The bad news: Jeff, my adorable ginger cat, died on October 1st hit by a car. It was quite a shock and I'm still troubled by what happened. He was a young, healthy cat and simply shouldn't have died like that. The top photo is the last one I took of him, a week before the accident. He was incredibly sweet and affectionate and will always be remembered for it.

For a long time before his dead I had been trying to adopt Saphira, an adult stray cat that used to show up at our door to steal Jeff's food. So she's not exactly a newcomer, but after he died I got even more serious about it and looked for some comfort in her. She still doesn't trust me completely, but we've made a lot of progress already: she now lets me pet her and even purrs when I do so.

On October 28th, we adopted Mia, the black kitten in the last shot, via an animal shelter. She was scared and tiny when we brought her home, but adapted quickly. And yes, that photo was the best I could do. Pretty much all the other photos I have of her only show her tiny nose trying hard to sniff the camera lens. :)

I know, it's terribly late and these are probably not even the first in my area. In my defence, Autumn came late this year and I've also been busy with other things, but I still didn't mean to be away for so long and I do have several photos from the last two months I'd like to post here. It's just that other things keep getting in the way...

Sorry for disappearing. I'll do my best to catch up.

I tried to get a flight shot, I really tried. That was my goal when I left home today to spend an hour among the flycatchers. But no luck this time.

Still, it was totally worth it. Not just for the beautiful European Pied Flycatcher in the middle shot posing for me, but also for the cute Spotted Flycatcher with that messy clump of feathers in the right wing (no idea how that may have happened). I love these guys.