Nonfiction collection, 2026, Multiple authors, Joe Pops, editor
It would be easy for cat lovers to approach a collection of stories about old cats with trepidation. After all, as journalist Heidi Petracek writes in “Miracle Mo,” about her cat who lived to 18: “When your best friend is a furry feline, you know that, eventually, time won’t be on your side.”
But while Nine ½ Lives, a collection of more than 20 stories,doesn’t shy away from the frequent health challenges and final goodbyes that are the tough parts of living with elderly cats, this book is much more a celebration of the resilience, late-in-life playfulness, and love that senior cats offer.
Several stories are about the writer’s childhood cat, the friend who grew old as the writer grew up, and the bond that still resonates decades later.
There’s also humour. In “Jingles Made a Poop,” Joe Pops describes his level of excitement when he tells his wife that 20-year-old Jingles has overcome a period of constipation: “I should have been wearing a town crier’s robes and ringing a handbell.”
Some of the stories feature cats who may have been losing some hearing and eyesight but still had their sense of adventure. Ian Colford describes Fluffy, thought to be around 15 at the time, going missing from a family member’s cottage for weeks, returning thin, hungry, and unwilling to roam for the rest of her life. “She recovered from her ordeal, but kept the details to herself,” he says.
This book is a project of the Tuxedo Party and a fundraiser for Spay Day HRM (see story) But while Nine ½ Lives is worth buying to support cat rescue, it also stands on its own as a great read. These stories are love letters to remind us that cats make life better—in fact, they make us better. And our cats would be the first to say so.
Sharon Jessup Joyce has lived with rescue cats all her life, and currently serves the cuddling requirements of Boston, 12, William, 10, and Brynn, 9.
