Author's Animal Antics - Kimberly Derting

Author's Animal Antics is a new regular blog feature here at Sarah's Book Reviews where I'm very excited to have some fantastic authors come and chat to us about their pets.  I'm thrilled to introduce the lovely Kimberly Derting as my guest today...

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So we have this cat, and let’s just say that “it” is a little confused.

Our cat started out like any other cat: cute, small, cuddly, and utterly adorable. As a matter of fact, he really wasn’t meant to be our cat at all. I actually got him as a gift to give to my mother for her birthday. I had it all planned out, the cat would stay one night at our house and I would surprise my mom the next day with this wonderfully thoughtful gift. Um, big mistake, because it only took a night for my youngest daughter to fall in love. Completely, madly, and totally in love with him, um…I mean her.

Princess Beachball

Let me explain.

My daughter, who was only five at the time, had decided that this cat was most definitely a girl cat! Despite what the pet store told us, and what biology pretty much confirmed, she was convinced that this cat was in fact “a girl.”

Okay, so we humored her. Fine, the cat was a girl, so what? It’s not like we were breaking the law or anything by letting our daughter think that her new cat was a girl. The cat would never know the difference, right? Well, here’s the thing with girl cats: they get girly names. And in our house, the kids get to name their pets whatever they want, so of course these names will sometimes begin with “Princess,” as in….wait for it…. Princess Beachball. Yeah, you heard me, and now this boy-kitty was shackled with the name Princess Beachball…for life.

Do you know the worst part about having a cat named Princess Beachball? Calling for him. I’m sorry but there is simply no way to call out “Princess Beachball!” without getting strange looks from the neighbors. To this day, my husband refuses to call the cat. Of course he says it’s because he’s trying not to embarrass the cat in front of the other boy cats, but come on, we all know he’s the one who’s really embarrassed.

Abby with Princess Beachball

And to top things off, the “beachball” part of his/her name became like a self-fulfilling prophecy, because this cute and tiny kitten grew (and grew) into this large, and dare I say it, very beachball shaped (and gender confused) cat.

Poor kitty.

By the way, our daughter is nine years old now and still doesn’t know. ;)

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Thank you so much for visiting today Kimberly!  Kimberly Derting is the author of The Body Finder which has already been a huge success in the US and releases in the UK on 11th November.  The Body Finder is a fantastic start to a new young adult urban fantasy / paranormal romance series, I'd highly recommend reading it if you are a fan of these genres (I'll be posting my review and a UK giveaway later today thanks to Headline).  I can't wait to read Desires of the Dead when it releases next year!

Find out more about Kimberly and her work here - Website / Blog / Twitter / Facebook / Myspace

For more information about the Author's Animal Antics feature click here