Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson here with a tip: when at a loss for a blog topic, go with the cat. Lacking a cat, write about your dog, your hamster, your parrot, or your whatever.

I’ve actually been contemplating writing another post about Shadow, the cat we inherited from Lea Wait, for some time now, but I was having trouble thinking of something new to say about her. I considered focusing on her ninth birthday, which was March 26, and reminding readers that she was just six months old when Lea and Bob got her from the shelter.

Cute, wasn’t she? She’s grown some since.

Still, I’ve written previous blogs about how we got Shadow and how she’s been adjusting to living with us and I’ve posted a ton of photos of her on Facebook. If I wanted to repeat myself, I could just repost one of those old blogs. I didn’t want to do that, although if you’re interested, you can find one of them here: https://mainecrimewriters.com/2021/03/01/another-update-on-shadow/. Previous posts about her had to be deleted when I published I Kill People for a Living because I included them in that collection of essays and Amazon won’t publish a Kindle edition if any part of a book is available online for free. Don’t get me started on what I think of that policy!

I did come up with one potential Shadow-blog when we acquired an iRobot to replace the vacuum cleaner neither of us can use anymore without serious lower back consequences. The set-up instructions offered Sandy a chance to give it a name. He picked Boris.

You’ve probably seen cute photos online of cats and cleaning robots. Cats running away from them. Cats chasing them. Even (small) cats riding on them as they vacuum. We waited, camera-ready, to see how Shadow would react.

And that was it. Total disinterest, even boredom.

Talk about a non-starter.

Then again, you’ve just read a cat-blog. Any stories to share? I promise to read all comments to both Shadow and Boris.

Kathy Lynn Emerson/Kaitlyn Dunnett has had sixty-four books traditionally published and has self published others, including several children’s books. She won the Agatha Award and was an Anthony and Macavity finalist for best mystery nonfiction of 2008 for How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries and was an Agatha Award finalist in 2015 in the best mystery short story category. She was the Malice Domestic Guest of Honor in 2014. Her most recent publications are The Valentine Veilleux Mysteries (a collection of three short stories and a novella, written as Kaitlyn) and I Kill People for a Living: A Collection of Essays by a Writer of Cozy Mysteries (written as Kathy). She maintains websites at www.KaitlynDunnett.com and www.KathyLynnEmerson.com.