We love the cover of Edith’s latest Local Food Mystery, Farmed and Dangerous. And how could we not talk about cats with that cute cat on the cover?
So Wickeds have you ever owned a cat? More than one? Had a favorite?
Edith: That cute cat is the artist’s rendition of our real-life cat, Preston. (Robin Moline is a fabulous cover artist, by the way.) Preston is our senior cat, a Norwegian Forest Cat, and the sweetest kitty ever. He’s gorgeous, a little dim, looks at you and asks to be petted while he eats (just like in the 
books), and has a teeny-tiny meow. He has two layers of fur, so he loves to sit outside in the rain, on the snow, and also in the heat – lately under the peony bush. We have two other feline darlings at home, and I’ve had a half dozen others in the past, but I’m delighted to be able to include Mr. P in my series.
Liz: Preston is a doll! As for me – you have to ask?? I’ll spare you from posting all of them, because that would be a really long blog post, but here’s a picture of Tuffy, my Maine coon cat who was the impetus for Nutty in the Pawsitively Organ
ic Mysteries. Tuffy wandered into the backyard one day and has never left. He’s a typical Maine coon – a little snooty, very handsome and extremely smart. Oh, and did I mention demanding? But who can resist that face?
Julie: My sweet Ashley, who looked a lot like Tuffy, passed this past January. I will say, I think she was sweet, but she was very mindful and hated other cats, liked my nieces, and loved me. She tolerated the rest of the world.. I adopted her when she was 10, so only had 4 1/2 years together, but I do miss her. I am currently cat sitting for my sister, while some work is being done on her house. Joey and Gilbert are sweethearts, but bundles of trouble. I keep looking up,and finding them navigating through picture frames, or amongst tchotchkes on a shelf. I am definitely a cat person.
Jessie: We had a cat when I was a child that appeared in our barn and immediately became an important part of the family. We had just moved and I had yet to make friends. Boo filled a huge void, for which I was very grateful.
Sherry: I’m allergic to cats but when we lived in Florida an outdoor cat named Lucy lived across the street. Before she lived across the street she’d lived up the street and left that home when they got a new kitten. Our neighbors across the street took in a stray and Lucy moved to our house. She was a beautiful white and gray cat who loved being outdoors. The first fictional cat I loved was from the Thomasina from the Disney movie The Three Lives of Thomasina.
Barb: The cat of my adolescent and teenage years was Roo. She lived in the house next door with a widowed neighbor and her teenage daughter. Roo was already sharing space with a German shepherd when the older daughter in the family moved home to stay while her husband was in Viet Nam, bringing two toddlers and another German shepherd. Roo decided she’d had enough and moved to our house. It was her decision, not ours, but she lived with us for a decade. My first and only cat was Flash. I got her while I was in college after a particularly bad series of breakups and make ups with a boyfriend who was allergic. Flash was my insurance that the last breakup would stick. I told my parents getting her was “my first adult decision.” They laughed so hard they cried. But Flash stayed on through the arrival of my husband and my kids. (And was always happy to remind them that she was there first.)
Readers: Have you ever loved a cat — real or fictional?
Buffalo Thunder-Paws, who recently crossed the rainbow bridge, was my dear friend for 14 years. I drove across Massachusetts, almost to New York, to get him. When Steve and I moved to Arizona, he rode in the car and stayed in the motel rooms with us all along the way. He would go in the room and find his spot. I don’t know how he made the selection, but he always knew it when he saw it. He adjusted almost immediately to each new place. He was handsome and huge. He loved to watch the quail families parade past the window each morning and afternoon. He and Kendall were best friends. When we adopted a feral kitty, our little She-She Marie-Rie, from the vet, Buffalo became very motherly. He taught her everything and cleaned her all that kitty-mom stuff. Then he would jump up and start acting very manly-kitty until She-She’s kitty-ness got to him again.
The comment address above is all wrong. Don’t know what happened.
What do you mean, Reine?
I made a comment above and received a message that it had to be monitored before posting. Then I realized I had signed on from a different account where I use a different name. I don’t know where my photo came from. So that’s all. Sorry. It was about my sweet kitties.
Buffalo sounds like a wonderful cat!
I’m a cat person from way back. I’ve been owned by, and loved too many to name. As far as fictional cats go — Love KoKo and YumYum from the “Cat Who” books, Nutty from the Pawsitively Organic series, and Mrs. Murphy from Rita Mae Brown’s series, among others. I just like cats, though.
(Found your comments and approved them!) I love Nutty, too.
I love KoKo and YumYum too!
I inherited my mother’s cat Abbie. She was a black and white long hair. When she was a kitten, my mother called Abbie her dust mop. Abbie’s fur was long. As she grew, her fur shortened. She was no longer a fuzzball. My mom told me that she always knew when I was coming. Abbie recognized the sound of the car’s motor? Abbie lived to be 21 yrs and 3 months. She had kidney problems for 3 yrs and the vet was amazed that her kidneys were stabile. She developed oral cancer. Abbie lived longer than her onchologist expected. Radiation worked with her tumors. One was gone and another shrank. Kidney problems and Cancer require different diets. The onchologist felt that because of her age and medical issues, she left the decision up to me. The cancer might have been eliminated, but age or her kidney’s might give out. At this point Abbie was hiding. She had to be syringed fed. She did not like that. The IV injection she did not mind. When I stopped giving Abbie her meds, she stopped hiding. She slept on the bed with me, but when I woke up, she hid. Her last days were happy. She even drank a lot of water and ate some more of the warm sloppy mess that was her food. Cats tell by their nose if there is food. Second hand smoke causes oral cancer in cats. It will be two years next week. She was a grey kitty. She demanded that 7 PM was her time with me. She liked my comfy stomach.
She was a GREAT kitty. Fingers…. keyboard…..
She sounds like a great kitty, and I’m glad her last days were happy.
Thank you Edith.
I made a comment, signed up to be notified of new comments, and got the message that my comment had to be monitored, too. I’m getting notified but my comment never posted and has now disappeared.
No, I found it!
Of course. My family never had pets until we moved into a rental house when I was seven and found the previous owners had left two Siamese cats and two grey kittens locked in the garage. We kept the mother and one kitten, and never looked back (and when the mother cat had a second round of kittens, we kept one of those too). In my first apartment after college I acquired another Siamese (from a rather mad Vietnam veteran who was breeding them, in a sketchy part of Boston–he made airholes in a box so I could carry the cat home on the T, using a machete). She was with me for twenty years. We’re currently holding at three, including a stray who we took in last summer.
Three is a good number! We’re holding at three, too.
Add me to the holding-at-three club. The most we ever had at one time was four, plus a dog named Not-a-cat. Current cats’ pics are at my Kaitlyn Dunnett website on the page dedicated to the fictional Lumpkin.
Kathy/Kaitlyn
I used to bring Flash home for Christmas on the bus wrapped as a present in a box with air holes in it–so been there, done that.
Lovely post! If any of you ladies would like to write more about your feline mewses, I’d love to have you at Writers & Other Animals! (Edith is the headliner right now.) Thanks for a purrfectly lovely first read of the morning. >^..^<
Thanks, Sheila!
My book next February, Fogged Inn, has a cat on the cover for the first time, so I’ll be in touch!
That IS a great cover!! I have a 14 yr. old cat, Kit-Kat, since he was 3 months old and I can’t imagine coming home and not seeing him there. I love him and hope he lives for several more years.
I hope so too, Cozynookbks!
Like Sherry, I’m allergic to cats. I think I’d love to have one if I weren’t, but it’s not an option for me.
Too bad, Mark! You’ll just have to rely on stories about them in cozy mysteries…
I loved _Farmed and Dangerous_, and I do enjoy fictional cats, the only kind I can love since my Minnesota allergist said, in his thick German accent, “Zat is a 4+ reaction, on ze scale off 1-4. You must get rrrrrid of ze catz!” The mama cat, who with her one surviving eye-dropper-fed kitten, had to find a new home. At least they departed in far better condition than she arrived, poor pregnant, skinny stray. Hugs. I do have a robot cat . . . and books! . . . and sometimes a wayward frog.
A robot cat sounds fun, Mary! As does a wayward frog.
The little tree frogs are definitely free range. They hide in the mailbox, safe from all the creatures that might eat them. I do evict them to a tree on very hot days . . .
I have loved every animal since, well before I could even create memories. But we have shared our lives with cats since I was 7 years old. I fell in love with Siamese after seeing THAT DARN CAT when I was 4. My mom and I went to adopt Tieling (our first Siamese) when I was 7; she blessed our family until she was almost 20 years old. They day she passed was one of the hardest days in our lives. When I bought my home, I brought Blossom (Siamese) and Six (Balinese, long hair Siamese) into my family. We shared a life for 16 years. They were not biological sisters but they could not have been closer. They were three months apart in age and passed away 4 months apart. They could not be seperated. Now I have Dharma and Thora (Balinese,) they are biological sisters. They are now 5 years old. I have lived with cats for 42 years and could not imagine a life with out them.
I loved That Darn Cat! Your cats sound wonderful!
Have you read the books? There’s a series written by The Gordons, a husband and wife team, that the movie was based on. Only in the books, DC is “Damn Cat” and not a Siamese (I think he was a Persian, but it’s been a long time since I read them). The books were written in the 60’s, but I think they’re still available in second hand stores and through libraries.
I love cats–real and fictional. I never had a pet growing up–not even a goldfish! Having a first pet as a grown up took a little getting used to.
Our first cat was a stray. My boys did everything they could to get her to stay. We started out with “Okay, she can stay in the garage,” which quickly became “she can stay in the basement” to finally giving up and she pretty much took over. We had her about ten years before she disappeared as mysteriously as she arrived. She went out one day and never came back.
Our current cat, Layla, is the world’s biggest scaredy-cat. If anyone rings the doorbell she runs for cover. She’s kind of the model for Hops, the cat on the cover of my upcoming book. Layla has more white on her neck and on her four paws (Hubby likes to call her Four Socks.) And she never wore a hot pink cast like Hops does.
It’s interesting how cats wander in and out of lives!
So many nice kitty stories! My current cat, Addie Maude, literally picked us as her forever family. My hubby & I occasionally go to a bar & grill in Plainview, IA. The town is nothing more than a cross-road with the bar on one corner and a dairy farm on the other. Numerous city dwellers dump their unwanted cats & kittens out that way – probably because of the dairy farm. One chilly November evening, we went to the bar & grill for a dinner of Iowa tenderloins and a couple of beers. When we approached the building, a small calico kitty was huddled next to the door, warming herself with the meager heat escaping from the gap at the bottom of the door. I immediately went to pick her up, but stopped in my tracks at my husband’s dire warning, “Don’t do it. If you hold her, you’re going to want her.” With a heavy heart, I ignored the kitten’s feeble mewing and entered the bar. After our dinner & drinks, we left. As I exited, I glanced down, hoping to see the sweet kitten still huddled there. Alas, she was gone. Approaching our car, I noticed something laying on the hood. As I got closer, I realized it was the kitten! Reaching for her, my husband once again cautioned me, “Do not pick her up.” While he unlocked the car door, I quickly scooped up the kitty and stuffed her down my parka. During the ride home, I could hear & feel her purring so loudly that I was sure my husband would hear it. However, he heard nothing until we arrived home and I pulled her out of my coat. With a glare, he announced that he would have nothing to do with “that cat.” Of course, cats know when someone doesn’t want to interact with them, and they immediately turn all of their attention on that someone. My husband would wake up every morning with Addie laying on his chest; when he sat in his easy chair, Addie would jump into his lap; she followed him everywhere in the house and would sit quietly next to him, hoping for a loving pet. Eventually, Addie won him over, and now they are best of friends. She has been with us for 9 years and is definitely the boss of the house.
I sympathize with Mark! I had a crazy cool cate names Spooky– all black, born on Halloween. Unfortunately, a few years into the relationship, we discovered I’m allergic to cats! So, when Spooky passed after 8 entertaining years, I couldn’t get another cat. He’s a legend! He’ll be featured in a mystery series before long, but my current protagonist is just not a cat lover. –kate