Apparently yesterday was ‘National Hug Your Cat Day’ so Gatsby gave Yoshi a big hug:
Yoshi’s never been much for hugging. So he decided to start a new Holiday: National Strangle Your Cat Day:
Note – No cats were actually strangled in the making of these photos. Yoshi swears that it was just a little cat massage.
On Saturday June 6th we’ll be appearing at the Westerville Library’s “Local Author Festival” along with over fifty other Columbus, OH are authors. (Actually Yoshi and Gatsby won’t be appearing but they’re sending their human representative.)
Details: http://www.westervillelibrary.org/events/?event=20942
Yoshi turns 14 years old today!
Here’s the birthday boy back in 2001:
First day with his new people
And here he is a couple of weeks ago:
Hey! Stop eating the dog’s food!
Having just recovered from a medical procedure, he’s all set for another fourteen years.
Today Yoshi is going into surgery and then isolation for 4 weeks to save his life. Good luck, dude!
As you may know Yoshi and Gatsby are my cats and they star in the “Petectives” mysteries as cat detectives. In real life they live with a dog named Sparky Jones:
Introducing…Sparky Jones!
The other day I came home to find the tattered remnants of what had been full Girl Scout cookie boxes on the living room floor. Apparently putting them in a cardboard box on top of a counter wasn’t enough to keep them away from Sparky:
So he got a sign to wear:
Later I asked him if he felt bad about what had happened. His answer:
wink, wink!
Sparky was able to smooth everything over by making sure that I saw him reading one of my books:
When am I going to be in these books?
Note: They say that chocolate is poisonous to dogs but whatever they use in Girl Scout cookies didn’t seem to harm Sparky whatsoever.
Cat detectives Yoshi and Gatsby were recently interviewed by Rocco the Tuxedo Cat from the “Cats, Books and … More Cats!” blog. If you’ve ever wanted to see two cats interviewed by another cat, check it out:
http://catsbooksmorecats.blogspot.com/2015/01/rocco-interviews-petectives-yoshi-and.html
This actually wasn’t the boys first interview. Last year they sat down with Truffles the Tortie blogger over at Melissa’s Mochas, Mysteries and Meows:
http://www.mochasmysteriesmeows.com/2014/02/truffles-interviewsyoshi-gatsby-from.html
I sometimes wonder if the things that cats do in my stories are plausible.Then I saw these videos.
Cats opening doors:
A cats gambling:
A cat using the toilet:
A cat washing dishes:
Cats playing games on the Ipad:
On July 10th Gatsby celebrated his ninth birthday! He doesn’t look a day over six.
Gatsby closeup
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
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.
Petectives 