Golden oldies – Kandy Shepherd

This month I’d like to introduce you to Tabitha and Cindy, my two senior cats. I don’t like to call them “old girls” because they are still very sprightly. (I truly am a LoveCat!)

We’ve had Tabitha, age sixteen, since she was a kitten. My then seven-year-old daughter had begged us for a cat of her own and spent her life’s savings of $100 on adopting a tiny tortoiseshell kitten. She was advertised on the noticeboard in the tea room of the magazine company where I worked. 

Tabitha as we first saw her - first on the left

Daughter and kitten became immediate best friends—and sixteen years later they still share a special bond. Theoretically, I’m Tabitha’s cat-grandmother my daughter informs me. Tabitha has a very sweet, lovely nature, and is constantly on the lookout for a lap.

Tabitha at six months - in a box as always

My other golden oldie is Cindy, our lovely tabby farm cat. We don’t actually know how old Cindy is—she arrived on our veranda one dark and stormy night. 

Cindy some years ago

She had probably been dumped in the bush near our little farm in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. But she must be at least fourteen, maybe even close to the age of Tabitha. Cindy is the most amazing animal. We call her our dog-cat as she follows us everywhere and likes to go for bush walks with us. At the same time she’s fiercely independent.

Cindy - the classic farm cat

 Sadly both our precious cats are slowing down. Both have lost weight and Tabitha is sometimes grumpy beyond the usual tortoiseshell snarkiness.

Other symptoms have lead to a diagnosis of the start of renal failure, very common in cats. It’s all to do with their origins as desert animals.

Tabitha - looking pretty good for sixteen!

So we now have two cats under a low protein feeding regime. That means expensive prescription diet cat food and constant offering of liquids. They’re both pretty good with eating the special food. But not when regular cat food is on offer to the two other three-year old cats who need regular high protein food.

This means segregated feeding, constant snatching up of forbidden foods, and adjudication of dry food disputes—with resulting grievances from all four cats. I adore them so fuss over my felines without complaint.

Cindy helping in the garden

Tabby also needs a regular laxative that tastes so good she thinks it’s a treat. The others like the smell of it too and get quite miffed when questing noses are pushed away. Heaven help me the day they learn to squeeze it from the tube…

The good news is the latest blood tests for both my seniors show a definite improvement so it’s all worth it!

I hate the thought of my precious animals getting older—just had to stop typing to help Tabitha up on to the sofa as her legs are a little stiff these days—Tabitha is around eighty in human years and Cindy not far behind her. But I figure the love and attention we give them is so worth it for the joy they give us. I got my last cats who were diagnosed with failing kidneys to the respective ages of eighteen and twenty-two—very, very old for cats! Wish me luck I can keep Tabitha and Cindy with me for some years to come yet.

What about you? Do you have an older animal you cherish? Any special care you’ve had to give them? Any advantages you see in having older pets? I’d love to hear about it—please make a comment!

A Deal to Mend their Marriage—behind the book

The first frisson of inspiration for Caro and Jack’s story came when I started playing around with the idea of writing a caper story. That spark might’ve ignited when a few writing friends of mine waxed lyrical about the movie To Catch a Thief when we were having lunch one day. It’s a movie I’ve never seen, but have always meant to watch.

I still haven’t seen it. But I will. Soon!

It also strikes me that, not long before this discussion of To Catch a Thief, I’d read Anne Stuart’s PRINCE OF SWORDS, which also happens to feature a cat burglar as a hero.

So…I’m guessing that between them, this is what influenced my book. :-)

To be fair, unlike Cary Grant, my hero isn’t a cat burglar, but a security specialist who has a certain…ahem, talent for retrieving lost items. My heroine, however, just like Grace Kelly, is an heiress. And rather than missing jewels we have a missing antique snuffbox. Just to make things more interesting I made them husband and wife…who've been estranged for the past five years. I find it hard to resist a reunion story, don't you?

That’s perhaps why this became my theme song for A DEAL TO MEND THEIR MARRIAGE….




Gorgeous, isn’t it?

And just for fun, here’s an except: Caro and Jack’s first meeting after five years apart…

Despite the loss of the snuffbox and all the morning’s kerfuffle, it was Jack’s face that rose in her mind and memories of the past that invaded Caro, chasing her other concerns aside, as she trudged across Westminster Bridge.
  So when she first saw his face in the midst of the crowd moving towards her on the bridge Caro dismissed it as a flight of fancy, a figment of her imagination. Until she realised that blinking hadn’t made the image fade. It had only made the features of that face clearer—a face that was burned onto her soul.
  She stopped dead. Jack was in London?
  The crowd surged around her, but she couldn’t move. All she could do was stare.
  Jack! Jack! Jack!
  His name pounded at her as waves of first cold and then heat washed over her. The ache to run to him nearly undid her. And then his gaze landed on her and he stopped dead too.
  She couldn’t see the extraordinary cobalt blue of his eyes at this distance, but she recognised the way they narrowed, noted the way his nostrils flared. She’d always wondered what would happen if they should accidentally meet on the street. Walking past each other without so much as an acknowledgement obviously wasn’t an option, and she was fiercely glad about that.
  Hauling in a breath, she tilted her head to the left a fraction and started towards the railing of the bridge. She leaned against it, staring down at the brown water swirling in swift currents below. He came to stand beside her, but she kept her gaze on the water.
  ‘Hello, Jack.’
  ‘Caro.’
  She couldn’t look at him. Not yet. She stared at the Houses of Parliament and then at the façade of the aquarium on the other side of the river. ‘Have you been in London long?’
  ‘No.’
  Finally she turned to meet his gaze and her heart tried to grow bigger and smaller in the same moment. She read intent in his eyes and slowly straightened. ‘You’re here to see me?’
  His demeanour confirmed it, but he nodded anyway. ‘Yes.’
  ‘I see.’ She turned to stare back down at the river. ‘Actually…’ She frowned and sent him a sidelong glance. ‘I don’t see.’
  He folded his tall frame and leaned on the railing too. She dragged her gaze from his strong, hawk-like profile, afraid that if she didn’t she might reach across and kiss him.
  ‘I heard about your father.’
  She pursed her lips, her stomach churning like the currents below. ‘You didn’t send a card.’
  He didn’t say anything for a moment. ‘You send me a Christmas card every year…’
  He never sent her one.
  ‘Do you send all your ex-lovers Christmas cards?’
  She straightened. ‘Only the ones I marry.’

Can you tell I had a lot of fun writing A DEAL TO MEND THEIR MARRIAGE?

So tell me, are you a fan of a caper story? Do you like a little mystery mixed in with your romance? And do you love all of that delicious angsty history of a reunion story? Or maybe you prefer something altogether different—like a Cinderella rags-to-riches tale? Hmm…maybe I should write one of those next. ;-)

Sunday Smooch with Michelle Douglas

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!

Today we have a smooch from  A DEAL TO MEND THEIR MARRIAGE but first 


... the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is Tammy Y


Can you please contact Louise: mail (at) louisecusack  (dot) com to receive your copy of HUSBAND SIT


And now for today's Sunday Smooch from Michelle Douglas

Antiques dealer Caroline Fielding is married more to her job than to dashing Jack Pearce. After five years apart their relationship should be over--only when Jack shows up asking for a divorce, the chemistry is as strong as ever...

Caro tries to ignore her heart and sign the papers that will let go of Jack. But now her professional reputation is on the line and only her private investigator husband can help her! Working together 24/7 may be emotionally heart-wrenching, but it could also save her job...and their marriage.

Scene set-up: It can be hard to set up a scene without giving too much away... Suffice it to say that Caro and Jack have just had an interesting experience...and the adrenaline is still pumping.


  She reached up on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. He bit back a groan.
 
‘I…’

  Her voice trailed off at whatever she saw in his face. Her eyes met his and darkened. Her gaze lowered to his lips and her own lips parted ever so slightly—as if she were parched, or as if she couldn’t quite catch her breath. Wind roared in his ears. She wanted him. With the same desperate hunger that ravaged him. He’d promised not to kiss her, but…

  He moved in closer, traced a finger down the soft flesh of her cheek. Her breath hitched. Her eyes never left his.

  ‘You…’ She hiccupped again as his finger moved down the line of her throat. ‘You promised,’ she whispered.

  ‘I promised not to kiss you,’ he murmured. ‘I don’t recall promising not to touch you. You can tell me to stop any time you want to and I will.’

  Her lips parted, but no words emerged.

  A surge of something hot and primal pulsed through him. ‘And I don’t recall you promising not to kiss me.’

  Her breath hitched again. Maintaining eye contact, he took her hand and raised it to his lips, nibbled on the end of her ring finger and then her middle finger, drawing it ever so slightly into the warmth of his mouth.

  ‘You didn’t promise you wouldn’t kiss me,’ he whispered again. ‘And I want you to kiss me, Caro. I want that more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life.’

  A shiver shook through her. He went hard in an instant.

  ‘I didn’t promise that I wouldn’t put my arms around you…’

  Very slowly she shook her head. ‘No, you didn’t promise that.’

  He backed up until he was leaning against the car. He drew her towards him to stand between his legs—not quite touching, but their heat swirled and merged and another shiver shook through her.

  He kissed the tips of each of the fingers of the hand he still held. ‘I didn’t promise not to place your arm around my neck…’

  He put her hand on his shoulder, snaking an arm about her waist and pulling her closer. The feel of her in his arms was familiar and strange both at the same time. Her other hand slid about his neck too.

  ‘Jack…’ she whispered.

  He moved his face to within millimetres of hers. ‘I didn’t promise not to ask you to kiss me…’

  ‘Oh…’

  The word was nothing more than a breath and it whispered across his lips, drawing everything inside of him tight. Her hands tightened about his neck.

  ‘I’m not asking, Caro,’ he groaned. ‘I’m begging. Please kiss me. I—’

  She leant forward and pressed her lips to his.


 

A Deal To Mend Their Marriage is set in London...because I love London. :-) If you could choose the setting for a romance, what would you pick?

Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced!

Smooch Graphic by WebWeaver