This beautiful close-up picture of Bertie the cat was sent to me by April, one of my Y11 pupils. I was chatting to her today and she described the enormous menagerie she and her family look after at home. I’m hoping that she’ll manage to send me a picture of Bertie with a chicken, goat or horse before the end of the year. Go on April, I’ll give you another jaffa cake!

This beautiful pink-nosed lady is named Mrs Duffle. She belongs to a Scottish lady called Simone who was recently amazed when Mrs D. returned after disappearing a year before. I wonder where on earth she had been? And how delighted must Simone and her family have felt when she turned up? Apparently the cat needs re-socialising, so perhaps she was living wild. My best suggestion is that Simone is patient and gentle. I send my very best wishes for a happy future together.

I wanted to bring a new face to my blog, so I appealed to friends. Caroline Bailey almost instantly sent me a picture of Mr Danny, who belongs to her friend Judith. He’s a half-persian cross and is 16 years old. I love his tufty fur.

Thanks Caroline and Judith.

Snowy Wild Cat has his own facebook page and is obviously a very gifted creature, as well as being undeniably handsome.

I must admit I don’t know how he came by this huge sum of money, but the rumour is that it only took him an hour to earn it.

I stepped out of my normal life routines this weekend; I spent Saturday stimulating my professional brain and enjoyed brunch with my daughter and lovely friends at Café Rouge in Durham today. Afterwards, we wandered into the Whittard tea and coffee shop. Isobel chose some Turkish Apple tea and I bought a pretty blue cup with hand-painted white stars. I liked this cat-themed mug, but wasn’t tempted to buy it. My love is living, furry, purring cats, not cat pictures, calendars, mugs or other knick-knacks.

Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange

On 5th September,  I promised to bring you a picture of Bertie, Vicky Pollitt’s cat, in the sink. Today’s cat Ernie is Bertie’s companion. I love it when cats hide their faces with their paws like this. Sweeeeet.

MevMev and Porter

I only know today’s cats’ owner by her Twitter username @rantingteacher. She tweets anonymously and is full of wisecracks, heart and honesty. She is also a cat-lover and one of her pets had a very major operation today. I don’t know which, so here is a little gallery. I’m sending lots of best wishes for a happy recovery.

Harley and Rory

It’s Scatty again! Dughall McCormick captured her in the act of tweeting to me. Such a prodigious cat.

Look at the love. Dughall McCormick and Scatty adore each other, don’t they?