3 OLIVER, THE LITTLE GRAY MONSTER

About a year ago, a friend of my wife asked her if she wanted a cat she’d just rescued. We had lost our Locke the month before, pretty much the best cat in the world, and I didn’t really feel like adding a second cat to our family just yet. Selfish on my part. Yet my wife insisted and because I can’t turn away an animal in need, Oliver came into our home.

He had spent his life up until that point begging for scraps at a nearby brewery (which has INCREDIBLE beer by the way), and was emaciated. He quickly put on weight though, and is now a 15 pound monster. He and Panther kind of get along, although every day there are skirmishes, frontal attacks, and an equal number of retreats. For instance, right now they’re sleeping on the same shelf together (I have shelves constructed around my office so they can jump up to higher places and look out, play, and stalk birds). But as soon as one of them tries to step over the other, I’ll get a jiu-jitsu demonstration just above my desk. Really helps my writing.

Oliver loves to be brushed, and really needs to be brushed, because his fur is so thick. He’s a miniature bear. And we could make a second Oliver out of the fur we get from him.

If you’ve read the first two books in the Black Cat Detective Agency series and wonder why there hasn’t been a gray cat in them, maybe you should wait until you read the third…