Animal Inspiration

I'm an animal person. Currently, my menagerie consists of 2 dogs, a horse, and a cat. In fact, you will always find an animal in my books, some play major parts, some are bit characters. Fourth and Goal, my Loose Id book due out on May 3, contains a kleptomaniac Labrador. The sequel, Forward Passes, features an opinionated orange tabby cat. The inspiration for this cat came from my own orange tabby cat.

We're not really cat people (or should I say we weren't), but a nice barn cat that doesn't spread cat hair all over your house was my idea of a cat. Now, my husband is one of those macho guys (a former Army Ranger and SF Weapons Sergeant) who doesn't like cats at all. At least, he "claimed" he didn't.

A few years ago in the fall, an orange tabby moved into our barn. Hey, I was fine with that. They're ruthless mousers, and I'm all for a friendly little barn cat.

So we fed her. We named her Cat Ballou. We took her in to get shots and to be fixed. Oops, Cat Ballou was a he not a she, and he was already fixed. So Cat Ballou became Khat.

Problem is Khat didn't want to be a barn cat. He had greater aspirations. He wanted to be a house cat. Khat started lobbying for house cat status, following us around when we were outside, bitching about his quality of life, and insisting he belonged in the house. I held strong. No cat hair in my house.

That winter my husband injured his back at work and was flat on the couch for a few weeks.

Day two on the couch--I came home from work. There was Khat on Dennis' chest, both of them sound asleep.

One year later....

So much for the barn cat.

If you have cats, you know the rest. The cat has taken over.

A few years later, I was having a baby shower for my daughter-in-law. One of her friends mentioned that Khat looked just like a cat her sister had. Come to find out, we think he is the same cat. Her sister's cat had escaped from their car a few miles from our house in the same time frame Khat showed up in our barn. So the mystery of how Khat became a stray is solved (so we think). Regardless, I made sure it was understood that this woman wouldn't be getting cat back.

This little guy has it made. He's taken over the ottoman in the man cave, the couch in the living room, the foot of our bed, and our guest bed. The last time we had a guest stay at our house, he bitched until the guest let him in the bedroom where he immediately took over the bed. What a life.

When I die, I want to come back as a cat. Our cat.

As I mentioned, Khat is the star of my latest WIP and Book 2 in my football romance series. In fact, he plays a large part in the book.