Boxes - it's a cat thing...

Not at all impressed that he stars in a book - all he wants is the box...
#Lostinabook

It's a secret - apparently - this not to be missed cat book!

Outnumbered by Cats: Yes that's me, cats are great stress relief - when they're not causing the stress that is..

It's a secret - apparently - this not to be missed cat book!

Outnumbered by cats is a must for any cat lover, and dare I say it, an ideal Christmas present for the cat lover in your life. It's out there, but it's hiding in the shadows, much like a cat might... it's listed in all the usual places, but with an added 'unavailable' on one of the biggest book sellers... and can be ordered from our supplier on another. Well, I am the supplier and would love to send copies out, I'll even sign them for you.

I have a short initial print run of just 100 books, and each book will be signed and numbered, you never know they might even become valuable one day. But the real reason for the short print run was that this book was a bit of self indulgence, and when I tried to edit down the photos, I found that I really didn't want to, I wanted to produce a beautiful book with colour photos.  

It's a true story, where I've shared, at times more than I probably should have shared with the world. It's quite normal to hiss back at your cat right? ...given the right situation... 

 

Outnumbered by Cats

#LostinaBook

Outnumbered by Cats

A unique opportunity to disappear into a world full of cats and kittens, without actually filling your own house, or depriving yourself of sleep...

 

Throw away the rule book and see how one new mum coped with her kittens in a mixture of instinct and learning on the job, and how she shared this unique experience with the humans around her, in a way that was unexpected and wonderful. Not everyone has been ‘asked’ by their cat to join a search party in the middle of the night for 2 missing kittens...

Share the heartache of one little kitten who was different from the rest, and destined to challenge and inspire us in ways we couldn’t have imagined...

Special:

You can buy one of only 100 books printed in the first edition, first print run, all of which are numbered and signed.

...did I mention lots of colour kitten phots...?

So I have the books, I have the website, I just need to get the word out.

 

Outnumbered by Cats

#LostinaBook

Not everything goes to plan when you're outnumbered by cats

Having a litter of kittens born in your bedroom in the middle of the night probably isn't for everyone... nor is sharing your bedroom with growing kittens as they experiment with being nocturnal, and I'm not sure everyone would take kindly to being hissed at by a mother cat for telling off one of her kittens... 

But not everything goes to plan when you're outnumbered by cats! 

Open the door

from Basil and the Flappy Thing

It's raining - OPEN THE DOOR!

Cats are very independent, and yet even when they have their own door, they'd rather knock and wait at the big door... maybe they just like to make an entrance,,,

Outnumbered by kittens...

Mitzi and her litter of kittens, all safely in their birthing box. Back at the stage when Mitzi did all the work, and I could just look on - all that changed when they escaped the box...

For a cat who had carried all sorts of random things around from an early age, it was surprising that Mitzi never carried her kittens anywhere - but given that there were 5 kittens in the litter, the method she used to gather them together was a far more practical solution... read the book

...and where do you think you're going?

But Mum...

© Anne M Stephenson | created at www.mrsite.com

Cats and boxes

Outnumbered by Cats: the book that emerged from kitten diaries with chewed edges, written as kittens climbed over me, when trying to work on the computer was not really an option...

 

Boxes seem to be a big feature in a house full of cats - no box can be discarded until every last scrap of play value has been ripped out of it.

I now have a stack of boxes forming the kitchen island I never wanted...

 I'm not sure if he's king of his castle or an engine driver... 

 ...and I don't think this box is quite big enough.

Cats, Nocturnal... really?

Why is it that everything always kicks off when I want to go to sleep?

 Is it because I'm outnumbered by nocturnal creatures...? 

Well maybe, but I'm not convinced that cats are truly nocturnal - I think their definition of nocturnal is a mad half hour after supper - just long enough  to upset the local rodents, before turning in for the night.

Knitted cats

A bagfull full of Basils...

 

I think maybe it's time to get back to some sheep production - before the Basils overrun the place.

So, I'm all ready for the rush on my Basil and the Flappy Thing gift packs...

 

Knitted cats

A birds nest of Basils is what happens when I try to save time by knitting a batch of Basils all strung together...  

                         

But with a little untangling and stitching together they transform into the lovable little ginger cats, ready to go out in Basil gift packs.  

  

Basil gift pack - book and toy

NEW! 

These little knitted Basils were very popular at Christmas fairs, so now for the first time they're available online in a new gift pack...

Gift pack includes 1 book and 1 handknitted toy (Basil) cat: approximatly 7cm tall, 9cm nose to back end.

 Front view book and cat:   Back view book and cat: 

Book synopsis:

The door had always worked perfectly well, until the day that Mr Feed-Me cut a hole in it and fitted a flappy thing. Then the door stopped working and everyone started acting a bit crazy… Mr Feed-Me was on the floor using it as a window.

 Mrs Feed-Me kept calling to Basil through it instead of opening the door, and Small Feed-Me tried to post Basil through it like a letter through a letter box.

Then one stormy night Basil found that he had a use for the flappy thing after all, but it wasn't really what Mr Feed-Me had in mind…

32 page full colour paperback

ISBN 978-0-9560232-5-4

Lost in a Book

Outnumbered by Cats - breaking out of the box

Breaking out of the box - my first book for adults or more competent young readers with a love of cats...

Outnumbered by Cats - breaking out of the box...

 

No, not that sort of box... I mean the idea that an author should stick to one genre - up until now I've written children's books, and though this one will appeal to older children, it is aimed at adults.

One for the adults - A true story bursting with colour photos of cats and kittens.

I'd like to get a female kitten and let her have one litter," I said to my stunned family when they raised the kitten topic. Not surprisingly a suitable kitten was quickly found...  and Mitzi arrived in time for Christmas, bringing her own brand of fun and chaos, and demanding friendship from our 5 year old cat Cleo.

By summer Mitzi was quite confused, she came into season and started calling shamelessly. But when a hapless tomcat answered her call, she was far from impressed; causing more than one cat flap drama, and a hole in the door where a flap used to be. 

Eventually nature took it its course and Mitzi had kittens. The first few weeks were blissfully peaceful, watching as Mitzi took care of their every need. We had a week of heartache when one of the kittens was poorly, and then not developing properly, and was destined to challenge and inspire us in ways we could not yet imagine. 

Then they grew big enough to escape their box, and the bedlam began... 

The story that emerged from the kitten diaries, written as kittens climbed on me and chewed the edges of my note books... 

Cat's instinct to cover food...

I know that cats have an instinct to cover their food, but I have a cat that takes this to a new level - nothing is safe in the quest to cover his dish and any other dish...

Outnumbered by Cats now in Etsy shop

Outnumbered by Cats

Outnumbered by Cats, Buster collars and tablets for cats

I usually say that my cats are a distraction and inspiration in equal measure, not so when they have injuries however, when they become pure distraction. Not only down to a need to take them to vet appointments and administer medication, but also because sitting down to write when I'm worried about their welfare is just a bit too hard.

So what have they been up to...?

Well there's Captain, who's on eye drops, and now shuts one eye every time I go near him, so that the only way I can see if he's opening it normally is to view him from a distance, when he's distracted by something else. And while he's fairly accepting of the eye drops - putting a Buster collar on was a step too far. The Buster collar is a hand-me-down from his mum, who only wore it for about 30 seconds, and it's more likely to biodegrade than ever wear out from actually being worn by a cat...

Bumble, not to be outdone, came in sporting a large lump on his neck. It was an abscess, most likely from a fight, and after a trip to the vets, he ultimately burst it himself, and then carried on as if he hadn't noticed that there was a hole in his neck. He did rather enjoy his medication though... The vet suggested emptying the antibiotic capsule and mixing the powder with butter, then spreading the butter on Bumble's leg, as a cat hates to be dirty and would wash it off. I got the butter mixture ready and was just about to start spreading it on Bumble's leg, but first I offered it to him to eat off the spoon - he loved it! He licked the spoon, and then the bowl I'd mixed it in and it became his daily treat, I think he was quite sorry when his medication came to an end.

Boxes - it's a cat thing...

When book characters meet outside of their books

This is what happens when the characters from two different books meet...
Mitzi from Outnumbered by Cats and a sheep from But I'm Not Sleepy.

Cat flap troubles - you've been warned...

Cat flap troubles

When we bought our first cat flap, it was one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time. It came with full instructions about fitting and measuring. And I don’t just mean measuring the door and the flap, it also suggested measuring the distance of the cats’ bellies from the floor. We dismissed this as a ridiculous, not to mention dangerous idea – we had Gizmo at the time, one of our more feisty cats, who wouldn’t have put up with such behaviour without dishing out severe retribution...
And so naively, we showed the cats their new door and wondered why it wasn’t an instant hit... it seemed that cats would rather have a door opened for them in time honoured fashion than push themselves nose first into the house. Although as time went on the full implication seemed to dawn on them – they could now bring their prey into the house and finish off their hunting games in comfort... sometimes this turned into weekend manoeuvres when they lost a mouse under a closed door, the most memorable one resulting in a mouse scurrying off under our bed in the middle of the night. Cleo was quickly let in to remove the mouse, which she did very efficiently after a quick rummage under the bed.
Another escapee had more luck, and it set up residence in the pantry. That one was only discovered by its own untidiness; it had shredded a plastic bag, and gnawed on some vegetables, then set up home in a vegetable rack.
from Outnumbered by Cats by Anne M Stephenson

Cats and boxes - if a picture tells a thousand words... enough said

The first box is empty, so Kryten gets his box...

If  picture tells a thousand words... enough said.

Book quote of the day

'Pictures started to go flying off the sideboard as it became part of a circuit, of sideboard, bookcase, table.'

from Outnumbered by Cats