Ship’s Cats by Mary Jo Putney

Cats! Nature’s most perfect predator, sharp of claw, long of fang, stealthy, adaptable, and sometimes willing to curl up in your lap and purr.  It’s their hunting skills that have made them welcome aboard ships. I’ve read that the Egyptians carried cats on Nile river boats, and later they became furry fixtures on merchant vessels along trading routes throughout the Mediterranean and beyond.  The Vikings certainly had ships’ cats.

Cats were an invaluable part of the crew because a ship’s food supply was vulnerable to mice and rats.  Having a cat aboard was insurance against potential starvation, so they were much prized.  Win/win–the cat gets the fun of hunting, and the ship’s crew gets to eat!

Which brings me to my upcoming book, Once a Scoundrel.  Much of the story takes place on shipboard in the Mediterranean, so I decided to put one of my cats aboard.  We have four rescue kitties, all of unknown age and family history, all of them very nice and very different.

But the obvious choice was The Spook, our newest rescue.   He was living under a construction trailer and showing up to eat at a nearby feral cat feeding station, which was visited daily by a volunteer.

The Cats on the Desk (not in the hat!) by Desiree Holt

So many people have told me that writing is a solitary business. A lonely  business. Not so in my house. I have three wonderful cats that have been with me since the year before my first book was contracted. Grace (a torty, my alpha cat, who sits on my desk all day), Blanca (a white puffball, who likes to sleep in my closet then climb all over me when I am trying to edit, and Bast (all black, Nefertiti’s familiar, who thinks it is her job to sit on my keyboard.

Grace is always hungry. Always. I have to be careful or she would eat all day. I used to give her treats at 1:000 and 3:00 with dinner at 4:00 for all three. I swear that cat ahs an alarm clock in her stomach. She starts whining fifteen minutes ahead of time. Her begging is so well know that even the wonderful cop who meets with me to help on my romantic suspense books knows her schedule.

It’s weird but I swear they know what I am writing. When I have three or four pages done and I’m not happy with it, Grace and Bast sit in front of my screen and wipe their paws on it. That is no lie! And when I have a good writing session I’m excited about, they sit on my keyboard tray and lick my face.