"Jeri the Giraffe"

Allow me to present the newest addition to our menagerie of creatures, Jeri the Giraffe. I've always had a soft spot for giraffes, long before I found out about how the first one got transported from Africa wedged between two cows so it wouldn't feel so lost; or how the Victorian novelist, Geraldine Jewsbury, almost wept when she saw the giraffe in London Zoo for the first time, even after she was assured by the keeper that their hides always looked like that.

Jeri (named after a certain Oxford don if you must know, not because it begins with the same 'j' sound that 'giraffe' starts with) has an expression that is rather like Fran's, slightly quizzical, slightly startled. She's even smaller than Fran though, which is why she can get away with living on the cup heater over the coffee machine. I suppose the microclimate up there is a little more equatorial than the weather we're having elsewhere in the house.

So, there you go: Jeri. Who likes coffee and looks at the world with her head cocked to one side.

Pup
xxx

PS Seeing that she's an African animal, it seemed churlish not to have a go at shooting her first portrait Nick Brandt-style, especially since I got hold of a Lensbaby 2.0 this week... more on that later...