Truffles Interviews...Mudpie!

Hey everybody, it's Angel Truffles!

By now you've all had the chance to meet Miss Mudpie. She's a cute little thing, isn't she? I'm sure many of you are interested in knowing more about her and how Tara and I came to choose her for Mommy.

This is how it happened:

I'm very "in tune" with Mommy's heart. On July 30th she saw Mudpie (who was then named Gemma) on Petfinder. The minute she saw that sweet little face she felt the same tug at her heartstrings that she felt when she first saw me.

She saved Gemma's pictures on her computer and tablet and looked at them several times daily. I kept telling her it was okay to take that next step, but she needed a little more time.

Finally, a week later on August 5th, she decided it was time to contact the shelter and find out more about her. She heard exactly what she had been hoping to hear, her adoption application was approved on Friday, and on Sunday, August 9th, Mudpie came home.

Of course, before any of this happened, I had to make sure that Gemma was a suitable candidate to win Mommy's heart. Here's how our initial interview went:

Truffles: Hi Gemma! I understand you're applying to adopt my Mommy. Could you tell me a little more about yourself?

Gemma (now Mudpie): Thank you so much for the opportunity, Truffles. If I'm the kitty you choose for your wonderful Mommy, I know that I have very big paws to fill!

Basically, I'm a teeny tiny kitty with loads of love to give. I just need to find the proper purr-son!

I'm about 2 years old, and I started life in Cattaraugus County, New York...that's on the Pennsylvania border! I ended up in a shelter there, and then got transferred here to central Vermont's North Country Animal League...boy, was that ever a long car ride! Luckily I seem to enjoy road trips.

I love playing with toys, I'm a super picky eater (but let's not tell her that ahead of time, okay?), and I love snuggling in human's arms and sleeping on their laps!

Truffles: You sound like just what Mommy is looking for. She always hoped that I could be a lap cat eventually. Now this position also includes being a kitty blogger. Mommy spends *a lot* of time on the computer. Her part of the blog is mostly book reviews, so you will need to cuddle up with her while she reads. Every now and then she will ask you to interview the fictional cats and dogs in the cozy mysteries she reads. Then there's Caturday Art and Sunday Selfies...and you will get to write some reviews too when toys and treats arrive in the mail.

Gemma (Mudpie): I love toys and treats!!! This sounds like fun!

Truffles: It is a lot of fun, and you will make so many lifelong friends in the cat blogosphere. Just wait until Christmas when you'll get to participate in the Santa Kitty Toy Hop and send toys to the kitties still waiting in shelters for their forever home.

Gemma (Mudpie): That's pawsome...shelter kitties need Christmas too. Will I get prezzies for Christmas?

Truffles: Absolutely. Mommy will sign you up for Secret Paws, a Secret Santa gift exchange. Kitty bloggers are randomly paired up to shop for Christmas gifts...it's a great way to share the holiday spirit with our friends.

Gemma (Mudpie): WOW!!! I really think I can do this, Truffles. Will you help me to learn everything I need to know?

Truffles: I will always be by your side, both yours and Mommy's. Now do you promise to be the best kitty you can be, and to take care of Mommy and love her to pieces?

Gemma (Mudpie): I do, Truffles. Oh, I do. I love her already.

Truffles: Then I choose you to be Mommy's special new kitty. I wish you a purr-fectly beautiful life together.

Gemma (Mudpie): {{{Purrs}}} I'm going home!!!

Book Review/Giveaway: If Onions Could Spring Leeks by Paige Shelton

From the publisher: The New York Times bestselling author of If Catfish Had Nine Lives returns to Broken Rope, Missouri, where ghosts of the Old West seek assistance from country cooks and amateur sleuths Betts Winston and her grandmother.

With summer tourists flocking to Broken Rope, locals volunteer to keep chaos to a minimum. Old West skits are running smoothly, actors are behaving, and stagecoach rides are more popular than ever, but when a spectral visitor appears by ghost train, it’s a job only Betts and Gram can handle.

Gram soon starts having nightmares about their ghostly visitor’s demise. And if a ghost and the hot summer weather weren’t making things sticky enough, one of the town’s volunteers—a man notorious for having more than his fair share of ex-wives—is murdered. When Jerome, Bett’s otherworldly friend, makes an unsettling appearance, this simmering double mystery becomes a recipe for disaster.

It's fairly obvious by now that I gravitate towards the more pet-centric cozies on the shelves, but Paige Shelton's Country Cooking School mysteries revolves around another passion of mine: the Old West. The town of Broken Rope with it's Old West reenactments and Bett's ghostly visitors from that time period make me daydream about strolling along it's boardwalk.

As is generally the case with this series, If Onions Could Spring Leeks features two mysteries: a modern-day murder and a mystery that was left unresolved back in the late 1800s. A Broken Rope volunteer with 5 ex-wives and a Norma Bates-esque mother is murdered, and the assailant harms Betts as well. While attempting to solve the crime she also finds herself entangled in the ghostly lives of Grace and Robert, a black woman and white man whose forbidden love took a tragic turn over a century ago. The authenticity of the ghost train angle of this part of the story practically had me smelling the train's smoke and hearing it's ghostly whistle.

A huge part of why I love this series so much is the love that has developed between Betts and sexy cowboy ghost Jerome. In this book (for reasons we don't know yet), he's forced to come to her by entering the bodies of other ghosts and living people as well. Needless to say, it creates some very awkward moments, and part of me feels that a little bit of magic between them was lost because of it. I'm eager to find out the reason behind this and where Betts, Jerome, and Cliff go from here.

This is a series perfect for readers of mystery, romance, paranormal, and history. Pour some coffee into a blue tin mug and settle in for a delightful tale.

Giveaway: Leave a comment by noon eastern on Wednesday, August 19th for your chance to win a copy of If Onions Could Spring Leeks. (US entries only, please.)

Miss Mudpie

Please join me in welcoming...

The new face of Mochas, Mysteries and Meows...

Miss Mudpie

Book Review/Giveaway: Give 'Em Pumpkin to Talk About by Joyce & Jim Lavene

From the publisher: Richmond attorney Sarah Tucker returns to sell her family’s abandoned farm in Misty River, Virginia despite unanswered questions about her grandparents’ disappearance sixteen years earlier. Sarah was only twelve when she went to visit and found her grandparents had vanished. No amount of searching has brought answers. Now Sarah is faced with other issues when a man is killed who claimed to have information about what happened to her grandparents. She learns of a Confederate chest of gold that is said to be buried on the property, and treasure hunters who are willing to do anything to get their hands on it.

Were her grandparents murdered for the gold? Sarah can’t sell the land and go back to her life until she has answers. But the cost of the answers may be her life.

Much to my family's dismay, I am obsessed with "pumpkin everything" in the fall, so I've been just giddy over the idea of a Pumpkin Patch mystery series.

Give 'Em Pumpkin to Talk About introduces us to Sarah Tucker, a big city lawyer who returns to grandparents' farm with plans to sell it. She has such wonderful memories of the farm and pumpkin patch as a little girl, but it all ended tragically when her beloved grandparents vanished off the face of the earth 16 years ago. As soon as she arrives at the farm she encounters Jack, a man who was taken in by Sarah's grandparents as a child and has kept his promise all these years to watch over the farm. He instantly can sense that she has mixed feelings about selling. When a retired writer contacts Sarah saying that he has information related to the disappearance, they agree to meet at the farm. But he's murdered before she gets there. Then a promising buyer of the property ends up dead as well. Are rumors of Civil War gold buried on the land the cause of all the trouble?

I loved the backstory to this mystery, particularly the details surrounding Tommy and Bess Denning's disappearance. It's so creepy to picture the farmhouse completely normal, nothing out of place, the dining room table set for a meal...but all inhabitants are gone. Old abandoned houses make such a great setting.

I'm really looking forward to the next book in this series and hope that Sarah is eventually able to find answers to all of her questions. While reading this book my mouth watered in anticipation of the coming months when I can over-indulge in all things pumpkin!

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Book Review/Giveaway: Better Homes and Corpses by Kathleen Bridge

From the publisher: After Meg Barrett found her fiancé still had designs on his ex-wife, she decided it was time to refurbish her life. Leaving her glamorous job at a top home and garden magazine, she fled Manhattan for Montauk, only to find decorating can sometimes lead to detecting…

In between scouring estate sales for her new interior design business, Cottages by the Sea, Meg visits the swanky East Hampton home of her old college roommate, Jillian Spenser. But instead of seeing how the other half lives—she learns how the other half dies. Jillian’s mother, known as the Queen Mother of the Hamptons, has been murdered. Someone has staged a coup.

When she helps a friend inventory the Spensers’ estate for the insurance company, Meg finds herself right in the thick of things. Cataloging valuable antiques and art loses its charm when Meg discovers that the Spenser family has been hiding dangerous secrets, which may have furnished a murderer with a motive. As Meg gets closer to the truth, the killer will do anything to paint her out of the picture…

This book will definitely be included in my list of top debuts for 2015. The first in Kathleen Bridge's Hamptons Home and Garden mystery series, introduces readers to interior designer Meg Barrett, owner of Cottages by the Sea in Montauk. She's very excited to receive an invitation to her college roommate Jillian Spencer's East Hampton home where her mother is known as the Queen Mother of the Hamptons. What Meg finds is Jillian cradling her murdered mother's body. When her friend Elle is hired by the insurance company to inventory the estate, Meg agrees to help out in order to find out what sort of skeletons the Spencers have in their closet.

This book almost has a gothic feel feel to it with a sheltered young woman living in a creepy estate by the water. The killer's identity kept me guessing until the very end, and the revelation came in a very climatic scene. The precious pup on the cover is Tripod the 3-legged dog who plays a key role.

Any kind of home decorating is typically beyond my abilities, but I greatly admire those who do have that talent, especially when it involves visits to estate sales and flea markets for unique pieces. I'm eager to follow along with Meg's adventures as she renovates and decorates her dream home.

Giveaway: Leave a comment by noon eastern on Monday, August 17th for your chance to win a paperback copy of Better Homes and Corpses. (US entries only, please.)

My Heart's on Fire for Elvira #SundaySelfies

For Sunday Selfies this week, I'd like to introduce you to Elvira. She's a 5 year old kitty available for adoption at Franklin County Animal Rescue in St. Albans, Vermont. This sweetheart has been looking for her forever home since February of 2014 and is full of purrsonality!

Elvira is such a cool cat, she's even the star of her very own music video...check it out!

(Video courtesy of Anne-Marie Bergeron)

Information on how to adopt Elvira can be found on her Petfinder profile.

Caturday Art: Angel Truffles

Like many of my fellow cat bloggers, I regularly play along with The Cats from Hell's weekly Finish the Sentence Game. The lucky winner receives an amazing cartoon drawing by Nellie's talented mom.

I've never been fortunate enough to win, but I was so honored to turn on my computer one morning to find an email from Nellie's human with a drawing of Angel Truffles.

It is incredibly beautiful and I will treasure it always.

Check out more artsy kitties at Athena's Caturday Art blog hop.

Many thanks as well to Ann at Zoolatry for the World Cat Day graphic...how are you celebrating?