Yesterday was Norman’s birthday.  He’s five.  (It was also Charlie Cat’s birthday too, of course.  I’m hoping wherever he is, he knew I was singing Happy Birthday to him too….)

This is a photo of Norman as a kitten:

Nothing much changes.  This is him this weekend:

And I’ve just discovered this cat calculator on the interweb that gives you a cat’s age in human years using more recent findings that 1 cat year = 7 human years.  It makes Norman 36.  (Even he is younger than me.  I guess it would be weirder if if were older that me.  Which he will be next year.  Oh, that’s just befuddled my brain….)  Anyway, his age doesn’t stop him sitting in bags:

Norman wasn’t the only animal involved in my Bank Holiday.  We had a family trip (7 of us) to a rescue place called (rather unfortunately)  Beaver World.  They rescue all sorts of animals (reptiles, birds, small mammals) from all sorts of places and do their best for them.  Pets that outgrew expectations, cost too much, RSPCA animals, and in the case of these chaps:

A centre that bought them as an attraction and didn’t understand their breeding capability….ending up with far more than they bargained for.

Rather than being ‘Beaver World’, it was more like ‘Just the one Beaver, but my, isn’t she big World’:

I asked Sister 2 to do something so I could show you how big this snake is (we were about 6 feet away):

But Sister 1 got in on the act:

(I told you you’d regret that ;o) )

While Little Pea behaved better than his Mummy and quietly said hello to the ‘dinosaurs’:

We went to a holding session for little people:

And, um, slightly bigger people:

Since 7am this morning I have been so busy that I kept wishing I’d worked yesterday, despite the bank holiday (as I know some of my UK colleagues did), but having written this, I’m pleased I didn’t.  Nothing beats time with your family with a few animals thrown in for good measure.  Especially Norman cat:  My most favourite fur ball. :o)