diff --git a/CHANGES.rst b/CHANGES.rst
index e1fd6da..551eacc 100644
--- a/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/CHANGES.rst
@@ -1,3 +1,7 @@
-0.1
----
+0.1.1
+-----
+- Added exception handling to destructor in case of connection failure
+
+0.1.0
+-----
 - Wrapped code from `StackOverflow <http://stackoverflow.com/questions/6692908/formatting-messages-to-send-to-socket-io-node-js-server-from-python-client/>`_
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index babba77..35d6170 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ CHANGES = open(os.path.join(here, 'CHANGES.rst')).read()
 
 setup(
     name='socketIO-client',
-    version='0.1',
+    version='0.1.1',
     description='Barebones socket.io client library',
     long_description=README + '\n\n' +  CHANGES,
     license='MIT',
diff --git a/socketIO/__init__.py b/socketIO/__init__.py
index 1299268..f27e324 100644
--- a/socketIO/__init__.py
+++ b/socketIO/__init__.py
@@ -31,8 +31,11 @@ class SocketIO(object):
         self.connection = create_connection('ws://%s:%d/socket.io/1/websocket/%s' % (self.host, self.port, self.sessionID))
 
     def __del__(self):
-        self.heartbeatThread.cancel()
-        self.connection.close()
+        try:
+            self.heartbeatThread.cancel()
+            self.connection.close()
+        except AttributeError:
+            pass
 
     def __send_heartbeat(self):
         self.connection.send('2::')
diff --git a/socketIO/__init__.pyc b/socketIO/__init__.pyc
deleted file mode 100644
index eee6ebe..0000000
Binary files a/socketIO/__init__.pyc and /dev/null differ