Thanks everyone.
BCL - he was indeed a character and a half.
Paddy was an elder statesman cat. A thinker and a conservationist. A pacifist and a quiet gardener cat.
If he'd been human, he'd have been Harry Potter.
He'd have worried about saving the whales and global warming.
His philosophy was very much "live and let live." He could catch mice, for example, but he preferred not to. In his twilight years, he did once catch one in the garden, and looked extremely surprised and embarrased by his lapse in manners. He spat it out unharmed and shuffled abashed whilst the equally startled mouse capered away into the wood pile.
He was Padmeister. My Meister.