Catwoods the Book is Out!

The cover of the cat book!

UPDATE October 14, 2020. Catwoods has now won two awards from the Cat Writers’ Association, the Certificate of Excellence and the very prestigious MUSE Medallion Award!

Years ago I started writing a cat book, and now, Volume 1 is out! It’s been a long slog getting this done. For me, it’s exciting but a little scary too.

That’s The Minx you see in the cover picture, taken by the hubs. I took the pic of the background greenery. If you purchase the book you’ll see a little surprise looking out at you on the spine.

The book tells of the years of fun and joy as we find our cats on the streets and in the woods, but it also has serious research about cats and other critters. There’s a chapter about current kerfluffles between bird advocates and cat advocates. It’s 364 pages, thoroughly researched, and has endnotes. There is no electronic version as books with endnotes aren’t usually published electronically, according to the publisher.

Publishing is by Borgo Publishing, a local indie publisher.

It’s available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. These are the links:

Amazon

On Amazon, look for the “1 new from 23.95” to get a new copy from the Borgo Publishing.

Or, you can also order it direct the publisher! Borgo Publishing Catwoods page.

Below is one a brief description of the book, one of those that sounds like someone else wrote it, but I actually wrote it myself.

Catwoods, Stories and Studies of Our Feline Companions, Volume 1 is about a couple who rescue, adopt, and love cats in their deep woods home in the southern US. These cats are all such original characters that they make every day blissful, giddy, poetic, or even somber, the way the moods and phases of real life unfold. Leah Alford observes domestic felines indoors and later studies wildlings like foxes and raccoons who live outdoors amidst the glowing, dense leaves of the Appalachian jungle. A screaming non-entity in the night might well have been a cougar. This heavily researched volume covers cat coat color and genetics, color in nature, cat behavior and affection, multi-cat home dynamics, feral cats, spay and neuter, radial hypoplasia cats, black cat rhapsodies, and more. Communication between animals and humans is the core of Catwoods, as despite the language barrier Alford and her husband have rapport with each cat; with looks, gestures, purrs, and meaningful visual cues, the cats voice their declarations and diatribes. This first volume, which extends into the year 2004, revels in the natural world, the luxuriance of birds, insects, and yelling frogs. Covering many decades, Alford also writes of art, music, and writing in a changing South.

Below is a picture of Franklin, who is a tad peeved. He wants to know why we didn’t start with Volume 2 since that’s where he enters the picture. He doesn’t accept my explanations about time sequence, or the fact that he can’t be listed among the other cat editors since by his own choice, he’s just not an editing cat.

Franklin looking regal