Cat 'Tails' to Soothe the Soul
Cats have been a part of my life since I was three. Most cat owners - or any pet owner - will agree their pets are members of their family. Cat Tails to Soothe the Soul takes our relationship with them a step further, showing the human-feline bond can be much more than what we initially perceive it to be.
Through stories dealing with challenges we all face at different times - loss of a loved one, fear of failure, estranged relationships, discrimination, our self-perceived inadequacies, and fear of taking risks - we see how our cats may understand better than we do how to resolve these human dilemmas.
The cats in these stories have personalities as unique as us. Whether you're a cat lover or not, your spirits will be uplifted as these cats teach their human benefactors about hope, love, compassion, forgiveness, understanding, and acceptance.
Order at 
or any online book store.
ISBN: 1-4137-5841X
Chat with Author about "Cat Tails"
What is Cat 'Tails' to Soothe the Soul about?
The theme that runs through all of the stories centers around what lessons we can learn by observing the behavior of our cats. Each story has a character who is dealing with a life-altering decision or situation. The individual is able to resolve or deal with it because of what the cat teaches him/her. Each cat has a different personality – just like we do. That’s what makes them so believable.
I'd written several short stories, each of them with a cat in it and a message. I was finding it difficult to find a pet magazine that took fiction. Most of them only accepted nonfiction. About this same time I took one of the stories, The Gift of Hope to a writers conference to be critiqued by an editor from Writer's Digest. She really liked it and urged that I submit it for publication. When I told her my problem she suggested combining them into a book.
Are your experiences with your own cats incorporated into your stories?
Yes. Unconditional Love is based on my experiences with my first cat. I was only three when she “adopted” me. She was such a gentle cat. My mother used to call her “the wise old lady,” because she seemed to know just what we were thinking. She helped me get through some hard times growing up. When I was eighteen she died, but I wasn’t home with her when it happened. I felt such guilt for not being there for her, and had always wanted to write something in memory of her. It was a catharsis for me when I wrote it.
I also put some of my cats’ quirky traits in the stories. For example, in A Nosy Solution, the cat loves popcorn and will swat it out of her owner’s hand while he’s eating it. My cat, Maggie, does that. If I want her to spend some time with me all I have to do is pop some popcorn and she comes running.
What made you think of using a cat to help solve the problems the characters were having?
Although I’d written Unconditional Love with one purpose in mind – in memory of my cat, Faygo – I actually incorporated an additional story line where the teenager was also facing self esteem problems. It just happened that her cat was the key to her resolving them. Sometimes when I write my pen seems to have a mind of its own. The characters actually take over for you. Seriously, though, I’ve been a cat lover basically all my life so it was easy for me to make that connection. There’s been so many times when my cats have given me comfort when people can’t.
They even have a way of re-calibrating my behavior. Sometimes after going full tilt all day at work I can’t stop when I get home because the adrenaline’s still pumping. Here I am, running around the house like a banshee, and then I see my cat lounging on her favorite chair (where I know she’s been all afternoon). I’ll say to her, “You’ve got it so easy,” wanting to knock her off her cozy spot (of course, I don’t). She just blinks her eyes at me as if to say, “What’s all the hurry for?” It’s actually crossed my mind that maybe she’s the one that’s got the right idea – everyone deserves to take a break.
I’d say that they’re missing out on what most pet lovers already know. Cats, and dogs, have an enormous capacity to love – what I call unconditional love. They’re able to forgive and forget people’s shortcomings better than we can. They listen to us without judging.
Research has also shown that both dogs and cats lower blood pressure, boost a person’s immunity, and help to reduce a person’s anxiety and depression. Patients with Alzheimers have fewer outbursts when they’re around animals. More and more nursing homes and hospitals are using animals as a form of therapy, and studies have shown that heart attack patients survive longer if they have a pet living with them.
Of course, I hope they enjoy it and find it entertaining! I’d like to think that people will look at their pets in a new light and realize that they can help us learn more about ourselves and others by observing and interacting with them. I also want to touch people’s emotions. I feel that if I can do that I’ve done an OK job as a writer. I’ve had a number of readers – even non cat lovers – tell me they enjoyed it because of the “comforting” messages. So I think whether you’re an animal lover or not, you’d enjoy the book.
Excerpts from "Cat Tails"
The Gift of Hope
“Forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty.” Matt looked at the white pills lined up like soldiers in formation on the end table. He put the lid on the empty pill bottle and walked through the kitchen and onto the back porch where several trash bags were neatly stacked. Opening the nearest one, he dropped the pill bottle in and retied the bag.
“Better put down some salt,” he muttered. No sense in someone breaking a leg when they carry me out.”
After sprinkling the icy steps and walkway, he went inside and thoroughly inspected each room. He wanted nothing left for others to do. The rooms were spotless from yesterday’s cleaning except for some ground-in dirt on the entry hall carpet.
The new owners, a young couple whose house was destroyed by a fire, could move in as soon as they were notified. He wished he’d known of their tragedy before telling the Salvation Army to pick up his furnishings. He’d only kept the bare necessities: a mattress and bed linens, an easy chair, lamp, end table, one set of dishes and silverware, and a set of towels.
Returning to the kitchen, Matt opened the top drawer next to the sink and pulled out two thick envelopes. “Last Will and Testament” was clearly written on the one. He reread the other one addressed to Ron Stiple, his attorney. Confident Ron would understand his instructions, he licked both envelopes and set them on the clean counter.
After filling his glass with water, he went to the living room and sat in his chair, setting the glass next to the pills. He pulled his reading glasses from the pocket of his flannel shirt and adjusted them on his nose. Reaching over, he picked up the photo album from the floor and looked at the picture on the cover.
Tears sprang to his eyes. Their wedding day. "We were so young, Mary. But we went ahead and did it anyway. We proved our parents wrong, didn't we?" Had thirty years really gone by? Mary's words, spoken every year on their anniversary, reverberated through his mind: "Sometimes I feel like we've been married forever, but at the same time it feels like we're still on our honeymoon."
He studied the photo of the two of them together, their eyes sparkling with anticipation of their future together. With her long, golden hair and deep-blue eyes, and his dark hair and eyes, their friends had dubbed them Barbie and Ken. She looked like a fragile princess in her white wedding gown with its pearl-covered bodice. At twenty, they'd both been so naive, but firm in their commitment to each other.
After gently caressing the picture he opened the album and began turning the pages. He was glad she'd ignored his complaints about the excessive amount of pictures that she'd always insisted on taking. In the three months she'd been gone they'd acted as a conduit for him to talk to her. Each picture triggered a memory. He paused at the one of Mary lying on a bear rug.
"What happened?" Mary shouted when the room was suddenly thrown into darkness.
"It's OK, honey. The storm must've knocked the power lines down."
"But what'll we do? We'll freeze to death without any heat."
"It'll be all right," he said, wrapping his arms around her. He rubbed her back until he felt her muscles relax. "I'm going out to the porch and bring in some firewood. This cabin's so small the fire will heat it up in no time. Will you be all right?"
“Yes,” she whimpered. “I’m sorry for being such a baby. When I was a kid we went without power for a week during an ice storm. My dad was out of town at the time. We lived in the country without any neighbors close by. My mom didn’t know what to do. It was terrible.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you,” he said, cupping her face with his hand.
“You make me feel so safe.”
“We lived on love those three days.” He chuckled, remembering that because they were unable to navigate their car through the drifts, they’d had to ration their meager and odd assortment of snacks – wine, cheese, animal crackers, popcorn, Snickers and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups while they were snowed in. Instead of letting the weather ruin their honeymoon, they’d taken advantage of the solitude and spent hours talking of their future together. He’d listened as Mary shared her dreams, delighting in her childlike enthusiasm for life, and vowed to let nothing erase it.
For thirty years he'd never tired of taking care of her. His hardest challenge was controlling her overactive imagination. He'd often told her, "Your picture should be next to the word 'worrier' in the dictionary." He'd learned that whenever she was stressed her right eye twitched uncontrollably. It was time then to pat her head and say, "Give your mind a rest."
He’d quietly listen to her fears and support her decisions. When nothing else relieved her stress, he’d wrap his arms solidly around her, trying to transmit his strength to her. But nothing he did had kept her safe from the monster that had taken her from him.
He forced down the anger brewing beneath the surface like a boiling caldron and glanced at the pills. “Not much longer,” he murmured before focusing his attention back to the album.
Will Matt finally succumb to his desolation? What can stop his downward spiral?
Order Cat "Tails" to Soothe the Soul at to find out.
ISBN: 1-4137-5841-X
Taking a Chance
I've been on Death Row for five years. Today I'm getting out - no matter what. The door to our cellblock opened and our guard entered. Sally, who could've passed for a pro football linebacker, was blocking my view of the visitor she was talking to. As they came closer, I stood at attention with an angelic look pasted on my face, waiting to spring into action.
I heard the stranger say, "Isn't this one adorable?"
"Yes, Mrs. Gurney," Sally replied. "The Humane Society has several kittens, but we have a really sweet, older cat, Rocky, that's already declawed and castrated."
"I want a kitten," the woman said firmly.
Shooting me a look of pity, Sally unlocked the door to one of my competitors' cages and picked up a tiny white ball of fur. "I'll take you and Snowball to the play room to get acquainted, and you can decide whether she's right for you."
I jumped onto the bars of my cage and let out a yowl. "Wait! Look at me." The door slammed shut on my plea. "I don't get it. Snowball poops in her feed bowl, and Gurney swoons in delight. Yesterday Blackie peed in his water bowl and he got adopted. What is it with humans? Are they all fascinated with bodily functions?"
"Quiet, I'm napping," hissed Tinker, my neighbor in the next cell.
"Tough." Jumping into my litter box, I used my paws like shovels and sprayed the litter and its deposits in her direction.
"Hey. I just took a bath. Now I've got to wash again thanks to you."
"Sorry," I said grudgingly, "but you'll understand my frustration when you've been here longer." I paced back and forth continuing my diatribe. "My nine lives are running out. Why won't anyone pick me? I'm low maintenance. I don't throw up hairballs like those long-haired Persians, and I'll eat anything. Those finicky purebreds cost a fortune to feed."
My meows jumped an octave as my frustration grew, and I swiped at the ball in my cage, ducking when it boomeranged off the bars. "And I'm cheap. Just give me a crumpled up piece of paper to play with and I'm content. I don't need fancy toys with feathers or catnip. Or those hoity-toity carpeted condos."
I sat down only to spring up as I remembered a few more of my virtues. "Plus, for thelast two years no one's broken my sharp shooting record for hitting the litter box. And I wouldn't get on the kitchen counters. Well...at least not when they're looking."
"Humans need to feel needed. Kittens are like babies. Helpless."
Tinker's words of wisdom did nothing to placate me. "If humans only understood Kitty-Kat. I'd tell them how smart older cats are compared to sniveling kittens that can't find their way out of a paper sack."
"You know, Rocky, you're part of the problem."
"What?" I howled.
"Since I've been here I've seen you blow your chances twice. That farmer - "
"That grouchy old geezer. All he wanted was a mouse catcher. No way was I living in a dirty, smelly old barn."
"How about that lady last week? She was nice and definitely interested until you nipped her in the ankle."
"Yeah." I laughed. "I really had to think fast when she started talking aobut her rugrats. No thanks. I want to keep my tail and eyes. No kid's going to dress me up in doll clothes and push me around in a baby carriage."
"They won't keep you here forever."
I winced at her reminder. Flopping down on the carpet remnant, I ran through my rules for an owner and decided I wasn't being too rigid: energetic enough to play with, smart enough to know when to leave me alone, and most importantly -
The door suddenly opened, and I waited to hear Snowball's fate.
"I'm sure we have another one you'll like better."
I've still got a chance! I lunged onto the bars of the cage. Their conversation ceased when I let out an ear splitting "Meeeooowwwww."
"What in the world?" I saw Gurney's feet head in my direction.
I coaxed her closer by emitting high-pitched squeaks.
"Are you hurt, dear?" Gurney asked, bending over and looking in my cage.
Yipes. I let out a hiss as loud as a cougar's and stood, puffing my fur out like a lion's mane.
"My goodness," she said, jumping back.
Sally glared daggers at me and said, "I'm sorry. He's usually so sweet. Something must've scared him."
You got that right.
Why did Rocky suddenly change his mind? What was wrong with Mrs. Gurney? Will Rocky become her next victim?
Order Cat "Tails" to Soothe the Soul at to find out.
ISBN: 1-4137-5841-X
