Category Archives: Cats

Book Reviews with Yoshi Cat

yoshi reading

Ginger the Buddha Cat
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Hello people! Yoshi here with another cat-related book review. Today we take a look at Ginger the Buddha Cat (http://www.amazon.com/Ginger-Buddha-Cat-Frank-Kusy-ebook/dp/B00BK7TZ94/), the sequel to a book that I previously reviewed, Ginger the Gangster Cat. The book follows the adventures of an overweight, amoral, cockney speaking tabby cat in England. In the first book Ginger and his sidekick Sparky went through a series of adventures as Ginger planned and executed a daring sausage heist. This time he’s interested in something deeper: spiritual enlightenment. A series of dreams has Ginger contemplating his mortality and struggling to figure out how to make up for the sins of his past lives. This may not sound particularly hilarious but this incredibly self-involved feline straining against his nature to become selfless makes for a fun read. The first book was a bit more entertaining but this books concentration on spiritual themes naturally makes it less funny than its predecessor’s story of a cat plotting to rob a sausage truck. However the purpose of reading fiction is not only to be entertained but to learn and the story shows a lot about Buddhism without ever forsaking entertainment for preachiness. Recommended for those seeking entertaining and enlightening cat literature.

Petectives: Under Fire playlist

Gatsby with his favorite book

Gatsby with his favorite book

A list of songs that I listened to while writing my cat mystery novel, Petectives: Under Fire. Some of the songs have a strong thematic link to the story, while others helped me set a scene or get into the heads of the characters. The story takes place on the Fourth of July during a heat wave so there’s lots of music related to the summertime and hot weather.

Heat Wave – Martha Reeves and the Vandellas

Hot Fun in the Summertime – Sly and the Family Stone

Stoned Soul Picnic – Swing Out Sister

Summer in the City – Lovin’ Spoonful: When you hear this song it immediately evokes the feel of a sweltering hot summer day.

Little Willy – The Sweet: According to Wikipedia, this song is about a stray cat that hung around the garage where the band members practiced.

New Age Girl – Deadeye Dick: I was listening to this song when I wrote the chapter featuring the character, Sunshine the hippie tortoiseshell cat.

Fire – Ohio Players

Lies – Jonathan Butler

Gimme Some Lovin’ – Sam and Dave: Somehow I’ve always heard this song as “Gimme Summer Lovin’”.

Why Can’t We Be Friends? – War

In the Summertime – Shaagy featuring Rayvon: Reggae/Rap reworking of the Mungo Jerry classic.

Summertime Blues – Eddie Cochran

I’ll Take You There – BeBe and CeCe Winans

Love Rollercoaster – Ohio Players: That’s right, there’s two Ohio Players songs on this playlist!

Will It Go Round In Circles? – Billy Preston

Summertime – Billy Stewart

Walk Us Uptown – Elvis Costello and the Roots

Summer Breeze – Isley Brothers

Bang Bang – David Sanborn

Cat Webcomics

Gatsby surfing the web

Gatsby surfing the web


Hi humans, Gatsby here. Everyone knows that cats rule comic strips. A lot of people are aware of the newspaper antics of comic strip cats Garfield, Bucky and Heathcliff but cats also rule the internet. At the place where comics and the internet intersect there are a bunch of webcomics that feature a feline point of view. Here are my favorites:

Breaking Cat News: http://www.breakingcatnews.com/
Three house cats act as newsmen reporting on the everyday goings on in their house. The food bowl being empty on an early Saturday morning is treated as seriously as CNN reporting on a stock market crash. Hilarious. My favorite reports are: “The Woman is Trying to Make the Bed” and “The Man Has to Get Up Early Tomorrow”

Doctor Cat: http://doctorcatmd.com/comic/doctor-cat
Absurdist comic about a cat doctor (No, not a vet – a doctor that happens to be a cat). Find out how someone born without thumbs can perform surgery!

Cat versus Human: http://www.catversushuman.com/
The cat and the human don’t seem to be in opposition as the title might have you believe but these cartoons are humorous observations on feline – human behavior.

Eat, Sleep, Sniff: http://www.eatsleepsniff.com/updates/tag/diary-comics
The ongoing story of the cartoonist and his cat Tali. And his wife and his baby. In that order. This guy is really into his cat.

Shut Up, Garfield! http://shutupgarfield.tumblr.com/
A version of the Garfield comic strip where Garfield is deprived of his thought balloons. This has the effect of making his owner seem insane. The internet seems to do this kind of thing to Garfield a lot.

Cats in the News with Yoshi Smith

Yoshi
Hello people! Yoshi here with my monthly look at the latest cat news.

-Last week was April Fools Day and for some reason you humans love to include cats in your annual foolishness. Here’s an article about a couple of cat-related pranks:http://www.cnet.com/news/cats-all-the-rage-for-april-fools-day-jokes/
Hmm. I actually like the Google keyboard for cats.

-I came across this article about the depiction of cats with flaming backpacks in 16th century German Manuscripts: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/03/140310-rocket-cats-animals-manuscript-artillery-history/
At first I thought that the cats in these drawings were wearing jetpacks. The truth is far less cool.

-Here’s a story from the UK about a cat who decided to stow away in a sofa: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2595128/Armchair-man-MEOW-Cat-stowed-away-owners-sofa-donated-charity-shop-discovered-five-days-later-heard-meowing.html
Wait, this couple named this cat Crockett and their other cat Tubbs? There are people in England who name their cats after thirty year old television shows from other countries? Weird.

-In Portland, OR a 22 pound cat attacked a baby and then trapped the adults in their bedroom: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/10/pet-cat-attacks-baby-traps-owners_n_4937904.html I don’t know what that baby said to that cat to set him off but it must have been particularly insulting.

Under Fire review on Animal Blogging with Dill the Cat!

Petectives: Under Fire just received a very nice review in the blog, “Animal Blogging with Dill the Cat”:
http://animalbloggingwithdillthecat.blogspot.com/p/dills-libraryunder-construction.html
Anyone who likes animals needs to check this blog out. It features some beautiful animal photography, features and book reviews.

Book Reviews with Yoshi the Cat

yoshi reading

Hello people! Yoshi here with a review of a cat-related book.

ginger

This week we’re looking at Ginger the Gangster Cat by Frank Kusy. We decided to buy this Kindle e book based on nothing more than the picture of the tough cat on the cover and it was worth it. Ginger is an amoral orange cat with a thick cockney accent who scams his way into the home of a Brit couple and their adorable yet wimpy kitten, Sparky. From there the book launches into a series of episodes about Ginger and Sparky’s misadventures. The book was just about as funny as the cover. Urban cat tales were mixed with stories of exotic past lives until the two themes blended at the end. Ginger’s personality of a rough hewn cat with a deeply buried heart of gold played well against the naïve but intelligent Sparky. As a fellow feline, I can’t say that I endorse any of the tactics that Ginger employs to get what he wants but if you’re looking for an entertaining read I highly recommend this book.

Cat Interview!

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Yoshi and Gatsby got interviewed by Truffles the cat at “Melissa’s Mysteries, Mochas and Meows”: http://www.mochasmysteriesmeows.com/2014/02/truffles-interviewsyoshi-gatsby-from.html#comment-form

If you’ve ever wanted to see a cat interview other cats, this is your lucky day! Melissa’s Mysteries, Mochas and Meows is a great blog that concentrates on mystery novels, cats and cat mystery novels. Oddly enough, I never see much about coffee on that blog.