cat writers

Sunday Purrs: Cats and Writers

Amber reading Buckley's Story

“Authors like cats because they are such quiet, loveable, wise creatures,
and cats like authors for the same reasons.” Robertson Davies

Cats and writers just seem to go together. According to Barbara Holland, author of Secrets of the Cat: Its Lore, Legend and Lives, “a catless writer is almost inconceivable. It’s a perverse taste, really, since it would be easier to write with a herd of buffalo in the room than even one cat.” I think she’s right.

I certainly get inspired by my two feline mewses, Allegra and Ruby. I couldn’t write The Conscious Cat without their inspurr-ation. But the best piece of writing I ever saw about how cats inspire writers comes from Muriel Spark’s A Far Cry From Kensington:Continue Reading

Allegra’s World: When Mom Goes Away

I’m back already!  Remember that big black box I was telling you about that showed up in our bedroom, and Mom was putting her clothes in it?  Well, it turned out that the big black box is not a good thing.   The morning after the big black box showed up, Mom left the house and took it with her.  At first, I didn’t think anything of it – after all, she’s left the house before and took things with her.  She always takes a purple bag with her when she goes, even though I sometimes try to lay right in front of it so she can’t get to it!  Anyway, I thought maybe she’d just gotten bored with her purple bag and took the big black box instead.

But when Mom’s friend Renee came to visit around lunchtime, I knew something wasn’t right.  Any other time Renee comes over, Mom is here, too.   But Renee is really fun, she loves kitties, and she played with me and gave me treats and hung out with me, so that was cool.  After Renee left,  I took a nice long nap and didn’t wake up again until it got dark.  Mom still hadn’t come home.  I was just starting to get a little worried when Ronnie came to visit.  Ronnie is Mom’s friend and Mom said she’s also a pet sitter.  I don’t know what that means, and it sounded a little scary.  Does she sit on pets?  Mom said she comes to take care of people’s cats when the people can’t be there to do it themselves.  I don’t really understand that – why can’t the people just stay home?  But Ronnie is a nice person and she, too, loves kitties, so I was glad to see her.  And best of all, she served me dinner as soon as she got there, and I was pretty hungry, so that got the visit off to a good start.  Ronnie played with me after I ate, she brushed me, and she gave me treats.  Okay, this was good.

But then, after Ronnie left, I got a little scared.  Mom still wasn’t home, and even though I can’t tell time, I knew it was way past when we usually go to bed together.  I finally went to bed by myself and eventually went to sleep, but it wasn’t the same without Mom there.  When I woke up, it was light out again, and Mom still wasn’t home!  Where was she?

Thankfully, just as I was starting to get really worried, Ronnie came by again and served me breakfast.  Whew!  At least I wasn’t going to starve!  She played with me again, and that was nice, but where was my Mom?  Anyway – I don’t want to bore you, but this went on for three more days.  I had a good time with Ronnie and Renee, who came by to visit a few more times, too, but I was getting pretty lonely.  I’m used to having my Mom around a lot!

When I heard a key in the door again on Sunday night, I figured it was going to be Ronnie again, but it was Mom!  She was back!!!  I was so happy!!! I rolled around on the floor for her and I even let her pick me up and hug me and kiss me, I was so relieved!  My Mom was home!!!  I followed her everywhere while she took stuff out of the big black box and put it away where it belongs.  I hissed at the big black box a couple of times for good measure.  By the time Mom sat down to have dinner, I had exhausted myself and I knew I needed a nap, but I was so worried that Mom would leave me again, I laid down on her feet and went to sleep there.  That way, I could be sure she couldn’t even get up without me knowing about it.

Turns out she went to something called a cat writers conference.  I don’t understand why I couldn’t go with her.  After all, I’m a cat writer, too!  She did bring back some fun new toys.  My favorite is this pole thing with a dragonfly attached to it – I love playing with it, it’s so fun. Wee!!!  It’s my favorite toy yet!  You can see me playing with it in the video below.

She also brought a bunch of other toys, she thinks I didn’t see her sneak them into the extra bedroom I’m not allowed in.  I heard her say something to someone on the phone about “rationing the toys and breaking them out gradually” – no doubt this is some fancy human speak for spoiling my fun!

Now things are back to normal again, and I hope the big black box stays hidden in the closet for a long, long time.  I don’t like it when Mom goes away.