Skip to content
TugaTheCat

The diary

From the garden to the sofa

The garden had cats before Tuga — her mother among them. She turned up in June 2025, about the size of a hand. These are the photographs I've taken along the way, in no order of importance, only in order of time.

  1. Cat asleep in a hanging chair with cushions
    Tuga

    One year on

    May 2026. From a cardboard box to a hanging chair, cushions and all. Roughly a year after she turned up in the garden.

  2. Cat lying on the grass in golden late-afternoon light
    Tuga

    Late afternoon

    Same day, a few hours later. Early-spring light at the end of the afternoon is the best this garden has to offer.

  3. Cat sitting in the sun on the patio under a blue sky
    Tuga

    The first sun

    March. The snow went and she went straight back to the same spot as always — the corner of the patio the sun reaches first.

  4. Cat sniffing pieces of salmon on a sheet of kitchen paper
    Tuga

    Salmon

    February. There was salmon left over from dinner and she appeared out of nowhere, as though she'd heard the packet open from the other side of the house.

  5. Cat lying on a rug indoors next to soft toys
    Tuga

    The house is hers

    From a cardboard box in the garden to the living-room rug, among cushions and soft toys. Eight months after she turned up, there was no longer any doubt about who that space belonged to.

  6. Cat perched on a willow trunk with snow on the ground
    Tuga

    Top of the willow

    Snow still on the ground and up the willow she went, staying there a long while, watching the garden from above. An indoor cat doesn't do this; she never stopped being a bit of the garden.

  7. Cat walking through deep snow
    Tuga

    Snow up to her belly

    A week later she was crossing the yard in leaps, snow up to her belly. She adapted faster than I did.

  8. Cat sitting in the snow beside a hedge
    Tuga

    First snow

    January, and her first proper Polish winter. She sat still for a long while, staring at it, before daring to put a paw down.

  9. Cat in an orange jumper in the sun under a blue sky
    Tuga

    October orange

    Clear sky, low sun, and the last week when there was still no hurry to go back inside.

  10. Cat in a green jumper in the sun on a wooden table
    Tuga

    The green jumper

    Autumn. The mornings had turned cold enough for a jumper, and she let herself be dressed with a patience she never showed again.

  11. Cat lying on a wooden table playing with earphone cables
    Tuga

    The cables are mine now

    July. She found the earphones on the table and decided, without consulting anyone, that they belonged to her.

  12. Kitten hidden in long grass with the patio behind
    Tuga

    Ambush

    Hidden in the long grass, keeping an eye on the patio. From here on, the whole garden was hers.

  13. Kitten sniffing at weeds in the sunshine
    Tuga

    Hunting weeds

    Head down among the weeds, rehearsing an instinct she didn't yet know she had. At that age, anything that moves is prey.

  14. Kitten standing on the grass, looking at the camera
    Tuga

    Two weeks later

    Two weeks on she was crossing the lawn by herself, tail in the air. Eating on her own came before working out what paws are for.

  15. Kitten being hand-fed with a syringe
    Tuga

    One syringe at a time

    By the next day it was serious: kitten replacement milk, every few hours, fed by hand. A cat that age doesn't eat on its own — it depends entirely on whoever found it.

  16. Calico kitten inside a cardboard box on the grass, beside a saucer
    Tuga

    The box and the saucer

    She turned up in the garden, about the size of a hand. A cardboard box on its side, a saucer, and the hope that she'd stay. I know now that cow's milk is bad for kittens — at the time it was what was there.

  17. Three cats sitting on concrete blocks in an autumn garden
    Tuga's Friends

    Three on the blocks

    October 2024. Three of the Friends perched on the blocks in the morning sun, watching the garden wake up. They're not mine and never will be — but dinner is here.

  18. Calico cat beside a hedge on dry winter grass
    Tuga's Friends

    Before her, the mother

    March 2024. This is Tuga's mother, by the hedge, more than a year before her daughter turned up on the grass. The garden was cat territory long before I noticed.