Some
cats need nine lives to make a difference. Avalon only needed one.
Many of us have been touched by a beloved pet. Some of us may have cats or dogs that have been with us for years and they've become members of our families. Recently I had the pleasure of finding one of the most touching animal stories of all time. In her lovely book, Avalon, Amazon bestselling author Vanessa Morgan shares a story of the love between pet and owner, a bond so strong it was seemingly unbreakable.
I was fortunate enough to read this amazing tale, which is part memoir of Ms. Morgan's life as well. I found her honesty and life story compelling, gritty and poignant. I saw myself mirrored in many of her insecurities, and rejoiced in her triumphs. Mostly I sat amazed in what I read about a feline companion of which I've never seen the likes before.
Avalon is the heartwarming
and once-in-a-lifetime love story of a girl and her neurotic Turkish
Van cat.
With
humor, the author details how Avalon made other creatures cringe in
distress whenever he was around, how he threw her dates out by means
of special techniques, and how he rendered it almost impossible for
her to leave the house. Avalon was so incorrigible that even her
landlord ordered her to get rid of him. But beneath Avalon's demonic
boisterousness, Vanessa recognized her own flaws and insecurities,
and she understood that abandoning Avalon would be the worst she
could do to him. Thanks to her unswerving loyalty, Avalon transformed
into a tender feline, and even landed a major role in a horror movie.
In turn, Avalon made it his mission to be there for his human
companion.
Avalon
is a memoir for anyone who has ever been obsessively in love with a
pet.
Vanessa tells us a little about her writing journey:
"I've always been interested in stories.
As a toddler, I listened to my
grandfather's bedtime stories about Laurel & Hardy going on a
safari. In my childhood, I buried myself in books. And in my teens, I
watched more movies in a year than there were days.
Yet it wasn't until my early twenties
that I developed the desire to write my own fictional stories. I
lived in London at that time and was completely obsessed with West
End theater. During a theatrical performance of Faulkner's As I
Lay Dying, I suddenly KNEW that I would never feel accomplished
if I didn't write something just as beautiful.
In the months that followed, I became
well aware of what I wanted to write. I especially liked stories that
either scared me to death or provided readers/viewers with a sense of
recognition regarding the darker sides of people's personalities and
lives.
Scaring people was easy, so I started
with that. My first two books, Drowned Sorrow and The
Strangers Outside, were supernatural thrillers with one aim: to
make readers so uncomfortable and scared they could hardly sleep at
night.
My third release, A Good Man,
was a mix of both genres. It was still a horror story, but my desire
to focus on characters and unravel dark truths was slowly taking the
upper hand.
Only now, with my latest book, Avalon,
was I brave enough to embrace that honesty one hundred percent. It's
easy to just give bits and pieces of the truth and adapt the rest to
what you think the story and audience wants to read. I tried that
with Avalon as well. It didn't work. If I wanted my book to
have an emotional impact, I had to get uncomfortable and reveal the
things I tried so hard to hide all my life. It was hard. It was
scary. But with Avalon, I finally became the writer I wanted
to be."
She is kind enough to share a humorous blurb from her story:
Around
three o’clock that night, Avalon was fed up with the strange man in
his
bed. He plonked his rear down on Gilles’
pillow,
complaining fretfully in his ear while tapping him on the face.
After
nearly an hour of incessant wailing and poking, more drastic measures
were required. The new solution: pushing Gilles out of bed.
Avalon
succeeded.
Climbing
back under the covers wasn’t
an option.
Unable to sleep, Gilles got up. "I guess I didn't pass the
test."
"Give
Avalon some time. Maybe he was just irked because you took his side
of the bed."
But
Gilles had already understood that this wasn't going to be a one-time
event.
For
several minutes, Gilles and Avalon sized each other up. Then
Gilles
said,
"I’d
better leave the two of you alone now. It’s clearly what the little
guy wants."
I
swear I could see Avalon smirking when Gilles put on his jacket and
left.
Instantly,
Avalon
leapt onto me, and compensated for the evening
before.
He
entered a kiss-induced trance. This cat was all about exclusivity,
and when granted that exclusivity, his love was immense.
"Are
you really that happy that Gilles is gone?"
In
reply, Avalon looked at me with swoony eyes and purred loudly, then
swatted out his paw to urge me to continue to pet him, which I did.
A
phone call interrupted our tender moment. It was Gilles.
"There
won't be any train to Brussels for hours," he said. "Is it
okay if I come back to your place for a while?"
"Of
course." His return would offend Avalon, but I couldn’t
possibly leave Gilles outside in the rain for several hours.
As
soon as Gilles appeared at the front door, Avalon’s pupils widened
to a pitch black.
Let's
see who's the boss here, he seemed
to be thinking.
Being
a cat of action, Avalon went through his usual attention-seeking
routine: making a selection of irritating noises, scratching the
wallpaper, and pushing objects to the ground.
When
that didn't work, Avalon opened Gilles' overnight bag and threw out a
piece of clothing. His eyes so dark and evil they could be gateways
to hell, Avalon stared at his adversary
and
waited for a reaction. He then pulled out a box of gel wax. Again, he
looked up at Gilles to make sure he understood that all this bungling
was meant to get a message across. A third object followed, then a
fourth, a fifth, a sixth, until there was nothing.
Hell-bent
on winning the game, Avalon took Gilles'
coat in his mouth and towed it toward the front door. There, he used
his right paw to tap the keys hanging
from the
wooden doorframe.
Avalon’s
message couldn’t be any clearer: there was room
for only
one man in my life.
A feline one.
I'd like to thank Vanessa Morgan for being a very special guest on my blog today. If you'd like to purchase Avalon or find her other works and social media, the links are below. She also writes a very special blog for cat lovers all over the world at Traveling Cats. There you will find stunning photos of some of the most beautiful felines and the places they inhabit.
Purchase
links for Avalon
Vanessa
Morgan is an author, screenwriter, and blogger. Two of her works, The
Strangers Outside
and A
Good Man,
have been turned into films. Her short film script Next
to Her
is currently in pre-production. When she's
not working on her latest book, you can find her reading, watching
horror movies, digging through flea markets, or photographing felines
for her blog Traveling
Cats
(http://travelling-cats.blogspot.com).
Social
media links
Photo: daughter-in-law, Colleen and baby McKenna
