Dear Reader Column 09-29-06

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Dear Reader,

I'm running a cat house. I hope that first line made it through your email filter. (It should have. After all cat and house aren't indecorous words. Such a disappointment that software programs decide which words I should be reading and which ones I shouldn't. But that's a column for another day.)

You hear it all the time on the news, "Old woman living with 24 cats." I always used to shake my head and wonder how someone could let something like that happen to them. But it's no longer a mystery to me. Cats just kind of move in, and before you know it, you find yourself attending a Cat Anonymous Support Group Meeting. "Hello my name is Suzanne and I'm a cat woman."

Here's my story: Four weeks ago I owned two indoor cats. Then my neighbors packed up everything except their three cats and moved out. One of the abandoned cats knew just how to play me. "Meow, meow," she jumped up onto my lap and looked at me with those 'will you be my mother' eyes. So, I adopted her and suddenly I was the woman in Sarasota who owned three cats.

The other two cats were hungry, so every day I'd walk over to the neighbor's house and feed them. But you know the old saying, "If you feed a cat, it's yours." And I think the neighbor's other two cats believed that bit of kitty adage, too. Because this morning, right outside my sunroom window, the two homeless cats had set up housekeeping on my porch and they brought the family along too. Yep, Mom and Dad and four cute-as-can-be kittens were looking at me through the window. "What's for breakfast?"

Now people could say that I'm the woman in Sarasota, Florida who owns nine cats. See how easily it happens?

But I am following the 12-Step Cat Woman Program and I've already started looking for good homes. The four kittens, I think a veterinarian is going to put them in his office until someone adopts them. The mom and dad, I got them fixed--even though kittens are cute there are plenty to go around--and now I need to find homes for them, too.

So putting up posters is my plan this weekend: "Loving Literary Cats Need a Good Home" (I've been reading to the cats every morning after breakfast. They seem to prefer the Classics.) I'm even offering to deliver the cats personally and each cat comes with a big bag of their favorite food and two books so you can read to them at bedtime.

To see the Loving Literary Cats who need a good home, go to:

http://www.emailbookclub.com/photo/cats.html

Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.

Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@EmailBookClub.com 
http://www.DearReader.com

P.S. Don't miss our book giveaway this week. David Morrell sent me 25 hardcover copies of his book Creepers. He also included 25 copies of his book, Lessons From a Lifetime of Writing: A Novelist Looks at His Craft. To start reading Creepers and get information on how to enter the book giveaway go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=805&site=12

P.S.S. I'd love to bake for you. The deadline for this month's Chocolate Chip Cookie contest is September 30th at midnight. To enter the drawing go to: http://www.emailbookclub.com/photo/cookie4.html

READ THE CLASSICS: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain, and enter the free Penguin Classic's Drawing. Go to: http://www.supportlibrary.com/nl/path_go.cfm?x=815&site=22

Comments

[Kristen from Massachusetts]

Suzanne, what a beautiful family of cats you are hosting! I hope they go to good homes - I would take some but I have 2 orphans already. Thanks for DearReader - can't wait for this weeks' pre-publication book "Rain Village" to come out.

[Eleanor]

I was clicking on links from Romancing the Blog and I loved your cat story. I don't get how people can move out and leave animals that way. I have 2 cats, one just marched into my kitchen one day and decided to stay, the other was a starving stray my son started feeding at work. By the time he brought this skinny cat home, he weighed 25 pounds! I inherited him when my son and his family moved to another state....he's family now and when my hubby and I moved to a different state, we took both of our cats. I would hope that your ex-neighbors will be reincarnated as cats. ;)

[Christine in Los Angeles]

Oh, Naive Suzanne ... you think you own cats? No, no, no ... they own you, and I'd say they bragged to their pals, who moved in with you. Y'know, that's how it starts ... just two cats, then three, then nine ... and putting up posters will just put your name/address out there, for all those homeless kitties looking for a soft bed and a bowl of kibble.
Be prepared for a lifetime of 'guests' ... your new babies are certainly cuties.
God bless (and good luck), Christine in Los Angeles