A friend has acquired a reputation amongst her local feline community as someone they can turn to in time of need; where they know they can find a meal (or several) and a place to stay if they're down on their luck.

These pictures show Peaches, a young cat who turned up in the summer of 2003. She was then about a year old, and was also pregnant. It seems likely that she had been abandoned for this reason.

Also pictured here are the four kittens she gave birth to that August. By the first week in September, when these picture were taken, they were just about able to crawl around the floor. They were still fairly unsteady... I was going to say on their feet, but they were still a day or two away from being able to stand up.

Neither mother nor kittens seemed at all bothered by the flash gun.

Happily, Peaches and three of her kittens have since found new homes. The fourth kitten, Cosmos, decided she was perfectly happy with the home she was living in, and stayed. She is now fully grown and has an impressive tail, as can be seen in the last picture of this set. Cosmos also has an uncanny ability to hide in the nearest shopping bag whenever a camera is pointed in her direction (hiding the shopping bags before getting the camera out is the solution to that one).