TRICIA SCHNEIDER & Oscar, Cassius & Harley
sofa while I wrote late at night after I put my kids to bed. I’ve grown quite attached to my fur babies who are also my writing companions even if they are cats. I love them very much! And I don’t know how they’re going to deal with me getting a dog one day! They’ll have to train the dog, too, I guess.
LINDSEY OUIMET & Kenyerko I’m a dog person living with a house full of cats. I grew up with dogs, so I was uncertain how to handle kittens when I first got them. Eventually, we learned to live with each other. Or rather, they trained me! Two of my cats, Oscar and Cassius, were rescued as kittens after their mama gave birth to a litter beneath the deck behind my house. My third kitty, Harley, found me while I was bringing in groceries from my car the day before a blizzard hit. Her pathetic little mewling from my back porch caught my attention. She was ill and starving, but I nursed her back to health and ever since that first day when she found me, she’s been my constant companion. She follows me everywhere in the house and is never far from my side. Despite being a dog person, I feel like my cats have chosen my family to call their own and I’m happy with that. Cassius curls himself around my feet while I write, and Harley simply nudges my laptop aside to make room for herself. Sadly, my cat that behaved like a dog, Oscar, passed away earlier this year. But for eight wonderful years, he also joined me on my 52 | UncagedBooks.com
Kenyerko, the adorable jerk you see here, is my bff. My husband gave him to me as a Christmas gift the year before we got married, and I joke that he kind of shot himself in the foot because it’s a gift he’ll never be able to top. He is absolutely no help in my writing process, and usually huffs and sighs until I take a break and pay him the attention he so desperately craves.