Dear Reader,
Today's guest author, Melanie Benjamin, says, "I live in Williamsburg, VA with my husband and children, I mean, cats. My previous books included the New York Times Best Sellers The Aviator's Wife and The Swans Of Fifth Avenue. My new book, The Children's Blizzard is my seventh historical novel."
Melanie would love to hear from you. It's always such a pleasure to hear from readers. You can reach her at: melanie@melaniebenjamin.com
My Life in Cats
by Melanie Benjamin
First cat I loved: Angel. A black stray who adored me. She also adored eating birds and may have been the victim of poisoning by a neighbor who loved birds more than cats.
First cat who should have had a movie made about him: Sammy. Sammy was a long-haired dishrag of a cat who let me dress him up in doll's clothes. My brother and I loved Sammy passionately. Then one day Sammy didn't come home, and for a couple of months we mourned him. Until the miraculous day when he showed up at our front door, skinny but happy. Had my brother and I not been smothering him with hugs, we might have noticed a startled look on my mother's face. Decades later, we found out the story: My mother hated Sammy because he ate rabbits, and one weekend she made my father drive him out to the country and abandon him, miles and miles away. But he found his way back, and my parents were so stunned they didn't have the heart to do anything but accept him as the miracle cat that he was.
First cat I owned as an adult: Mickey. I got Mickey after an excruciatingly bad break-up, pouring all the love I couldn't give anyone else into him, and he accepted it with the good graces of a cat who knows he's landed in clover. Mickey lived a long life, even getting to know my sons until he passed on, still the bemused recipient of a household of love.
First cat my children loved: Beauty. Beauty was a rescue we got when my sons were toddlers, and she didn't like me or my husband or really anyone but my oldest son, who she would follow around like a puppy.
First cat who is an Instagram star: Loki. Another cat who knows he has landed in clover, the obsession of two Empty Nesters who are not yet grandparents. He has a companion named Luna, and the two of them have the record of the most photographs ever taken of a pair of cats. Loki is more the aloof, regal type who tolerates our affection, but Luna likes to curl up and purr against my chest so loudly all the troubles of the world vanish.
They don't take the place of our children, but shhhh--please don't tell them!
-- Melanie Benjamin
Welcome Melanie to the book club, melanie@melaniebenjamin.com
Thanks for reading with me. It's so good to read with friends.
Suzanne Beecher
Suzanne@DearReader.com
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