CAT HOUSE—MORE THAN JUST A CAT MYSTERY
There are a few reasons Cat House is special for me. It is the tenth Crazy Cat Lady cozy mystery, ten being a milestone. It takes place in my own neighborhood, and though the exact locations are fictional, anyone familiar with the Hawthorne district of Southeast Portland will be able to visualize some of the features. And if you’ve read any of the series, you know I incorporate cat information into each story and include cat facts and snippets at the beginning of each chapter. Like my character Lynley Cannon, I am an avid cat person, a volunteer, and an advocate for all cats. If my stories can not only entertain but teach something about cats, I’ve achieved my objective.
In Cat House, I’m taking things a step further. I’ve incorporated a secondary storyline involving a cat who is being treated for Feline Infectious Peritonitis, a disease that up until recently has nearly always been fatal to the unfortunate cats and kittens who contract it. But now there is a cure. Sadly the drug to treat FIP isn’t approved in the United States, so sufferers have to look elsewhere. That’s where Peter Cohen and his cat advocate groups come in.
Peter is the crusader behind House of Nekko rescue and ZenByCat, a nonprofit that has helped to save tens of thousands of cats. I contacted Peter in hopes he would write a few pages about his campaign that I can include in Cat House as an afterword and was excited when he agreed. A few days later we met for a zoom call—he was in Tokyo. In that call he revealed he would prefer to talk, so he related his story in an interview. I wrote the afterword with the hope I can convey even half the enthusiasm and caring he exhibited during our conversation. You will find it in my book, and I also plan to publish it in a blog post soon.
Young men from the Portland-Seattle area are going missing. It’s just another sad headline to Lynley Cannon—until she starts her new cat sitting job for an enigmatic neighbor.
An off-limits room, a suspicious phone message involving drugs, and the sudden appearance of a missing man’s cat arouse Lynley’s suspicion, but how far can she go before the consequences of her cat-like curiosity turn deadly?
The Kindle version of Cat House, a Crazy Cat Lady Cozy Mystery, is now available for preorder. Request now and you’ll receive it in your inbox on October 29th, National Cat Day. Paperbacks will be available October 7th and 8th at the Portland Cat Extravaganza & Rescue Awareness Event by Loving Cats Worldwide. Remember, my books need not be read in order.
“National Cat Day is an awareness day to raise public awareness of cat adoption, taking place on August 8 in Canada and October 29 in the United States. The National Cat Day website states that the holiday was first celebrated in 2005 “to help galvanize the public to recognize the number of cats that need to be rescued each year and also to encourage cat lovers to celebrate the cat(s) in their life for the unconditional love and companionship they bestow upon us.” The day was founded by Colleen Paige, a pet and family lifestyle expert, who was supported by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which is a nonprofit pet adoption organization.” ~Wikipedia
