We did do radioactive iodine treatment with him and he did great on that. However, he was one of the 5% of cats who went hypothyroid post treatment. We were medicating him. Add to that that he had chronic renal failure and arthritis, he was struggling. He’d been stable until we went on vacation, which we cut short because he went downhill almost immediately. No longer was he maintaining at one of the earlier CRF levels, he was at end stage.

We made it home and had a couple of days of cuddles and talks but today, when he wouldn’t eat at all, not even Churu, it was time.

Fifteen years ago today, we lost our Georgia cat. And now, today, we have lost Ichiro, perhaps the biggest love bug of a cat I have ever had. He will be missed.

Nearly 19 years ago, she showed up in my condo complex, mewing as loudly as possible and when I found her, I took her in. She was so tiny that when I put a saucer of food out, she had to step into it to eat because she couldn’t reach that far. My vet said she was probably 5 weeks old, which was older than I had expected given her short little legs.

In the last few years, she’s had IBD. Mostly that was controlled with Prednisolone. However, she was also loosing her sight and had a lot of behavioral issues. And anxiety. She continued to hate the other cats, particularly Ichiro, although Ham irritated her more. She had to be kept separate from them. While her bloodwork continued to look good even for a cat half her age, mentally she was having more and more difficulties. She hated being left alone but she hated being out with the other cats. She rarely groomed herself. She wasn’t good about her litterbox and she spent a lot of time meowing at the top of her lungs.

Sadly, after much thought, I had to decide it was time for her to join Chey and Georgia across the bridge. We had a lovely woman come in from Laps of Love. She will be missed by her many fans.

She says we are mostly good cats, although I do not believe it of Ham. While she was gone at Superstars, he attacked me and when my dad came home he found fur and a few poops all over the bathroom. Of course, Mama says I start it because if Ham gets close to me I bop him hard on the nose. I do not know why he gets mad.

But you know all of us here anyway because we’ve been here. So just keep following us and we will let you know when Mama has another story or book out.

Oh wait–she does have a new book out but it has no cats at all! It’s a Gothic ghost story set in modern times called Ghosts from the Past. So if you’ve read and liked “Poison Paw,” in the Fantastic Feline Heroes Bundle, you might like the ghost story too. Or not.

But the story in this bundle is Poison Paw, about Chickadee, a feline assassin. Mama says I was kind of an inspiration for this because of how I always ran in front of her feet on the stairs!

Sometimes work slips in through the window even after you’re retired.

Chickadee, a specially trained silver shaded Persian feline assassin wakes to a soft noise. The scent of a female Siamese reaches her nose.

Chickadee’s human, Yvonne slumbers in the bedroom unaware of the danger that has entered her home. Will Chickadee’s reflexes remain fast enough to save Yvonne before the Siamese assassin strikes?

Poison Paw is a short urban fantasy about a pair of unlikely assassins. Fans of Bonnie Elizabeth will no doubt delight in this tale told by a former feline assassin.

Mama also has other books with cats. She has Familiar Trouble written from a cat’s point of view and she also has the Whisper series which features Zari A, a cat who is not a cat.

Eric says, “Sweet, patient, friendly, and an excellent mouser. He was small and soft, so we coined a new term in the house: smoft.  A word still in use in our family.”

I like that word, “smoft”. I am smoft! I didn’t know that, but I like it!

As you can see in the second photo, Nym clearly had cat TV too! And he liked it.

Eric’s story in the Fantastic Feline Heroes Bundle is Thief of Sparks.  It’s a real treat to get the novella that starts off the whole series, so if you love it there’s more.

Oh and here’s more Nym too.

Thief of Sparks is Eric’s story in the bundle and it’s a novella. It’s also the first in the Starside Saga series, so it might just wet your appetite for more.

She thought she was stealing gold to save her brother … instead she steals a key that will unlock her destiny.

This novella is the first book of Starside Saga, a fantasy series filled with magic, thieves, and dire prophecy.

In the city of Starside, a 16-year-old thief named Kila Sigh awakens to a magic power she does not understand and cannot control. It shows her metals, even when they are hidden from view.

And it helps her steal.

And steal she must…For Kila Sigh is desperate to help her brother survive. But the gods have bigger plans for her. She is the flame in the night, the daughter of ravens, and the bringer of death.

Fans of fantasy will fall in love with this world of thieves, magic, and adventure. This novella is the starting point for the epic Starside Saga.

Eric is a wonderful writer and some of his stories from years ago are stories Mama remembers as favorites.

Eric is the author of the science fiction and fantasy series The Undermountain Saga, The Scion Chronicles, and Starside Saga. He lives in Wisconsin with his family. You can find him at his website.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s cats have been on our website before. She has since lost the cats she spoke about then. Galahad, or Gally, was her muse for 15 years, helping out in her office and we’ve featured him here. She lost him not long after we lost Chey. The Bridge got some stunning cats that summer and there were many tears.

Kris and her husband Dean Wesley Smith have had a lot of cats and if you follow her on Facebook, or follow Dean’s blog, you’ll often hear about them finding a stray and taking it in or adopting another cat from a shelter.

If you’re a cat lover, Kris is definitely someone to follow on Facebook to hear about her feline adventure.

Cheeps came to them and was very shy at first but he’s blossomed into a loving mancat. Gavin is the latest addition to the family and he and Cheeps have a grand time together.

Kris’ story in the Fantastic Feline Heroes Bundle is “Disaster Relief.”

At any rate, we are thrilled to have “Disaster Relief”, a Winston and Ruby story, in the Fantastic Feline Heroes Bundle.

What’s it about, you ask? Well let me tell you.

Ruby had the idea—help the magic users in New Orleans survive Hurricane Katrina. Pretty charitable for a tiny cat. Winston thought he knew why. The Southeast Asia tsunami scared her, made her realize her home on the Oregon Coast was vulnerable to natural disaster, too.

But when her offer of help turns into a rescue, Ruby watches helplessly as other familiars move into her little house. And Winston expects her to rebel, because she is, after all, a cat…

“Rusch is a great storyteller.”—RT Book Reviews

At any rate, the accolades for Kristine Kathryn Rusch are long. She has some other great cat stories. You’ll find some in Five Feline Fancies. One of her more recent books, under her Kris Nelscott pen name is The Protectors. It’s set in the same era as the Smokey Dalton series (which Mama highly recommends).

New York Times bestselling author Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in almost every genre. Generally, she uses her real name (Rusch) for most of her writing. Under that name, she publishes bestselling science fiction and fantasy, award-winning mysteries, acclaimed mainstream fiction, controversial nonfiction, and the occasional romance. Her novels have made bestseller lists around the world and her short fiction has appeared in eighteen best of the year collections. She has won more than twenty-five awards for her fiction, including the Hugo, Le Prix Imaginales, the Asimov’sReaders Choice award, and the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Readers Choice Award.

Publications from The Chicago Tribune to Booklist have included her Kris Nelscott mystery novels in their top-ten-best mystery novels of the year. The Nelscott books have received nominations for almost every award in the mystery field, including the best novel Edgar Award, and the Shamus Award.

She also writes goofy romance novels as award-winner Kristine Grayson.

She also edits. Beginning with work at the innovative publishing company, Pulphouse, followed by her award-winning tenure at The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, she took fifteen years off before returning to editing with the original anthology series Fiction River, published by WMG Publishing. She acts as series editor with her husband, writer Dean Wesley Smith, and edits some of the volumes, as well.

To keep up with everything she does, go to kriswrites.com and sign up for her newsletter. To track her many pen names and series, see their individual websites (krisnelscott.com, kristinegrayson.com, retrievalartist.com, divingintothewreck.com). She lives and occasionally sleeps in Oregon.

And she and her husband have cats. You’ll meet them soon!

Mama said how could she not? Look at that handsome orangeness!

Jamie has a number of other stories, some of which include cats. You can find her work at her website.

Jamie’s story in Fantastic Feline Heroes is called “Gilroy and the Kitten”. Don’t miss it!

The story she has for this heroic feline bundle is “Gilroy and the Kitten.”

This is what it’s about:

Gilroy is looking forward to spending a day alone. He’s planned it out – he’ll lie in the sun and warm his furry belly, he’ll watch birds, and maybe even scratch his claws on the carpet since Breda, his person – who also happens to be a witch – won’t be around to see.

And then Breda’s 8-year-old grandniece Delaney shows up.

Delaney, who is already Gilroy’s least favorite human, not only doesn’t go away, she also manages to trigger a spell that adds an even greater complication to Gilroy’s day.

It’s not the only cat related story Jamie has either! She has a story called Clyde and the Ghost Hunting Cat in the anthology Ghost Hunting Critters. So she definitely writes about cats.

If you ask Jamie about herself as a writer, this is what she says, “I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. We moved around a lot when I was little, so I can easily pin down my age based on where we lived, which means I was maybe six when I first made this proclamation. My writing has changed quite a bit over the years, although I am still proud of the short story I wrote in 8th grade about an orangutan named Inconspicuous (I was quite taken with that word). My writing focuses on characters. I’ve created stories about ghosts, clones, monsters, escape artists, mermaids, circus performers…I’m all over the map. But in every single story I do my utmost to get into the minds and hearts of my characters. I love to put them in awful situations to see how they feel, and how they think. I want them to agonize over their choices, and I want what they choose – or don’t choose – to matter. I want the reader to feel joy when a character succeeds, and to cry when they don’t – just like I do when I’m writing the story. Writing is far more fun and rewarding than any other job I’ve ever had, and I’ve been fortunate to have some good day jobs. None of them have ever had the appeal for me that writing does. My ‘free’ time is spent in a futile quest to wear out my two herding dogs since I haven’t given in and gotten them their own herd of sheep.”

You can find Jamie at her website, her facebook page, or twitter.

Jamie had a wonderful cat named Spiff, who is no longer with her but you will see more photos of Spiff on another day.