Please
welcome my Wednesday guest, Sheila Webster Boneham, author of the Animals in
Focus mystery series. Drop Dead on Recall, the first book in the series, won the 2013
Maxwell Award for Fiction from the Dog Writers Association of America and was
an NBC Petside Best Ten Dog Book of 2012. Sheila is also the author of 17 nonfiction books, six of
which have won major awards from the Dog Writers Association of America and the
Cat Writers Association. For the past two decades Boneham has been showing her
Australian Shepherds and Labrador Retrievers in various canine sports. She has bred
top-winning Aussies and founded rescue groups for Aussies and Labs. Boneham
holds a doctorate in folklore from Indiana University, an MFA
Stonecoast/University of Southern Maine, and resides in Wilmington, N.C. Sheila
writes literary nonfiction and poetry as well, and teaches writing. You can
keep up with Sheila’s latest news at www.sheilaboneham.com and www.facebook.com/sheilawrites, learn more about animal-oriented
writing—with some of your favorite authors!—at her Writers & Other Animals
blog at www.writersandotheranimals.blogspot.com .
****
When I mention that Leo, the lead cat in my
Animals in Focus mystery series, competes in feline agility in my new book, Catwalk, people respond in any of
several predictable ways. Disbelief or astonishment are common. Laughter is not
unheard of. A handful show some interest in learning more. And the vast
majority respond with some variant of “My cat wouldn’t do that. S/he’s too
independent/indifferent/self-serving.”
I’ve been thinking a lot about that last
response and I have a theory. I think that many people prefer to think of cats
as lovely companions who really care only about themselves. In a society in
which many people are distanced from nature except through media and pets, the
idea of living with a minimally civilized animal holds some appeal as a final
link to wilder nature.
That’s lovely, but in my experience,
well-socialized, healthy cats do enjoy learning new things and interacting with
people and other animals. I’ve had lots of cats, and every one of them cared
about the people and other animals in their family. Our Kitty (seriously, I
didn’t name her!) used to lie on my chest and gently pat my cheeks whenever I
had a migraine, and Leo loved to cuddle and play with tiny baby puppies when we
were breeding Australian Shepherds. And so it goes.
Leo, the protagcat in my Animals in Focus
Mystery Series from Midnight Ink, is one of those well-socialized catboys, and
he loves Janet MacPhail and her Aussie, Jay, among others. He showed his
devotion with a heroic act in Drop Dead
on Recall (2012), and he
remained an essential character in The
Money Bird (2013). In Catwalk—just
out—he and his ilk are in the spotlight at cat shows and in the world of feral
cats.
Well, cats also compete in agility! In the
feline version, the handler directs or—more often--lures the cat through
tunnels, up and down ramps, over jumps, and through weave poles and other
obstacles. Although it's a fairly new sport, it's growing in popularity in the
U.S. and Europe. Here’s a dose of cuteness—a kitten beginning to learn about
agility on a kitten-sized course--https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nka1BTUikcw .
Obviously, cats can be trained. They’re
smart, athletic, and fun-loving animals, so the trick is to figure out what
motivates the individual cat. Clicker training (operant conditioning) is a very
effective way to teach new behaviors in a positive, reward-based way. Here are
some more happily trained cats: Like all good training, feline agility provides a wonderful way to strengthen the bond between cats and their owners. It also gives participating cats a fun way to keep their bodies and minds in shape.
To be successful in agility, your cat
must
·
have an outgoing, confident personality;
·
be in excellent health and physical condition;
·
love to play.
The sport is open to all kinds of cats,
so it might be just the thing for you and your feline athlete. Even if you aren't
ready to participate, why not visit a trial when the leaping, tunneling cats
come to town and see what it’s all about. You can learn more at http://agility.cfa.org/index.shtml
Want to give it a try? Check out this
video on getting started - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhichQHqYZM
In the meantime, why not join Janet and
Leo at their first trial? And while you’re in town, come see Jay and the other
dogs compete as well—it’s likely to be murder for someone. Catwalk is available wherever books are sold, and autographed
copies of all my books can be purchased using this form à http://www.sheilaboneham.blogspot.com/p/autographed-books.html
BLURB:
Catwalk
Animals in
Focus Mystery #3
Midnight Ink, 2014Animal photographer Janet MacPhail is training for her cat Leo’s first feline agility trial when she gets a frantic call about a “cat-napping.” When Janet and her Australian Shepherd Jay set out to track down the missing kitty, they quickly find themselves drawn into the volatile politics of feral cat colonies, endangered wetlands, and a belligerent big-shot land developer. Janet is crazy busy trying to keep up with her mom’s nursing-home romance, her own relationship with Tom and his Labrador Retriever Drake, and upcoming agility trials with Jay and Leo. But when a body is discovered on the canine competition course, it stops the participants dead in their tracks—and sets Janet on the trail of a killer.
"Animal photographer Janet MacPhail's latest adventure will delight dog lovers, cat lovers, and mystery lovers. Janet is excellent company, and although Leo the cat plays a starring role, I'm happy to report that Leo does not eclipse Jay the Aussie, who has become one of my favorite fictional dogs. Indeed, if Jay ever needs to move out of the pages of Sheila Boneham's mysteries and into a nonfiction house, he'll be more than welcome in mine. Five stars for CATWALK!" ~ Susan Conant, author of Brute Strength and other novels in the Holly Winter series of Dog Lover's Mysteries
4 comments:
Thanks for having me here today, Judy!
Fascinating. I never thought of cats being trained that way. But then, I'm a dog person so what do I know.
Lovely post. Thank you.
Neat videos, Sheila. Had no idea! Will forward to our son with four grand cats.
Interesting blog and videos, Sheila. My two sister tabbies are very active in the evening, especially. They get more active when Maggie, my tri-color collie crashes for the night. They get a little intimidated when she tries to play with them in a doggie manner by bowing down with rump in the air and barking and them and then jumping a little towards them, too. After four years the cats haven't learned how to dog play, nor has Maggie realized that cats don't care for her type of play.
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