Okay, I’ll admit it…
I’m more a dog person than cat. (Not that I haven’t had a cat in residence before, and if you own one, you know that she/he is not your pet–you are hers/his.)
If you’ve been following this blog for any amount of time, however, you already know that–right? I’ve published reviews on books featuring dogs, posted cutesy dog pictures, and even included my own fuzzy white 13 lb Bichon. (She is as smart as she is cute, by the way, but every dog owner says that, right again?)
So how is it I’ve received a spate of review requests featuring cats lately? And dang if I haven’t enjoyed them just as much! What IS it about our pets, dogs and cats most especially, that we so tend to anthropomorphize them to the point they become beloved children, well except for the fur…and that licking habit.
It comes as no surprise then that some very canny authors have found a niche not yet over-exploited. I just received a request for book review by Eleanor Kittering. Her book, Murder at the Art Gallery, was just published May 30, 2017. So, no, I haven’t yet read or reviewed, although I did put it on my TBR list. Look at that cover? Doesn’t it get you? The premise; Roger, recently acquired (notice neither I nor the author said “adopted”), is really a reincarnated NYC detective. Damn–I’m hooked. (Stay tuned for the review.)
Or what about the one I recently reviewed, Dining and Driving with Cats–Alice Unplugged. A fun and remarkable travelogue featuring two wildly different kitties (loose…in the car), either of which would have been interesting to travel with–let alone both of them–a Herculean effort of epic proportions. And again, the cover was the hook.
Prior to that interesting novel, I read and reviewed The Eye of Nefertiti, A Pharaohs Cat Novel by Maria Luisa Lang. The thing about cats is, they have made themselves so mysterious, even the Pharaohs of ancient Egypt thought they had powers of some nature. Separate, aloof, independent…if they’d had opposable thumbs could have ruled the pyramids instead of being buried along with the ruler.
And now I receive another of BookBub’s offerings (neither read nor reviewed), The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell by Lillian Jackson Braun. Possibly the most remarkable thing about this book, the 28th in the “Cat Who” series of 29, is that the author died in 2011 at the age of 98. That was sixteen days shy of her 99th birthday. Must have been the two Siamese, Koko and Yum Yum, keeping her alive–did something happen to them?
As Pat Patterson, author of Dining and Driving with Cats quoted Sir Terry Pratchett, “In ancient times, cats were treated as Gods; they have not forgotten this.”
What unfathomable thought is going on behind those cat eyes? Perhaps my dog’s eyes are saying so more than, “food, food, I’m hungry,” but at least I don’t have to gear up for her latest plot–and you know that is what the cat is doing. ©2017 Virginia Williams 
Rosepoint Publishing 