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Dear Reader,
Today's Guest Column is written by author Amy Clipston. Amy lives in North Carolina with her husband, two sons, mother, and four spoiled rotten cats. You'll enjoy her column and she's ready and waiting to reply to your emails. Send your note to: AmyCsBooks@gmail.com
--Suzanne Beecher
From author Amy Clipston...
A regular reader of the book club, I'm honored to be a guest columnist for Suzanne.
I'm a lifelong cat lover. I remember the car ride bringing home my first cat when I was two. Spooky, was a big, fat calico. Despite my parents' best efforts to keep her in, she was an outdoor cat, leaving me gifts--birds and squirrels--under my swing set.
After Spooky, we had Pepsi, a moody, disinterested tabby, who spent her time in her favorite wingchair or under a bed.
While I was in college, my parents and I adopted Bonnie and Clyde, two loving lap cats. Soon after we adopted them, I met my future husband, Joe, a dog lover. He insisted he was allergic to cats, but I soon cured him of his allergies.
When Joe and I purchased our first home, my mother gave us a special housewarming gift--Gracie and Les--black and white "tuxedo" cats. Our kitties came from the same breeder as Bonnie and Clyde. Not only were they companions, they were our babies before we had our human babies.
At first, Gracie was standoffish. She trembled and spent most of her time under our bed. I would leave her a bowl of food and come back to find it empty, the only sign she was alive under the bed. After some time, she came out from under the bed, stopped her shaking, and slept between us at night. Les was my shadow and shared my pillow. Actually, I shared it with him since he overtook approximately three quarters of it! He would sit at the door and await my arrival in the evenings.
Unfortunately, both Gracie and Les died much too young. Les was only six when he became gravely ill, and the veterinarian told us there was no hope. I'll never forget how Joe and I sobbed on the phone when I told him the news. Gracie died in 2008 of cancer, and again, we cried. Gracie and Les will never be forgotten.
Currently, we're blessed with three cats we've nicknamed the 'Three Stooges.' The eldest is Ashlee, a twelve-year-old tabby with a heart of gold. My four-year-old son carries her around by her neck, and she has never hissed or snapped at him. She sleeps with my sons, meows in response to questions, and begs for Cool Whip.
Jet, our male tuxedo, is five years old and twice the size of his sisters. However, he's afraid of everything from strangers to plastic grocery bags. The only things he isn't afraid of are his sisters, whom he enjoys terrorizing.
Our youngest cat, Molly, I found on the local Human Society website after Gracie died. I chose her because she reminded me of Gracie. Molly is a two-year-old tuxedo. She loves to play and is often seen throwing one of her small Beanie Babies through the air like a football player. She enjoys "helping" me make the beds by rolling in the sheets. She wrestles with her brother, jumping on his back and making him cry. Joe wasn't thrilled when I brought Molly home, but she quickly stole his heart. He and Molly chortle to each other, and she sleeps between us. She hides behind furniture and pounces on us, standing on her back legs like a squirrel. Her throne is a wooden serving tray with a towel on our kitchen table, where she supervises meals, sneaking sips of iced tea when she thinks I'm not looking.
If you asked Joe, he'd tell you he's still a dog lover. Yet, deep down, he's converted. Just ask Molly.
You can reach Amy Clipston at: AmyCsBooks@gmail.com www.amyclipston.com and www.amishhearts.com
Best-selling author Amy Clipston has been writing for as long as she can remember. Her fiction writing career began in elementary school when she and a close friend wrote and shared silly stories. Her book A Gift of Grace, is the first in the Kauffman Amish Bakery series.
In Amy's new romantic suspense,Betrayed, Lacey Fowler is distraught when her parents are killed in a car accident while traveling from Daytona International Speedway to North Carolina. Her anxiety is heightened when champion stock car driver and known playboy Reese Mitchell inherits part of her father's prestigious race team. Suspecting her father was murdered and his race team is in trouble, she turns to Reese in desperation for help. Uniting their pieces of the company, they band together to solve the crime and save the company.
AUTHORBUZZ: With so many new books out every week, we promise these are five that deserve your attention: Margot Livesey, The House on Fortune Street; Linda Evans Shepherd and Eva Marie Everson, A Taste of Fame: A Novel; Irene Hannon, An Eye for an Eye; Maggie Brendan, The Jewel of His Heart; and Katherine Neville, The Fire. Go to: http://authorbuzz.com/dearreader
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