Today’s cat was discovered in the beautiful mediaeval city of Albi in South West France. The cathedral there is an incredible Unesco World Heritage site and our English exchange students made us very proud during the guided tour we enjoyed. They asked lots of good questions and were genuinely interested in the answers.

This painted cat was sitting outside an art gallery named the Blue Pelican. I wonder why?

Sent using BlackBerry?? from Orange

I work with a fantastic woman called Karen Fountain. I really admire the way she deals with difficult, unwell, naughty or disorganised students and I try to learn what I can from her when I see her in action. These two cats belong to her and this is what she tells me about them:

Geordie and Ginger are my 13+ year-old rescue cats (allegedly brother and sister, although I doubt that). The most docile, affectionate and friendly lapcats in the world.

As I’m sure all my readers know, I’m a teacher. Today’s guest cat belongs to a Year 11 of mine called Jason Loveridge (I have permission for the namecheck). As well as being an excellent Germanist, all-round gifted pupil and deputy Head Boy, Jason also plays the drums in a band. He took these pictures of Poppet when she sneaked into his bass drum for a kip. 

Jason also brought me his band’s first recording to listen to and I was so impressed; a catchy, funny, melodic track played by a really tight band of excellent musicians. Love it. 

Alex and Catherine Bellars’ cat Aeryn is a rescue cat and is taking a while to settle down. Here you see her bravely venturing outside for the first time. Isn’t she sweet?

The lovely Jo Pickering has sent me a picture of a cat she used to have, called Zizi. If you speak French, giggle now. If you don’t – look it up and then giggle.

Like most cats, Zizi clearly adored a chin scratch …

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Remember naughty Jasper from earlier in the week? He was wriggling and getting lots of dirt and dust in his fur. Well, Pedro lives with Jasper and Claire Hampson. He is only six years old and both cats list sleeping as their favourite hobby. Nothing unusual there then; it’s my favourite hobby too.

Look at beautiful Cleo! Annalise Adams has shared this picture with us and I was really touched by what she tells me about her beautiful companion:

Cleo is twelve years old. We rescued her when she was just four weeks old, a tiny little scrap who fitted in the palm of my hand. She’s a massive ball of fluff now! When God made me, he took a little bit of my sould and put it in this cat. We’re perfectly in tune with each other.

Obviously I love cats myself (or I would have made a blog about potatoes or lawnmowers), but I can’t usually express why I feel so fond of them. Annalise has put her feelings into words so precisely that I really admire her.

Today, A Cat A Day brings you handsome 14 year-old Jasper, who belongs to Claire Hampson. It looks as if Claire has caught him with her camera when he’s wriggling on a sunny path and getting his fur full of grit and dust.

I haven’t really brought you enough of cats looking stupid so far in 2011. I am thus deeply indebted to Lynda Dixon for letting me show you this marvellous photograph of Fudge trying to pretend he doesn’t have an empty tuna tin stuck to the magnet on his collar.

Like, durr.