I don’t want to turn this into a blog about my cat dying but I do want to just take a moment and thank you all so very much for your kind words, heartfelt sympathy, and honest compassion. It means so much to Dale and I that you all care enough about us to grieve with us and share your own stories of loving and losing a pet. We’re coping as you’d expect, feeling fragile and tearing up quite frequently, trying to adjust to this new normal after 17 years of always knowing just where Mason was. It’s going to take time, that’s for sure.

Okay. Moving on to something that I think will make all of us smile, let’s look at the photos I took of Jackie to celebrate his first birthday.

Jessica brought him over on a cloudy Sunday afternoon. As a photographer I have to say that cloudy is my preference for shooting outside photos. No sun in the subject’s eyes and the colors can really pop, too.

The sweater he’s wearing was knit for him by Sean. Isn’t it gorgeous? It’s soft and the fit is perfect. It’s just right for a cool fall day and I was thrilled when Jess chose it for this photo shoot.

We brought out a cranberry crate and some pumpkins, a few mums and other props to make it special. Jack’s favorite thing to do was to drop the pumpkins straight into the poor mum plants. Cute. But destructive. That’s our boy!

And happy! He is generally in a good mood but on this particular afternoon he was in a great mood. Smiling and showing off, laughing and chortling, he was the perfect subject.

This photo especially tugs at my heart strings. Those full cheeks, reminiscent of his baby days, won’t be around forever and I love the way the curve of his cheek looks in this photo. That J in the background hangs in our den but it was perfect to bring out as a prop.

And that little soft smile. What a sweetheart he is.

Again with the cheeks. Sigh.

And finally, a big ole grin with his tongue sticking out. This one really shows his personality and good nature!

I know looking at these photos did me a world of good and cheered me right up. Hope you all enjoyed them, too.

I’m writing this on Thursday afternoon because my October photo mosaic is done. And I love the idea of prepping this post now and not having to think about writing a blog post over the weekend. In other words, I decided not to do NaBloPoMo this year. Honestly, it’s not that difficult to do but sometimes the blog feels like work and I really like to not work on the weekends. So. Not this year.

To cheer you up, though (because I’m sure you’ll all devastated, hahaha) I’ve got a really nice bunch of photos to show you.

Ten photos with people in them! Plus two more if you count my hands. No? Okay, but I’m good with ten. Plus a trip away and some wonderful food, knitting and amaryllis and fall colors and the last of summer’s flowers. October was a very good month.

Photos not your thing? Then check out my October video.

Every time I think I don’t want to do this anymore I look back on the photos I’ve taken and really how much I love watching them so I jump back in again.

Happy Monday!