Mollie Hunt's Blog, page 9
June 12, 2024
THE CATIO
Catio? Yes or no?
Some years ago, my husband made a small catio* out of an old dog run. It sits off the side of our beach cabin with a cat door installed in the wall to access it. Since the catio’s inception, several of our clowder have passed through that plastic flap. Each has sniffed the salt sea air, listened to birdsong from the Douglas fir tree above, and generally reveled that part of themselves that is the Elementary Cat. It’s been a joy to watch their joy, especially the old ones, but none have given me quite so much pleasure as Clarence and his first trip outside.
Clarence in the backyard on a leash.
Clarence, having only this week turned one, has had a limited experience with the outdoors. I assume he spent time outside before he was brought to the humane society—how else would he have ended up with the terrible fracture that ultimately cost him his back leg? But since I adopted him, he’s been an indoor cat. At home, he enjoys sitting by the screen door, and I did take him into the backyard on a leash once, but the catio is different. Here on the wild west coast, there is a whole new set of sights, sounds, and smells he’s never encountered before.
What is he thinking, my little tripod katten?
When first he ventured out the cat flap, he stopped dead on the other side, staring around him in wonder. His eyes grew wide, and his mouth opened. He was hesitant to go any farther until twenty-year-old Tyler came out to show him the way. That was yesterday, and now I can barely get him to come back inside, even for his breakfast.
What is he thinking, my little tripod katten? His long fur resists the coastal cold and damp as he turns in all directions.
What does he hear? What does he see?
What does he hear? A bird? A mouse? The wind rustling the sword fern and huckleberry? All I hear is a chain saw, the refrigerator running, my fingers clacking the keys of my laptop.
What does he see in that filagree of leaves and branches? Is there a nest somewhere among the tangles? Does another cat roam nearby?
What does he smell on the beach breeze? Fish? Seaweed? The vastness of the ocean itself?
What might it be like to have such hyperawareness?
Now Clarence has finally come back inside, his curiosity about the wild things fulfilled for the time being. He climbs the couch using his front claws, skitters across me and my keyboard (mmmmmmmmmmmmpppppppp) and crawls into his heated bed for a well-deserved nap.
One tired kitten.
One tired kitten
*Catio: a cat patio, enclosed for the cats’ safety.
June 6, 2024
JUNE IS ADOPT-A-SHELTER-CAT MONTH!
Photo by Thomas Park on Unsplash
It’s Adopt-A-Shelter-Cat Month!This is Adopt-A-Shelter-Cat Month, the month I remember the two cats I’ve adopted in June as a celebration of the campaign. One has crossed the Rainbow Bridge, far too soon. The other, at a ripe old 20 years of age, is still very much with me.
Blaze with Tyler in the background
Blaze was only with us for a few years. Though he was only twelve, he had issues that created all sorts of physical problems including causing his broken arm to heal very slowly. That was when Blaze came from the Oregon Humane Society to our home for three months of fostering, then stayed forever.
Once the arm was healed, we thought he was out of the woods. But though he was my heart cat, it wasn’t meant to be. He broke my heart when two years later he developed an incurable neurological disorder and we had to let him fly free.
Tyler
Meet Tyler, my sage old boy. His actual adoptiversary was June 1, 2017, but we celebrate all month. Every day is a celebration with a super senior cat like Tyler!
Tyler has slowed down since he came from the Oregon Humane Society seven years ago. At that time, the doctors thought he was 18, even older than he was. Though I knew he would have the best of care, I couldn’t bear the idea of a cat that age languishing in the shelter. On the plus side, his health was very good despite untold years as a street stray. The only thing the docs had noticed were his chronic conjunctivitis and extensive tooth decay. The conjunctivitis was something we would need to monitor, but they removed his bad teeth at the hospital. Tooth decay and stomatitis in cats are responsible for all sorts of issues that impact a cat’s health. That was something we would never have to worry about again.
When Tyler first came home with us, he was underweight with coarse fur and wavy, brittle whiskers. It didn’t take long to see improvement though. With regular healthy meals and a comfortable and non-stressful environment, Tyler blossomed. His fur became soft, his whiskers straightened, and he began to gain weight to match his large and muscular body.
He often played like a kitten. He’d race through the house after the other cats, most of whom enjoyed this game. He’d jump high in the air after feather wands. He’d retrieve sparkly balls which he would lay at our feet as an offering.
Seven years later.It has now been seven years, and though he still plays between naps, the chase sessions are usually instigated by Clarence the kitten. He doesn’t jump much but will bat the feathers as they go by. He still brings us sparkly balls, meowing as he drops them on the floor before coming to lie beside me on the couch as we watch television. (I, also, am older than I used to be and not as energetic.)
A brand new toy, Just for me?
One toy Tyler hasn’t lost interest in is the Classic treat puzzle from CatAmazing. (Read my 2018 review here.) We bought a new one for this anniversary because the kitten has destroyed the old one. Granted we had it for a long time before he ripped it to shreds. Thankfully they are fully recyclable! Tyler is enjoying his new toy that is just for him. (Don’t worry. We have another one for the kitten made from a postal box that can be easily replaced.)
Beautiful Tyler
What will you do for cats this month?Whether you are inspired to observe Adopt-a-Shelter-Cat Month with an actual shelter adoption, celebrate with the adoptees you already have, or find another way to help homeless cats, it’s important to remember that with love and kindness, we can change the cat world, one cat at a time.
June 3, 2024
IT’S THE THIRD OF JUNE…
It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day. I was out choppin’ cotton and my brother was balin’ hay…
Today is June third.
Every year, I post about the enigmatic ballad sung by Bobbie Gentry back in the sixties. It’s been more than 50 years since she produced the haunting song that had a whole generation wondering: What did Billy Joe Macallister really throw off the Tallahatchie Bridge? Half a century later, we still don’t know.
Though speculation ran from flowers to a baby, no one ever got Gentry to commit. In 1976, a film was made based on the song, it’s interpretation including a homosexual theme. Herman Raucher, the screenplay’s writer, asked Bobbie Gentry about the song:
“I said, ‘You don’t know why he jumped off the bridge?’ She said, ‘I have no idea.’”
What does it mean?
Even more intriguing is the meaning of the song itself. A handwritten page of Gentry’s original lyrics had been found. It began with a verse she never recorded and with the first line crossed out.
Sally Jane Ellison’s been missing since the first week in June.People don’t see Sally Jane in town any more. There’s a lot o’ speculatin’, she’s not actin’ like she did before. Some say she knows more than she’s willin’ to tell. But she stays quiet and a few think it’s just as well. No one really knows what went on up on Choctaw Ridge the day that Billy Jo McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge. —University of Mississippi’s Archives and Special Collections
In the published lyrics, Sally Jane became the unnamed female narrator who was only present with Billy Joe throwing something off the bridge. What it means has more to do with the nature of the ballad than the story.
The story itself has many dramatic elements— Billy Joe’s apparent suicide and the bridge-tossing mystery— that its true meaning was lost on the youth of the mid-sixties, as it has been lost ever since.
It doesn’t matter what they threw off the bridge. More ominous than Billy Joe’s suicide, more menacing than the couple throwing something off the bridge, more heartbreaking than the lonely narrator picking flowers up on Choctaw Ridge is the blatant apathy of the family to the tragedies going on around them. The true theme of the song is indifference.
“The song is a first-person narrative that reveals a Southern Gothic tale in its verses by including the dialog of the narrator’s family at dinnertime on the day that “Billie Joe McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.” Throughout the song, the suicide and other tragedies are contrasted against the banality of everyday routine and polite conversation.” —Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ode_to_Billie_Joe
Was the song based on a true story?
According to Badfinger (Max) on PowerPop, not really, but it was inspired by the 1954 murder of Emmett Till. “Till was only 14 years old when he was shot and thrown over the Black Bayou Bridge in Mississippi for offending a woman in a grocery store,” writes Badfinger (Max). They do not say where they got this information.
What were you doing on the 3rd of June, 1967?
Some of you may not have been alive in 1967. I was 15 and attending high school. On the 3rd of June, we would be coming to the end of the school year. I was dancing in a local production of Oklahoma. The Portland Rose Festival was going on. Here is a picture taken of me around that time.
Published Lyrics:
It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin’ cotton, and my brother was balin’ hay
And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
And mama hollered out the back door, y’all, remember to wipe your feet
And then she said, I got some news this mornin’ from Choctaw Ridge
Today, Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie BridgeAnd papa said to mama, as he passed around the blackeyed peas
Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense; pass the biscuits, please
There’s five more acres in the lower forty I’ve got to plow
And mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow
Seems like nothin’ ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billy Joe MacAllister’s jumped off the Tallahatchie BridgeAnd brother said he recollected when he, and Tom, and Billie Joe
Put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show
And wasn’t I talkin’ to him after church last Sunday night?
I’ll have another piece-a apple pie; you know, it don’t seem right
I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge
And now ya tell me Billie Joe’s jumped off the Tallahatchie BridgeAnd mama said to me, child, what’s happened to your appetite?
I’ve been cookin’ all morning, and you haven’t touched a single bite
That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today
Said he’d be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way
He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge
And she and Billy Joe was throwing somethin’ off the Tallahatchie BridgeA year has come and gone since we heard the news ’bout Billy Joe
And brother married Becky Thompson; they bought a store in Tupelo
There was a virus going ’round; papa caught it, and he died last spring
And now mama doesn’t seem to want to do much of anything
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin’ flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
And drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Bobbie Gentry
Ode to Billie Joe lyrics © Spirit Music Group
In this photograph from the November 10, 1967 issue of Life magazine, Bobbie Gentry strolls across the Tallahatchie Bridge in Money, Mississippi. The bridge collapsed in June 1972.
May 30, 2024
LAUNCH DAY! Ghost Cat at the Mystery Hotel
If you pre-ordered the Kindle version of Ghost Cat at the Mystery Hotel, you should have awakened this morning with your copy in your inbox. If you prefer the paperback version, as of today, those too are now available! I’m excited! How about you?
Ghost Cat at the Mystery Hotel is the 3rd book in the Tenth Life Cozy Paranormal Series, featuring septuagenarian Camelia Collins and her ghost cat sidekick Soji. In this story, Camelia meets her old college friend Anne Pine for a murder mystery weekend at the coast, but death becomes more than a game. Camelia begins to discover clues that aren’t part of the role-playing storyline. A lurking stranger spies on Camelia from the house next door. A vengeful spirit haunts the hotel. A winter storm rages outside, threatening the old building, while a murderer roams the halls, threatening those within.
The Mystery Beach Hotel is based loosely on the iconic Sylvia Beach Hotel in Newport, Oregon. I was recently there and managed to capture a few photographs that fit my story.
Entrance to the Sylvia Beach Hotel, Newport, Oregon
Though in my book, the backyard next door is wild with sea grass and filled with nautical memorabilia, you can use your imagination with this actual view from the hotel’s third floor.
“A lurking stranger spies on Camelia from the house next door.”
The fireplace in the library where Camelia sees the human ghost make their first manifestation.
“A vengeful spirit haunts the hotel.”
One of the many bookcases in the library. Could this be where Camelia finds her first clue-key?
The Library
I pictured that top balcony which extends from the hotel’s library as the place Camelia stands to view what she thinks is a body on the patio below.
Looking up the west side of the hotel.
No hidden corpses here, thank goodness.
View from the third floor balcony onto the patio and down the sheer bluff to the sandy shore.
I hope you enjoyed our little tour of the fictitious Mystery Beach Hotel. May these images spark your imagination as you read Ghost Cat at the Mystery Hotel.
Enjoy the adventures of a septuagenarian and her ghost cat companion in this latest paranormal mystery.
About the Tenth Life series: “…purrfect for young and old alike who enjoy cozy mysteries, cats, and a good ghost story.” —Valentine of Noir Kitty Mews
Enter for a chance to win a signed paperback copy of Ghost Cat at the Mystery Hotel on my Great Escapes Book Tour, May 24th through June 2. You can enter at any of the participating blog sites on the tour.
May 24, 2024
A GREAT ESCAPES BLOG TOUR AND A GIVEAWAY!
Soon to be released – GHOST AT THE MYSTERY HOTELTo celebrate, we’re going on a book tour! If you’ve never followed a Great Escapes book tour before, you’re in for a treat. 7 days of Book Reviews, Blogs, Spotlights, Author and Character Interviews, and Giveaways from the best cozy bloggers on the web.
Ghost Cat at the Mystery Hotel (A Tenth Life Cozy Mystery) by Mollie Hunt, Book Launch Tour by Great Escapes
When: Tour begins today, May 24 and runs through June 2, 2024
What: Great Escapes Book Tour
Where: ONLINE
Stop by any blog on the Great Escapes tour list to enter to win a signed paperback copy of Ghost Cat at the Mystery Hotel!
May 19, 2024
CLARENCE TURNS ONE!
Headline! Clarence turns ONE on May 19th!My dear little kitten is turning One! I can’t believe it!
It seems like only yesterday I picked him up from the Humane Society to provide him fostering until he recovered from his amputation surgery. The little guy was shocked and disoriented to find the appendage gone, and my heart went out to him. It didn’t take long for me to realize he was meant to stay with us.
May 19th may not be his real birthday, but it is the one his previous owner gave when Clarence was surrendered to OHS. I don’t know why they didn’t want him, but they did the right think by bringing him to the shelter where he could get the medical care he needed and then go to a real forever home.
He was a little ball of fluff when he came, though big for a 6-month-old kitten. At first he was quiet. Friendly but withdrawn. I think it was partially the pain medication, because as he healed he got more curious. And as he got more curious, he got more kittenish. It didn’t take long before he was running-hopping around the house like any other cat his age.
Tyler, my 20-year-old tabby wasn’t so sure about Clarence, and sometimes still isn’t. At first I was worried big Tyler might bully Clarence, but it turned out to be the other way around. Clarence and his kittenish ways can be tough on the old cat, especially when Tyler would rather nap than chase, but it’s getting better. I’m not sure they will ever be curl-up friends, but lately I’ve seen them sitting together watching the birds through the screen door. That’s a start.
I’ve loved watching Clarence grow, both physically and mentally. It’s fun to watch him encounter something he’s never seen before. The weather warmed this week, and the other day we pulled out the tower fan. Clarence wasn’t sure what that moving, huffing monster was, but he was definitely interested.
So Happy Birthday, dearest Clarence! May there be many more to come!
May 13, 2024
HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A GHOST CAT 2
We all wish our cats could live forever.But when they don’t, some of us turn to a different realm to connect with them again, the realm of the spiritual.
When I first began writing the Tenth Life cozy mystery series, I asked people if they had ever experienced a paranormal event involving a cat who had passed away. I wasn’t surprised when the response was often in the positive. Most visitations were intangible, a pressure on the bed or a flicker seen out of the corner of the eye, but a few people recounted clear sightings of cats as they had been in their prime of life. In all cases, people were absolutely convinced these incidents were real, and that their cat was purposely trying to contact them. Most visitations occurred soon after the Crossing, but in some cases, the cat spirit lingered for weeks, months, and even years.
I was also told stories of encounters with cat spirits that were strangers to the person they appeared to. What did these feral spirits want with the living? For some reason or other, had they become stuck on this plane, the way we imagine happens with human ghosts? Was there something yet left for them to do before they could cross the Rainbow Bridge and join their fellows? Unfortunately they never tell their secrets, leaving us to guess and wonder.
There have been times in my life when I have encountered cat spirits, and though it would be easy enough to pass them off as some quirky but normal event, I choose to believe that their visitations are little miracles wafting into our existence from a farther plane.
In Ghost Cat of Ocean Cove and Ghost Cat on the Midway, I introduced you to Soji, the capricious puss who haunts our hero Camelia’s cottage garden. Now, in Ghost Cat at the Mystery Hotel, not only does Soji prove her ability to travel away from her backyard gravestone, but we find she isn’t the lone spirit on the scene. The old Mystery Beach Hotel where the story takes place has its own resident ghost cat Bruce. And Bruce isn’t the hotel’s only ghostly secret.
On May 30th, you are enthusiastically invited to come to a fictitious mystery weekend at Mystery Beach, Oregon to join the adventures as they unfold. Pre-order here.
May 12, 2024
HAPPY MOM’S DAY to the Other Mothers
Every year I look forward to Mother’s Day for one special reason. It’s not the flowers or candy or appreciation. It’s that I get to watch and share one of my favorite videos, That’s What Moms Do, by Furball Fables.
Thank you again this year, Furball Fables! (Watch to the end.)
May 2, 2024
I WAS INTERVIEWED BY CAT BLOGGER MEWLA YOUNG
I recently had the privilege of being interviewed by Mewla Young for her popular cat-centric blog. You can read, “Mollie Hunt Talks About Her New Book, Ghost Cat, and More” here.
Besides asking about my upcoming new release, Ghost Cat at the Mystery Hotel, Mewla posed some difficult questions, such as, “What is the most rewarding aspect of working at the shelter?” and “What’s your main hint(s) for socializing new cats and kittens when they arrive at the shelter?” I had to think long and hard to give her my answers, and it was fun to mull over those important subjects in my mind. I especially loved being able to recount the story of Snowball, the cat who inspired a community veterinary hospital!
Mewla’s tagline is, All things feline for people who love cats and kittens, and her blog articles certainly fulfill that promise. In the same post as my interview, she includes the 2024 Hawaii Cat Show and Costume Contest, “Ginger Gets Real with Teens: My Therapist Has Whiskers” about cat therapy, and more.
The game is murder at the Mystery Beach Hotel.
When Camelia Collins meets her old college friend Anne Pine for a murder mystery weekend at the coast, death becomes more than a game.
Accompanied by her ghost cat companion Soji, Camelia begins to discover clues that aren’t part of the role-playing storyline. A lurking stranger spies on Camelia from the house next door. A vengeful spirit haunts the hotel. A winter storm rages outside, threatening the old building, while a murderer roams the halls, threatening those within.
Will Camelia’s keen senses and Soji’s feline wiles be enough to catch the killer before they kill again?
Preorder Ghost Cat at the Mystery Hotel now.
April 21, 2024
THE MYSTERY OF MYSTERY WEEKENDS
I’ve never been to a Mystery Weekend Retreat, so when I started writing a book that takes place within such an environment, I needed to do some research. Bottom line, I found out that the average all-inclusive mystery weekend adventure, though not cheap, sounded like loads of fun.
One of the more intriguing companies I discovered on the internet is Keith & Margo’s Murder Mystery Weekend
. Their website boasts:
I’m ready to go! How about you?“Since 1985 Keith & Margo’s Murder Mystery Weekend
This company hosts events all over the continental US with luxury accommodations in classic buildings that fit the part. From the enticing photos, I could imagine that once a person arrives, it isn’t hard to get into character fast. One place was a beautifully restored landmark building in the midst of a lush forest. Another, set in the Shenandoah Valley, was described as a refined Georgian Revival inn. Yet another was a Victorian Inn once frequented by President Calvin Coolidge. Though I’ve not been to any of those places, it was that sort of distinguished ambiance I was trying to convey with the Mystery Beach Hotel in my new Tenth Life mystery, Ghost Cat at the Mystery Hotel.
I found several other companies through my internet search that specialize in mystery events, Some go a step farther and make it a theme weekend such as the 70’s Disco Era, Old Hollywood, the Jazz Age, or the Victorian Period (Bring your own costume.) Some events are public for a certain number of guests, and others you can arrange for your own private experience. AARP provides a list of Murder Mystery Adventures for senior sleuths.
For those less audacious folks, there are murder mystery dinner theater productions. These can be either played out on stage for the dinner audience, or in some cases, actors are mixed in with the restaurant clientele to bring the experience closer at hand. In both cases, the audience is invited to solve the mystery. I see there is one outfit right here in Portland! So tempting!
Lurid crimes, forensic examination, and hearts set on murder, these mystery packages are designed to delight.Have you been on a Murder Mystery Weekend? If so, please tell us about it in the comments. Curiosity abounds!
The game is murder at the Mystery Beach Hotel.
Pre-order Ghost Cat at the Mystery Hotel now!
