MSI Press Blog

  This is a series of Caturday posts on the topic of taking in  feral cats .  General information (from previous posts): For a few decades, we have rescued feral cats. In fact, with only one exception, our "domestic" cats have been ferals that we brought inside to join other ferals, already domesticated, as part of a bonded cat family. Right now, we have five cats (alas,  Murjan , the single non-feral cat we had, died from cancer last fall, and  Intrepid , closely bonded to Murjan, died three years ago from the same kind of cancer, and, most recently, Snyezhka , who had been valiantly fighting three kinds of cancer, died from a saddle thrombus, probably related to her chemotherapy but, of course, no one is going to suggest that and it really does not matter since knowing exactly what caused the reason for her death won't bring her back). All five of our feral cats get along pretty fabulously -- and they also got along well with the three predecessors. Of course, all of th

  (photo from last year, in anticipation of changing that number this evening from 41 to 42) November 13 today is CB Leaver's birthday. CB is the MSI Press author of the popular Mommy Poisoned Our House Guest and one of the oldest CHARGE Syndrome adults in the world. He knows only three others world-wide (Ohio, Massachusetts, and Netherlands) who have reached his age of 42 years (one is actually 45, the others are 42, as well) but thinks there may be another one or two somewhere. It is no mere feat, then, that he has survived, and robustly so, after a very tenuous start in life in which he as given 0% chance of survival by well respected doctors at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and rescued by doctors at Children's Hospital in Boston, Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Children's National Medical Center, Georgetown University Hospital, and Stanford Children's Medical Center -- it took a countrywide network to turn that 0% into 100%) and no mere feat also that

  Check out page 24 of the January issue of the  Mission Village Voice , where Sula's grave is announced as Headstone of the Month. (Just flipping the pages is found - great Internet tech set-up.) As the article says, Sula ministered to the parish at Old Mission San Juan Bautista for 15 years, arriving there apparently Heaven-sent when she was two years old from no one knows where. The "author" of 7 books and the subject of (inter)national articles, she was always a stop on the Mission tour, where she never failed to give visitors her love. Since she passed over the rainbow bridge in August, her grave site in the Mission gardens beside her beloved St. Francis statue has become a stopping place for parishioners and visitors honoring her years of support to this community. For more posts about Sula, click HERE . For more Caturday posts, click HERE . Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .   Interested in publishi

Snyezhka, on a better day, waiting for the vet with "master" CB Leaver   This past week my sweet little Snyezhka, who suffers from lung cancer, developed a really bad upper respiratory infection almost instantly -- sniffles in the morning and difficulties breathing at night. The vaporizer, which often helps, did not fo its job very well this time, and her breath became labored -- but it was unclear whether it was labored enough to take her to an emergency room, a very complicated fact since we live very far away from any emergency services that are open after 7:00 at night. The closest one is an hour away, and I would not be able to drive in the dark and observe her condition -- or do anything about. So, I turned to a place where I have found helpful information in the past: the Internet. I wanted to understand the severity of the URI this time, wondering what the intersection with lung cancer might be, if any. I came across one of these 24/7 places that promises great vet ad

 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

  Having lost three cats to cancer and living with two that are cancer survivors, there are two things I can say: each case is different, and in each case I suspected something was wrong before the vet did (after all, I live with the cats). Recently, Great Pet Care ran a very helpful article that can help cat owners be attentive to potential cancer:  Signs of Cancer in Cats: Symptoms to Watch For (msn.com) . For more posts on cat cancer, click HERE . For more Caturday posts, 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 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.

  (Picture by Stacey Gentry. This year is Sula's first Valentine's Day in heaven; she crossed the Rainbow Bridge last August. MSI Press wishes her a happy Valentine's Day, a happy Caturday, and a happy afterlife without pain.) This Valentine's Day, help mend the broken hearts of unwanted and helpless animals who feel that they've been forgotten. Just $19 a month can help the ASPCA provide love and care for neglected animals across the country. Make an urgent gift TODAY. HERE is where to reach the ASPCA. You can read more posts by and about Sula and her books (six in English and one in Spanish) HERE . You can read many stories about Sula online and find some great pictures of her HERE . And, if you would like to become a Sula fan, you can interact with her on her Face Book page HERE . And, yes, even though the account is now posthumous, it continues to be active. Sign up for the MSI Press LLC newsletter Follow MSI Press on  Twitter ,  Face Book , and  Instagram .  

  Our beloved Murjan , aged 18, in his final days of lymphoma - such a devastating disease. If you have been following the MSI posts on cancer, here is another article to peruse -- my only complaint is that it does not include immunotherapy, which saved one of my cats, Snyezhka , in advanced stage 4 breast cancer, putting her into remission for several years. She actually died from a saddle thrombosis, probably unrelated to the cancer:  What you need to know (and do) when your pet has cancer . For more Caturday posts, 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 free copy of this or any MSI Press LLC book  in exchange for  reviewing  a current or forthcoming MSI

  Indeed, Advent is here, Just the time to remind readers of the book on Christmas at the Mission by Sula, Parish Cat at Old Mission. Beautifully illustrated by the late Russian artist, Zhenya Yanovich. For more posts about Sula, click HERE . For more Caturday posts, 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 . 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. 

  Like all cats, Manis (Sweetie) likes her chin rubbed. [with Betty Lou Leaver, Managing Editor, MSI Press] There is something special about cats. They appear and suddenly "own" things and people -- and the people go along with it quite well. Recently arrived in Bandung, Indonesia, one of the first members of the "staff" of the institute where I am doing sone consulting/training work that I met was "Sweetie" or Manis in Bahasa. She comes to classes and sits at the front among the students. (And, though technically feral, she allows handling, true to her name.)  For more Caturday posts, 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 free

  And now, the fifth post in the series of Caturday posts about cats trapped in war zones. Cats are not political (nor are dogs or any other animal for that matter--nor, generally, the people caring for them, nor this post). In peace and where people watch out for them, cats enjoy being loved and learn to return love. Yet, cats (and other animals) do get find themselves struggling in war zones. They, just like people who have done nothing to bring harm to anyone else but just happen to live there, suffer the consequences of evil descending unexpectedly from sources external to them. Like people, cats and other animals suffer when they are homeless and without food or winter. And they are often completely forgotten when war (or natural disaster, for that matter -- they drown in floods and burn in fires) breaks out. Like people, they have to dodge bullets, bombs, and other dangers. Unlike people, they are often not calculated into humanitarian outreach efforts Let the Animals Live  shelt

  In my family, we rescue feral cats, integrate them into our human and cat family, and keep them indoors for their own safety.  Some of them get fat. We call it the feral rescue syndrome. Having to forage for food and not always finding it outdoors, they do not believe that food will always be there for them and overeat, especially if free feeding is allowed. Fat cats have a problem: they get diabetes; they get cancer; they have trouble walking and breathing; they could die younger than necessary. Our beloved Murjan, who crossed the rainbow bridge at the age of 19 -- not bad for a fat cat with diabetes and cancer (chemo for 3 1/2 years) -- actually became non-diabetic as he lost weight from attention to his diet. Unfortunately, while he put up a good fight, the lymphoma ultimately won out. (Cancer is something even humans cannot win with, in many cases.) With the vet's guidance, we put him on a weight-management cat food, DM. It comes in dry and set variants, and he got both. In f

Bobolink (below) and Wooper (above) are bunked on the catio. We have had two cats lose their fur, each for a different reason.  Wooper licked all of hers off until she had alopecia. Our vet tried one medicine after another. Nothing worked. Another vet suggested it was anxiety, but it turned out it was not. We stumbled upon it by accident when we learned how to give a cat massage. Wooper loved the massage. She would ask for me, and she would want a deep massage. Normally standoffish, she would come and tap one of us on the shoulder. That was her way of asking for a massage. After a few weeks of massaging her, we noticed that her hair was growing up. She now has all the fur she ever had -- but she still wants her massages. Bobolink , a long-haired domestic cat, is sick. He, it turns out, has amyloidosis, in addition to FIV and autoimmune hemolytic anemia. His prognosis is not good. Tonight, I found him lying in a pool of pee, looking up with sad, surprised, and apologetic eyes. I cleaned