MSI Press Blog

  This week's book back story features Intrepid: Fearless Immigrant from Jordan to America by Carl and Betty Lou Leaver from the publisher -- When Carl Leaver's beloved cat -- with quite a unique personality -- died from cancer, he found one way to deal with his grief was to compile the pictures he had made over the 11 years of Intrepid's life into a story. For sure, Intrepid did have a story. Ironically, Carl died from cancer three years ago. Intrepid is buried with him. Purchase the paperback at 25% discount with coupon code FF25  at the  MSI Press webstore . For more posts about Carl Leaver and his books, click  HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC? Check out information on  how to submit a proposal . Planning on self-publishing and don't know where to start? Our  author au pair  services will mentor you through the process. Interested in receiving a

  Isn't it amazing how sometimes just a picture can brighten a day. Here, Intrepid shows how he earned his name. Always curious. Always fearless. Always wanting to be wherever the humans are -- and sometimes above them! Yep, he liked to help change light bulbs. (We lost him to lymphoma a few years ago, but his intrepid spirit remains.) For more Caturday posts, click  HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  X ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC? Check out information on  how to submit a proposal . Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book  in exchange for  reviewing  a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com. Want an  author-signed copy  of this book? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25) and concurrently send a written request to orders@msipress.com. Want to communicate with one of our authors? You can! Find their contact information

  Today's fortune cookie is associated with Intrepid  by Carl Leaver and Betty Lou Leaver.  Available at discount (currently on sale) at the  MSI Press webstore .  Read more posts about Carl Leaver, Betty Lou Leaver and their books HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC? Check out information on  how to submit a proposal . Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book  in exchange for  reviewing  a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com. Want an  author-signed copy  of this book? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25) and concurrently send a written request to orders@msipress.com.  Want to communicate with one of our authors? You can! Find their contact information on our  Authors' Pages .    

  excerpt from  Intrepid  by Carl Leaver and Betty Lou Leaver Preface All cats are special, but occasionally one is unique—so unique that you know that this one time, this one cat’s lifetime, is the only time you will encounter such a soul. That makes every day with the cat a delightfully special day, and it makes the death of such a cat a real tragedy. The memories linger, and they are no less sharp a year, or two years, or three years later than they were when they took place. Intrepid was just such a cat for us. So many things remind of us him nearly every day: replacing a light bulb—he would always climb the step ladder to help, putting up a Christmas tree—we never could when he was around because he would eat it or any plant, and the silence of waking up in the morning—he always woke us by pushing onto the floor any moveable item he found on the bureau (and, regardless of weight, he could usually find a way to move any item there). Missing Intrepid is part of our daily life now. F

  This is just a plea, on Caturday, for pet owners who are in smoky areas caused by the recent Canadian firestorms to remember that pets, too, need protection from smoke. So, keep them inside and breathing easy with the air that you have managed to arrange for yourself to breathe safely. Here is a fact sheet that explains the effects of smoky air on your cats and dogs. It only takes a minute or two to read. Check it out HERE . See more Caturday posts   HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishing with MSI Press LLC? Check out information on  how to submit a proposal . Interested in receiving a free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book  in exchange for  reviewing  a current or forthcoming MSI Press LLC book? Contact editor@msipress.com. Want an  author-signed copy  of this book? Purchase the book at 25% discount (use coupon code FF25) and concurrently send a written request to orders@msipress.co

  Excerpt A Real Home and Food For the first time, Intrepid had a limitless supply of food and water. He understood that he could eat whatever and however much he wanted. He did not understand the limitlessness of the supply. So, he hunkered down beside the cat food bowl in the kitchen, never leaving it except to use the litter box.   How he knew to use the litter box was an enigma. Perhaps he saw the other cats using it. Perhaps something about it came to him instinctively. From the very first day, he was always a clean cat.  Ultimately, after a number of weeks, he realized that the food would not disappear, and he ventured out to explore our other rooms, all of them very large: two bathrooms, three bedrooms, a dining room, a living room, and a closed-in sunroom. One by one, he explored them all.  In the living room, he discovered tall plants. Somehow, he discovered that though the plants were five and six feet tall, if he could get a running start, he could take a kamikaze

  We indeed have books about cats -- a number of them -- and welcome more. Here are some cat lovers might enjoy: How My Cat Made Me a Better Man . Jeremy Feig Book of the Year Finalist Kops-Fetherling International Book Award Legacy Award for Humor 25% discount with code FF25 at msipress.com/shop Intrepid Carl and Betty Leaver 25% with code FF25 at msipress.com/shop Sula series -- there are six books (five in English and one in Spanish) in a series of books "written" by Sula, Parish Cat at Old Mission                                         Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter                           Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .

  I have written a bit about the process of pets dying before, along with the ways in which vets can be (or not) helpful. In that post, I shared a book by Barbara Karnes on understanding the pet-dying process, which I had found very helpful and which would have provided me with a fair amount of relief and guidance had I known about while Murjan was still alive. It explained much about his dying process and death that was comforting in retrospect. You can read that post HERE . In this post, I want to share the emotional aspects not only of the dying itself but also of the role of the support community (which should be supportive but in our case was not so, at least not to the extent that we needed and that could have been). As a result, my experience with Murjan's dying days were traumatic--more traumatic than they should have been because of lack of support from the veterinary hospital that should have been my source of support.  As I explained in the earlier post, Murjan had been

  Cancer has a way of knocking down the best and the brightest, no matter the fight they put up: Rith Bader Ginsburg, Colin Powell , and so many others. And this week, Madeleine Albright. Since I used to work at State Department, I saw M. Albright in action. Impressive action, I would add. For a short but impressive biography, click HERE . While she lived a long life and helped many women develop good careers in what are often male roles, one could wish that cancer had tiptoed away and not pushed her out the door. One can always wish... Unfortunately, this week we learned that another member of our family, like Carl , has been hit with a sudden and late diagnosis of Stage 4 metastatic cancer. Lord, have mercy! Not just for the people but also for the furry critters, like our Murjan and Intrepid , who died from cancer, and three other cats living with us who have survived it--so far. Finding cures will never be too soon. Finding cancer early is the key for now, and we are heartened by

The cats in the window, Intrepid (tabby-mau mix) and Murjan (red & white Turkish van), were the best of friends. Murjan "raised" Intrepid after he was found as a small kitten crying in the grass after his mother died. Both were born in Jordan and were brought to the USA when we moved back home to California. Both were diagnosed at the same time with lymphoma though the vet said that it was pure coincidence. Intrepid was the younger by four years, but he had the worst case: his kidneys and liver were already damaged when we found out he was sick. Both began chemotherapy in summer of 2018.  Intrepid In October 2018, Intrepid , named for his daredevil approach to life, died. He was only 11 years old. As the days went by and the chemo did little more than make him loopy--actually, it was difficult to know whether the progressing disease was causing him to walk drunkenly or the chemotherapy side effect or both--he ended up on IV at home at times and IV in the pet hospital at t

Somehow, some way, it appears that animals know a lot more about death (and when it is coming) than we do.  When Murjan was approaching death , in fact, just the day before, he begged to go out on his leash for a walk. That cat always seemed to think he was actually a dog--and how he loved to go for walks! Saturday's walk was very different from his past walks, however. He kept exploring dark places, especially little cave-like areas, as if looking for a place to take a final rest. He never did that before. That spooked me a little because he seemed to be telling me that he was dying--and he was. He passed away within 24 hours of that walk. So, it should not have been surprising that when Carl was dying, he was surrounded by the cats who loved him. They spent all day and all night of that last 24 hours with him--under the footrest, on the footrest, and lying on him. They clearly knew. Check out MSI Press's books on cancer and related to cancer HERE . For more posts on Carl Leav

 Taking a little step back from book publishing and a stride into read life, this Caturday I share with you a piece of daily life. Every morning I find a  toy monkey on the floor when I wake up. This toy monkey sits on the bureau every night, and every morning, there it is again on the floor. This morning it was lying on its back. Our cat Wooper (I caught her doing it) swipes it onto the floor and plays with it. She learned that from little Intrepid, who died three years ago but not before he taught Wooper how to play with big toys. A new wrinkle appeared today. Wooper took her monkey to bed with her! I found it on the bed when I walked into the bedroom this afternoon. Intrepid, Wooper's trainer, was barely double the size of the monkey. He earned his name. His favorite toys were dog toys and human toys. He now lies together with his owner in a grave that gets regular family visitors. (Some cats are more human than people!) For more Caturday posts, click HERE . For more posts abou

Cats -- especially unique cats that contribute in special ways to their families' lives -- deserve to be mnemorialized. MSI Press can help you put together and publish a pet memoir of your pet.  And, for fun, just because it is Saturday, here are pictures of the five cats of one of our staff.  Goodness, they are able to form a play circle better than some children, Aw, the Turkish van alpha cat was coming to groom the others, not to play. Wonder if they really are not circling to play but lining up to be groomed? These are the kinds of pictures that cat parents will love to have preserved in a book -- we can help. Contact editor@msipress.com.  

  Rescuing cats can be take skill and patience in large quantity. For the skill part, we refer you to our earlier post, Rescuing/Adopting Street Cats . Intrepid, shown here, was rescued when his street mother died and he was still a very tiny kitten; his young age made adjustment easier for him than for an older cat. One of the older cats in our house adopted him and raised him, and they remained father and son until Intrepid met an early death as an 11-year-old from cancer three years ago. To this day, his "father" Murjan mourns him. For more posts on cats, cat books, and things feline, click HERE .

SHELLY Shelly starred in the book, How My Cat Made Me a Better Man , by Jeremy Feig -- and that book placed as finalist in the Book of the Year award. For more posts about Shelly and the book she inspired, click HERE . INTREPID Intrepid is a memoir and love story written by grieving owners when he died at age 11, far too young, of cancer. For more posts about Intrepid, click HERE . SULA Sula is perhaps the most famous cat of MSI Press. She has written six books.        For evidence of Sula's Internet fame, click HERE . For more posts about Sula and her books, click HERE .