Not this! Not this!

So I went outside to clean out the pond.

Raking up the mud, I heard Soraya give her warning yowl. I looked round and she was all bushtailed. There it was; strange cat!

Soraya went up to it. It sat, unafraid. The others crowded round. It sat there washing itself or staring at the sky. I flicked some water at the menagerie. It looked at the water, curious.

I left them to it, feline politics being a strange and subtle art of which no human can truly speak.

Then I heard a strange meow downstairs. Soraya, indoors now, telling strange cat,also indoors, to get lost.

Strange cat is a patchwork tortie, all golds and browns. Strange cat is very thin, but I don't think it's a stray; I think it is very young. Strange cat meowed at me very softly, is not afraid of the others but doesn't pick fights, and let me pick him/her up uncomplainingly and remove them from the garden. Strange cat then came back and is wandering round the trees. It appears to be trying to conquer the conservatory.

If he is a boy, his real name is Prince Adoro, because he is beautiful.

I must not fall in love with strange cat.