A month or so later it turned up again, only this time with a little black & white bundle of fur tagging along close behind.

We named the mum "Curser," (stream of foul language coming out of her mouth,) and the kitten "Ringtail," (she had a beautifully marked black tail, with white ring a few centimetres from it's tip.)

Our initial consultations with the RSPCA drew a complete blank, the local Cat Protection Group were much more helpful, and we decided to start feeding the family, who we named "The Compost Heap Gang," after their chosen place of residence was discovered shortly afterwards. Mum and kitten thrived and became a daily feature.

As the weather and temperatures deteriorated, we gave them access to one of the sheds, which already had a suitably-sized hole in it. Softly furnished and draught-proofed, it wasn't long before the family moved-in.

After the New Year we starting seeing less and less of Curser, with the sightings eventually falling away to nothing.

Ringtail, in the meantime, started to pay more attention to the daily routine of the cattery, and took to waiting for her breakfast underneath the hedge next to the office. The waiting became "WHERE'S MY BREAKFAST!" with Beverly being trailed from one end of the cattery to the other, albeit on the outside.

Two weeks into February and the CPG dropped off a cage-trap for us. It took less than 12 hours for the extremely greedy Ringtail to be caught. She was whisked straight off to the local vets to be neutered/spayed, and to get a 100mile service. (Health-check, dewormed and microchipped.)

There had always been some speculation as to Ringtail's sex. On the whole we felt that she was female, with her little girly "Miaow," and the way she rolled around the place. What an actor! Ringtail is MALE! (Well somewhat lesser of a male now!)

Currently resident in the isolation unit whilst he recuperates, we are also attempting to tame him down enough to accept handling.

It is unlikely that he will join our other two boys indoors, he's got feral genes coursing through his veins, and to be honest he has a fabulous life, and probably shouldn't be locked up in a house. The likelyhood is that we will release him back into the garden, as is standard practice with ferals.

We are hoping that he decides to stick around a bit. He belongs to the cattery now, we registered him with the microchip company as such. If he can be handled in the future he will be innoculated, but it is worthless if we cannot give him a booster each year.

In the meantime we hope to publish better photos of him, and to continue to write his story. You can keep in touch be returning to this page in the future.

At the end of last week we were resigned to releasing Ringtail with no progress having been made. However on Sunday his character had changed - he was interested in what we were up to, was no longer trying to make himself invisible, had started to rub against the unit wire, (as he used to do on the outside - pre-capture,) and was inviting us to interact with him. Tim went into the IU (Isolation Unit,) outer corridor and was playing with one of the toys-on-a-string we'd given him, which he was enjoying.

Today Bev has been in the unit with him and he stayed out with her, being brave enough to investigate her fingers. He is extremely gentle and, with his "kitten-head" on, has been pawing at and actually touching her hand.

We are clearly starting to make progress with him and we are determined to keep going with the aim of being able to handle him. This has one major advantage as far as we are concerned - he is a long-haired cat and we want to be able to help keep him in good condition.

Hoping he is going to be less camera shy shortly, so we can show you how handsome he is!

...et Voila!

(Actually got too close - didn't focus, but it will do for the moment!)

Bev has been stroking him for the last couple of days. Ringtail has also been accepting chin-tickles and has tolerated having one of his few "tats" teased out.

I got to stroke him this morning!

Update - 17th March

By a unanimous decision over the weekend, Ringtail is now RINGO! Not because we have a thing for Liverpudlian drummers, or popular potato snacks, but because he needs a more "pet-like" shorter name. He's as soft as clarts, although doesn't like being picked up, he does like his stroking sessions, and purrs madly away, with his eyes half-closed.

It does seem more likely now, as the weeks have progressed, that he will not be released back into the garden. He's a bit of a softy.

In a week or so's time, we will make an important decision regarding his future.

Update - 19th April

Firstly, an apology - to those of you who might have been secretly harbouring the hope that the next announcement was to be "Home Wanted."

Ringo has now been rehomed.

Actually he has only moved as far as up the garden path, through the arch and in through our back door.

He continued to behave like a normal domestic cat - clearly his mother can't have been a true feral, and we have grown to love him very much.

He had his first innoculation before we went on holiday, during which time we made our decision to home him ourselves - he was boostered on Thursday.

Linus is treating it with incredulous disbelief - ("Oh for goodness sake - another new cat - how many more?!) He's being a bit of a grump at the moment - Ringo is giving him a medium to wide berth, and learning some bad language in the process. Linus always comes round in the end though.

Ringo has been given the pedigree name of "Ringo Dingo Ali Bongo Roberts." Can't wait for them to call that out in the vets.......!