The lives of Valencia’s stray cats are as complex as the people watching them

Passersby come for the shade, the benches and the greenery... but most of them stay for the cats. As the city slowly reopens, Mark Drummon recalls the comings and goings of Neptune Gardens’ biggest personalities

The stray known as Skippy by some and Tiger by others (Photography Mark Drummon)

It is high summer and late afternoon, and the locals are mostly napping in the shade. It is siesta time, and only tourists are active in this heat. The Mediterranean sun beats down on two young, freshly tanned, scantily clad holidaymakers as they stroll along the central path of a small park. They pass a middle-aged man sleeping on a bench beneath the canopy of a palm tree. He is shirtless, revealing a flabby milk-white torso that contrasts with his well-tanned forearms; his bald head rests on a battered old backpack. This time every day, he occupies the same spot. And it is a good spot, for this bench is the only one that stays shaded all afternoon. The girls also pass a beautiful cat, one of the park’s permanent residents, pausing briefly to take a photo on their smartphones of it snoozing in the bushes. Princesa, a female with a luxuriant white coat, opens an eye, but refuses the girls’ entreaties to approach them. For in amongst the shrubbery, she too has a nice shaded spot. With one opened eye, the antisocial stray cautiously watches the girls until they continue on their way.

Also watching the girls is a woman who spends her days in the park and her evenings outside supermarkets begging for small change. Reclining on a concrete bench, she’s been drifting in and out of sleep. Diminutive, with curly hair and leathery skin, the lady fidgets, constantly changing her position, unable to get comfortable. She watches the girls awhile, perhaps sympathetically noting that she too can never get Princesa to come to her.

The park lies to the rear of a row of seafront hotels and restaurants along Playa de la Malvarrosa, Valencia’s main beach. It is a verdant oasis amidst a landscape of concrete and sand. The pint-sized public space is surrounded on all four sides by roads, creating a tarmac “moat”. It is home to a diverse, and often eccentric, assortment of life, human and animal, and it is a vital refuge for many. The park is named Jardines de Neptuno. This is its story.