It was only a few month ago that he was small enough to sit in the palm of my hand. In addition to him and his much older step-brother (the brother of my own cat) there were also guinea pigs to feed, but they were hiding; maybe I'll get to photograph them tomorrow.

It seems to be true that there is a thing whereby things break in threes; first my car's bonnet/hood lock broke (5th), then my mug shattered (yesterday), and today while I was pruning the final bush in my garden before the end of the year, my secateurs broke (right). Weirdly enough I had just about finished the job. It was only last month that I dismantled them to sharpen the blade and I suspect that had weakened the spring (the part that snapped). I am tempted to ask Santa for replacement, but I think I'll just go ahead and find some myself.