So much has happened that I hardly know where to begin. Well, okay, obviously, from our fabulous trip to London. Oh that was so much fun! We walked at least 12 kilometres a day. London has a very good transportation system, but you miss a lot unless you walk…and so we walked.

While Stefano and our friends had to return to Florence after 4 days to go back to work, I stayed on for three more days, so I had a full week in London, alone. I returned to Florence on our 25th wedding anniversary. Wow, 25 years (not counting the two years plus that we lived together)! We’re going to celebrate our anniversary properly next month, with a trip to see our beloved puffins and other sea birds at the same place we were last year, north of Edinburgh (isle of May plus Bass Rock for the gannets).

Here’s a big bit of news: we are back up to eight cats again. No kidding. I really didn’t want another cat, especially a KITTEN…

But she was a gift, and we couldn’t say no to that little face, see below. She’s a teeny tiny Maine Coon female…

She has a few problems, caused by being sort of crushed while in the uterus by a bigger brother who was born dead, unfortunately, so, for example, her tail is broken in two places and looks more like a fluffy rabbit tail than anything else. I hope that won’t be an issue (cause her any pain, I mean) as she gets older, but for now it doesn’t stop her from all the usual kitten zoomies, not at all…

More importantly, she has a few digestive issues, again caused by her having been crushed. We can’t feed her dry food, for example, because she will spit it up afterwards. To avoid that, I prepare smoothies for her–a mixture of blended dry food for kittens and water. So far, so good. No throw-ups. Again, I hope that this is a problem that will be solved in time, as she grows older. Too early to tell now…

We named her Poppy, after Poppy Pomfrey, the Healer in Harry Potter. 😉 She is really adorable, a little bundle of joy, quite small for her age but with a huge personality. The other cats have accepted her, even though, for the first few days, most of them hissed and even growled at her, probably hoping that if they made a lot of noise, she would disappear. But no, she didn’t disappear, and now they seem to be okay with the new addition to the family.

I even saw Petunia licking her head the other day, and Puffin follows her around like a puppy…

She has certainly given the other cats something to think about… 🙂 

For example, they don’t sleep as much during the day because they’re too busy watching her play, the way we watch a fascinating TV series…So funny.

Hmmm, she looks huge in the first photo…but I assure you, she’s tiny…

Oh dear, I have to go now. I hope everyone is doing well…please keep in touch with me! Ciao!