Whisker Wisdom Caterview with Crealde! I’m launching this series with Crealde, a 19-pound pure white male feline with a real ‘catitude.’
If you’ve read the stories, you appreciate how difficult it was to get him to sit for this interview.
After all, it was my idea, not his. If you know cats well, you know they don’t do anything they don’t want to do.
He can be a bit aloof to say it nicely depending on his mood. Graciously, he agreed to our chat. But, under one condition. The interview must be all about him. We struck a good deal, especially when I reminded him he was the first in the Caterview series.
Crealde’s human is Echo Stargazer, an eccentric psychic mind reader. They live on the second floor of their Pepto Bismol pink home in Nocturne Falls, Georgia. Echo’s fascinating Carpe Diem shop is on the first floor, full of potions, oils, costumes, gems, books, and assorted magical knick-knackery. In her private quarters, Echo gives psychic readings.
I met Crealde in the garden behind his and Echo’s home, where he was seated like a palace prince waiting for me to curtsy. As I ran my fingers through his beautifully long pearl-white fur, I swear his purr revved like a B-52 airplane engine. Realizing how cat-like he was acting, he quickly snapped back into character.
ME: Crealde, good to see you. We haven’t had a chance to catch up for several years. How’s it been going for you?
CREALDE: (He gave a long, squeaky, wide-mouthed yawn and a noticeable shrug.) Things are good. The litter box stays clean. I go in and out as I please. I’m fed well.
ME: I would agree with that last point.
C: (Crealde raised a paw in warning and let out a ‘meorowoww’ that shook the pen out of my hand.) Ah ah ah. No innuendos about my size.
ME: I didn’t mean to come across as fat-shaming you. But you do have a bit of a reputation.
C: Don’t go there, lady!
ME: (With a wink to you, reader, a character once compared his size to a child’s ottoman.) I understand you still live upstairs over the Carpe Diem. Did Echo ever return?
C: I do. She did.
ME: Can you elaborate? Did she tell you much about her extended trip?
C: Not much to tell. She ran off with her Tai Chi instructor and then came back.
ME: So our readers don’t get the wrong impression, she didn’t exactly run off with him, Crealde. Echo, whose age is a matter of dispute and is at least in her late eighties, practices Tai Chi weekly with Master Cheng and has done so for years. One day, with no warning, she left a note saying she’d traveled back to China—that is, back to China three hundred years ago with Master Cheng. She made one brief return visit and another for her granddaughters’ weddings, but I never heard if she returned for good.
C: If ‘for good’ means ‘forever,’ I tend to doubt it. She is back for now. Business is going well. Her psychic reading schedule is packed. It’s too full if you want my opinion. Always someone tramping in and out. It’s hard to get a good day’s sleep.
ME: It’s been said that you have three waking faces. Sleepy. Angry. Skeptical. Is that a fair assessment?
C: (He cocked his head to the side and thought a moment, then I swear he gave me the slant eye.) Fair, indeed. But I’d add another: bored.
ME: Most residents in Nocturne Falls are magical. The rest are regulars who are only aware of the magic. But you don’t have a gift. Does that bother you?
C: (He dipped his head, adding a disgusted headshake.) Hello, human writer! Are we not talking right now? Besides, cats are innately magical. I understand humans—all kinds of humans—just fine. Probably better than they know themselves. I choose not to talk to them. Consider yourself lucky.
ME: Fair points. And I appreciate you’re honoring me with this conversation. Are there any magicals you really can’t stand?
C: I am not fond of anything that shifts into a critter with claws or talons that would consider me their dinner. The exception is the Ford family. They are all falcon shifters, but to my knowledge, they’ve never snacked on a cat or dog. I like them.
ME: Good thing since the Ford brothers married Echo’s granddaughters. How are they doing, by the way?
C: You’ve asked about someone else twice now. The deal, remember? (Crealde made another noisy yawn.)
ME: I’m sorry. You’re right. I’m sure you have a tight afternoon schedule. Is there anything else I should mention to our readers before we end?
C: (He made a long, languid front and back stretch.) Nope.
Crealde trotted away, his backside to me, and his tail lifted straight up. Evidence to me that this was the ‘end.’ He stopped halfway and flashed a glance over his shoulder.
C: This went well, don’t you think?
ME: Yes, very well.
I invite you to read the Falcon Shifter series. Visit Nocturne Falls Universe to learn more about Kristen Painter’s series.
If you think Crealde had terms and conditions, wait till you meet Wishes next time!