Stourbridge's station cat has a book and 260,000 followers — and in London, 15 frogs the size of a pencil tip have just been born (2026)

George is a ginger-and-white cat with the run of Stourbridge Junction, in the West Midlands. He stayed behind when his owners emigrated to Spain, and made the station his home. 1

Around 260,000 people follow him across social media platforms. 1 Simone Carter, a West Midlands Railway manager, runs his accounts, and spends about two hours a day answering his fans. 1

This month she published his biography, Just George: The Autopawography of a Station Cat. 2 West Midlands Railway named a train after him last year, and somebody wrote him a song. 1

Two hours a day

The book travels. Fans send Carter photographs of their own cats sitting on it, from Thailand, Japan, Australia and America. 1 "The book has been received exceptionally well, far better than any expectations that I could have ever had," she said. 1

a woman with grey-blonde hair and red-framed glasses standing outside a red-brick railway station — *Simone Carter outside Stourbridge Junction. She runs George's accounts, writes his posts and has now written the book about him. Photograph: BBC News 1*

The book gathers his working titles: Senior Mouse Catcher, Chief Tangerine Tea Boy, and Employee of the Month, every month. 2 Carter said readers had written to tell her the page carried them through loneliness, bereavement, illness and difficult days. 2

At the station, the question from passengers is simpler. "People come here for their commutes and they all ask where George is, and it brings a bit of brightness to the day," said Matthew Cartwright, a customer service advisor. 1

George is 12. 1 His adopted dad, Ian, is planning to retire from the railway, which leaves open the possibility that the two of them go together. 1 Whatever they decide will reach his followers through his Facebook page.

Two pools in Ghana

Fifteen froglets have been born at London Zoo, the first of their species to be born under human care anywhere in the world. 3

The species is Afia Birago's puddle frog. Scientists described it in 2018, and the only population anyone has found lives in two pools in Ghana's Atewa Hills Forest Reserve, where mining is destroying the habitat. 3

A froglet is about 5mm long, roughly the size of a pencil tip. A full-grown adult weighs less than 1.75g. 4

a tiny brown frog on a wet orange ledge with the tip of a pencil beside it — *One of the 15 froglets at London Zoo, at about 5mm. The species is known from two pools in Ghana, and London Zoo is the only institution holding it. Photograph: London Zoo, via BBC News 4*

In September 2025, with the species close to extinction and little local experience of caring for it, 20 adult frogs were flown to London. 3 ZSL's keepers had almost no information about the frogs, and worked out from scratch how to keep them and how to breed them. 3

That knowledge is going back to the CSIR-Forestry Research Institute of Ghana's centre in Kumasi, the first facility in West Africa devoted to amphibian conservation. 3 The aim there is a conservation population that can eventually be released into the wild. 3

Ben Tapley, ZSL's curator of reptiles and amphibians, said the froglets were small enough to sit on a fingertip, and their arrival was "a huge step forward for an amphibian facing an uncertain future". 4

The frog takes its name from Afia Birago, the mother of Caleb Ofori-Boateng, the Ghanaian conservationist who helped describe the species and chose the name. 3 "I named this frog after my mother so that her legacy would live on," he said. "Thanks to this breeding programme, it will. Her name will be linked to a species we saved, not one we lost." 3

Last November, keepers at the same zoo bred the Atewa slippery frog, another critically endangered species from the same forest, for the first time in captivity. 4 Visitors can see the puddle frogs at The Secret Life of Reptiles and Amphibians, and a field team is now surveying private land around the reserve for somewhere to release frogs bred in Ghana. 3

two small brown frogs with orange-rimmed eyes sitting on a green leaf against a dark background — *Afia Birago's puddle frogs at London Zoo. The adults grow to less than 1.75g, and the 15 froglets born this month were the first of the species ever born under human care. Photograph: London Zoo 3*

What stays with me is how much of it is routine: two hours of messages about one cat, and a year of careful notes on a frog no bigger than a pencil tip.

References

1
Meet the Stourbridge station cat whose book won hearts globally
bbc.co.uk
2
George The Stourbridge Station Cat is the centre of a new book
stourbridgenews.co.uk
3
World first - rare froglets born at London Zoo
londonzoo.org
4
Critically endangered frogs bred for first time at London Zoo
bbc.co.uk

Two hours a day

Two pools in Ghana

Fifteen froglets have been born at London Zoo, the first of their species to be born under human care anywhere in the world. 3

A froglet is about 5mm long, roughly the size of a pencil tip. A full-grown adult weighs less than 1.75g. 4

What stays with me is how much of it is routine: two hours of messages about one cat, and a year of careful notes on a frog no bigger than a pencil tip.

Stourbridge's station cat has a book and 260,000 followers — and in London, 15 frogs the size of a pencil tip have just been born

Two hours a day

Two pools in Ghana

References

Related content

Stourbridge's station cat has a book and 260,000 followers — and in London, 15 frogs the size of a pencil tip have just been born

Two hours a day

Two pools in Ghana

References

Related content