It didn’t take long for things to settle into a routine with the new stray cat. He would arrive around teatime or just later and come into the kitchen for his food.

I’d only seen him twice in daylight, which made me wonder where he went during the day, adding to Peter’s theory that he had a regular home.

Then after a couple of weeks as I was preparing for the normal routine, I heard cats fighting in the darkness. I couldn’t see anything but had seen one of the original strays, a large tom cat, earlier on, so I was rather anxious.

Unusually I went out looking for the new stray after tea. Normally he just turned up. He appeared out of the darkness and I thought he was OK, but once inside I could see he was limping on his right back leg and was also coughing.

Otherwise he seemed un-harmed, though he was reluctant to go back out into the darkness when the time came. I was concerned about him and hoped he would be OK.

The next night he turned up as if nothing had happened. No limp, no cough. How do they do that? Normal service was resumed.

Then the following night just after he had gone back outside I saw him leave rather quickly and then out of the darkness came the big white stray in hot pursuit. The following night he didn’t turn up at all.

In fact he didn’t turn up for the next 3 nights, so I assumed the old stray had scared him off for good. Then out of the blue he turned up at lunchtime on the 4th day.

Since then I’ve never seen him after dark! He always comes during the day now. The times vary. He eats, sometimes he hangs around other times he doesn’t. At least I know he’s OK.

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