Are you a helicopter cat mom or dad? Are you constantly watching and searching for and checking over and fussing over your cat(s). If so—good for you!!! There are a lot of difficulties and serious problems that you can thwart by your diligent attention to your cat. It’s the same with a dog, a horse, even a gold fish, I would imagine. It’s important to keep a close eye and hand on the animal at all times so you’re aware when a problem occurs in time to make a difference. You will want to know as early as possible if your cat is losing weight, gaining too much weight, constantly licking a spot o ..read more

I’m extra excited about an upcoming book in the Klepto Cat Mystery series. Not only is it, in my opinion, a riveting story, the cover will feature one of my favorite photographs. The picture to the left is gorgeous–but this isn’t it. Smokey was my mother’s beloved cat. He now lives happily with my niece and her family. As many of you know, Smokey is the model for Rags in the Klepto Cat Mystery stories and on the book covers. Secretly I’ve been waiting for the right story and the right title and the right moment to use the photograph I mentioned because it is so spectacular. Well, my cover desi ..read more

We celebrate cats here at this blog, but we also need to pat ourselves on the back occasionally and own up to that once derogatory label people might put on someone like us who adore our cats. Remember when we used to shudder and back away from the term, Cat Lady—well, I think that was probably the term Crazy Cat Lady. Now most of us wear that badge and crown proudly. We love our cats—some of us go to great lengths to  rescue throw-away cats, foster kittens and cats, take in more cats than is maybe completely reasonable (been there-done that). We stop and smile at cute cat pix and videos ..read more

Today is National Tortie Cat Day (or Tortoisehell Cat Appreciation Day). If you’ve ever had a tortie, you’re probably celebrating in your heart. I am. What is a tortie (or tortoiseshell) cat? They sort of look like a calico without the white and the colors (black, grey, brown and a light or dark shade of orange) are not organized over the fur, but mixed all together forming a mottled look—dappled, speckled. Some say torties are born with attitude—torti-tude. Those I’ve known had little minds of their own. Some torties are a bit sassy at times, but mostly, in my experience, they have a sweetnes ..read more

Do you have friends who still offer their cats the freedom of the out of doors? I imagine you have neighbors who do. I now have six neighborhood cats visiting my yard pretty much on a daily basis. Two coming from one neighbor, one each from two other neighbors and two cats that I don’t know where they belong. They’re all beautiful, well-cared-for cats. That, I’m glad to see, and Olivia and I enjoy seeing cats in the yard. So far, they’re mannerly and fun to watch. But I sure do worry about their safety, as I’m sure you do about the cats roaming free in your neighborhood. There seems to be no m ..read more

For those of you who missed the announcements, we have two new books for your spring reading pleasure almost back-to-back. Maybe you noticed that we came out with two books in January—Olivia’s Perilous Curtain Call (Book 18 of Olivia’s series) on January 18 and Meow or Never (Book 68 or the Klepto Cat series) on January 31. Well, we did it again in March. I published The Good, the Bad, and Olivia (Book 19) on March 11 and Within Paw’s Reach (Book 69 in the Klepto Cat Mystery series) on March 26. So what’s happening now in the factory? Promotion, of course, and, yup, we have two more books in t ..read more

April 6—tomorrow—is National Siamese Cat Day. If you’re like most long-time cat people, you’ve either had a Siamese cat or knew one well. My grandmother had Siamese cats as I grew up. Hers were the applehead or traditional seal point or classic Siamese. I adopted (rescued) a cat once that had the Siamese markings. In fact Siamese cats were quite popular and you saw a lot of them around, but then they all looked pretty much the same—cream-colored fur with dark brown points. The body style was similar, too. Today there are many styles of Siamese cats, the applehead, classic, wedge head and they ..read more

Every once in a while I celebrate unusual and little-known cats in this blog. I’ll focus on a new or unusual breed or write about an obscure wild cat. Some of you know that one of my favorite wildcats is the Pallas cat. It’s one of the world’s most unusual cats and one that I’m not sure has ever to this day been tamed. This week, I heard of another wild cat for the first time. The Kellas cat. There is a lot of controversy and mis-information out there about this cat. Here’s a link where the author tries to sort it all out. https://www.prettylitter.com/blog/kellas-hybrid-cat Basically, the Kell ..read more

Rags delights in this sweet and spirited story. Valuables are going missing in an upscale neighborhood. Even the authorities are at a loss in this quirky mystery. So they call in Rags, and he sniffs out the very surprising culprit. While on duty, Rags alerts the detective to a heinous crime taking place in their midst and manages to free a battered woman.  He saves a group of children from a boisterous dog, then helps in the dog’s time of need. He sounds the alarm that results in the capture of a criminal on the loose, and he changes the heart of a man who had lost his way.   ..read more

I don’t always realize it when it’s happening, but I do quite a bit of teaching in my fiction books. Maybe it’s because of my background—forty years writing nonfiction articles and books. I can’t not teach. Sometimes I don’t realize I’m doing it, but readers are starting to mention it and thank me for it and tell me how much they appreciate it. I’m so glad because, like everyone else who writes or teaches or creates art or…I want to make a difference. And part of making a difference is to share, to open minds, to offer new ideas ideas, and to  teach. I guess I do this and people are notic ..read more