{"id":1004307,"date":"2026-06-03T08:44:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T11:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/themastheadnews.ca\/?p=1004307"},"modified":"2026-06-03T08:45:34","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T11:45:34","slug":"nine-%c2%bd-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themastheadnews.ca\/?p=1004307","title":{"rendered":"Nine \u00bd Lives"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nonfiction collection, 2026, Multiple authors, Joe Pops, editor<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201cMiracle Mo,\u201d about her cat who lived to 18:\u00a0 \u201cWhen your best friend is a furry feline, you know that, eventually, time won\u2019t be on your side.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But while Nine \u00bd Lives, <\/em>a collection of more than 20 stories,doesn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several stories are about the writer\u2019s childhood cat, the friend who grew old as the writer grew up, and the bond that still resonates decades later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s also humour. In \u201cJingles Made a Poop,\u201d Joe Pops describes his level of excitement when he tells his wife that 20-year-old Jingles has overcome a period of constipation: \u201cI should have been wearing a town crier\u2019s robes and ringing a handbell.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s cottage for weeks, returning thin, hungry, and unwilling to roam for the rest of her life. \u201cShe recovered from her ordeal, but kept the details to herself,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This book is a project of the Tuxedo Party and a fundraiser for Spay Day HRM (see story) But while Nine \u00bd Lives <\/em>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\u2014in fact, they make us better. And our cats would be the first to say so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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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 \u201cMiracle Mo,\u201d about her cat who lived to 18:\u00a0 \u201cWhen your best friend is a furry feline, you know that, eventually, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1004308,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[327,334],"tags":[37,508,507,133],"class_list":["post-1004307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books","category-what-we-are-reading","tag-books","tag-cat-lovers","tag-nine-1-2-lives","tag-reading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themastheadnews.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themastheadnews.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themastheadnews.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themastheadnews.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themastheadnews.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1004307"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/themastheadnews.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004307\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1004310,"href":"https:\/\/themastheadnews.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1004307\/revisions\/1004310"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themastheadnews.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1004308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themastheadnews.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1004307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themastheadnews.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1004307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themastheadnews.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1004307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}