's what he was - a little black shadow who came quietly into the garden to eat food I left out for him. But somehow, the names we thought of didn't seem right, so we just called him The Cat, or sometimes Puss or Pussikins.

The Cat was a stray, or perhaps a feral cat. Certainly he had never lived in a house. He was afraid of people and never allowed us to touch him. I can't recall exactly when he came. An entry in my diary tells me that I was feeding him in June 1992, but how long before that has been long lost in the mists of time. Each evening I would go down to the garage and put food for him under a shelter outside the garage door. The Cat would watch me cautiously through a gap in the side wall, only coming through for his supper when I moved away.

In June 1994 The Cat became ill, his left eye was bright red and I think he probably had cat flu. He hid under our car looking very sorry for himself. I gave him tuna fish, and sardines instead of his usual cat biscuits, and milk of course. He was too ill to eat much, but he did have a lick or two. Maybe he would have died then without us to give him nourishment to help him through. He looked so ill for several days that we really thought he was a gonner. But he survived and continued to come each evening for his dinner.

In 1996, probably attracted by the food put out for The Cat, another one arrived. This one was black and white and, because of the white mark on his nose, got named Smudge (short for Smudgy Nose). Smudge is a very determined cat - he had decided to live here and no amount of persuasion was going to change his mind. We didn't actually want a live-in cat, we were quite happy just feeding The Cat, but Smudge refused to go. Eventually we gave in, and Smudge moved in with us.

After a while we decided to get a cat flap so that Smudge could come in and out himself. We knew that The Cat would not come into the house, he was too afraid of us, but we thought he might be persuaded into the garage. As it would have been impossible to 'teach' him to use the cat flap we wedged it open for a couple of days to get him used to going through it. The Cat was very intelligent and after a day or two worked out how to open the flap and soon found the comfortable, warm bean bag cushion we had put for him to sleep on. At Christmas 1999 we decided to close our business and take early retirement. We brought home a nice office swivel chair and it didn't take The Cat long to claim it as his own, complete with a couple of soft cushions. Then we put an electric radiator next to his chair to keep him a bit warmer in the winter. We hope it made him happy.

The Cat now had his food in the garage, and, though he still wouldn't allow himself to be stroked, and he was still very wary of us, he would come in through the cat flap and sit quite close to me as I got his food ready, even being bold enough to sniff at my hand a few times. I always thought that maybe one day he would let me stroke him, but that was not to be.

On Friday, 17th August 2001, The Cat came and sat on the lawn in the sun. We talked to him, and fed him, and all seemed well. On Saturday we went away for a couple of days, leaving The Cat plenty of food, and some evaporated milk, his favourite treat. We came home on Monday, the milk had been drunk, and quite a lot of his food had been eaten. I put fresh food out on Monday evening, but didn't see him. That wasn't unusual, he came and went as he pleased. But on Tuesday morning, my husband found him in the garden. We don't know exactly when he died, probably on Monday, 20th August 2001.

We buried him in one of his favourite spots, a shady bank in a quiet place in the garden. I think The Cat would have been surprised if he knew the sorrow his passing has brought us. We cared a lot for The Cat. We hope he knew.