Cattitude - Episode 283 The Magic of Mister Mishkins: Cats, Courage & Moonlight Dreams

<v Speaker 1>This is pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
<v Speaker 2>Hello, pat levers, want them to cap and tune. I'm
<v Speaker 2>your show host, Michelle Byrne. What a great show today.
<v Speaker 2>I have a very creative woman. She's not only an
<v Speaker 2>author of several books, but she's also a chef. I
<v Speaker 2>wonder if she ever does anything fancy for her kiddies. Anyways,
<v Speaker 2>I'm so excited for you to meet her. Stay tuned,
<v Speaker 2>we'll be right back.
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<v Speaker 4>Let's talk pets on Petlife Radio dot com.
<v Speaker 2>Welcome back everyone. I'd like to welcome Samantha Maddox. She
<v Speaker 2>is an author and very autistic individual. Welcome Samantha.
<v Speaker 1>Welcome Michelle.
<v Speaker 5>It's lovely to be here. Thank you.
<v Speaker 2>I am so excited to have you. You're an author of
<v Speaker 2>several books. We're going to talk today about the Magic
<v Speaker 2>of Mister Michigins, where you is just a really good book.
<v Speaker 2>But can you share some background on yourself? And I
<v Speaker 2>tease people with you're also a shep. You are on
<v Speaker 2>Master Chef UK, which congrats, So give us some background
<v Speaker 2>on yourself to share with our audience.
<v Speaker 5>Lovely, So hi everybody. Yes, I'm smunk that I live
<v Speaker 5>in beautiful Norfolk, in very sunny England, and I've grown
<v Speaker 5>up with my cats all my life. I've been blessed
<v Speaker 5>to have four familiars as I like to call them, Minsky, Minsky, Merlin,
<v Speaker 5>and now Michikins. And it's Michigans who's turned into this
<v Speaker 5>star of this children's book series. I've always had my
<v Speaker 5>cats with me. I could not bear to be without them.
<v Speaker 5>They just bring so much. And I think anyone who says, oh,
<v Speaker 5>I don't like cats has never actually lived with one,
<v Speaker 5>because they're the most comforting, in tune and spirit animals
<v Speaker 5>I think anyone can ever have. And yes, I was
<v Speaker 5>on Master Chef in twenty nineteen, Master Chef UK, and
<v Speaker 5>yes the cats do get some very special treats. From
<v Speaker 5>time to time, they do their favorites and they do
<v Speaker 5>have some interesting tastes sometimes as well. Merlyn, my old cat,
<v Speaker 5>he liked apricot jam on toast. He likes what apricot
<v Speaker 5>jam on toast?
<v Speaker 2>See your lovely accent compared to my I don't know
<v Speaker 2>my yankee one apricot jam on toast. Well that's fancy.
<v Speaker 2>Have you ever cooked like a chef meal for your cats?
<v Speaker 5>Not quite, But Michigans does have a big He loves prawns.
<v Speaker 5>He really really loves prawns. And I have a great
<v Speaker 5>fishmonger and every time I go in he gives Michigans
<v Speaker 5>some prawns. So that's his treat. And we've actually got
<v Speaker 5>launched over the book next Friday, so missions is going
<v Speaker 5>to have a little prawn platter probably maybe there's some.
<v Speaker 5>He loves rainbow traut as well, so a little fishy
<v Speaker 5>platter for him.
<v Speaker 2>Oh fancy. Okay, your book, The Magic of Mister Michigans
<v Speaker 2>is actually going to be released on August eighth, even
<v Speaker 2>though this show might be a little bit later, and
<v Speaker 2>that is actually International Cat Day.
<v Speaker 5>Yes, I thought it was a great idea too. Everyone
<v Speaker 5>is away in August or because it is quite a
<v Speaker 5>it's known as silly season in the press. There's nothing
<v Speaker 5>really going on, but to tie a children's book in
<v Speaker 5>that's all about cats with International Cat Day, it just
<v Speaker 5>seemed perfect to me.
<v Speaker 2>Oh of that. So how did the idea of the
<v Speaker 2>magic of Mister Michigan's come to you?
<v Speaker 3>Okay?
<v Speaker 5>So I had, as mentioned, I had my lovely Merlin
<v Speaker 5>cat who was he was the most beautiful cat, who
<v Speaker 5>was a long haired black moggie cat with green eyes.
<v Speaker 5>And he was born at some stables just down the road,
<v Speaker 5>so he was just a farm cat and I that's
<v Speaker 5>where I found him and took him home and he
<v Speaker 5>was my everything. And unfortunately he had cancer and he
<v Speaker 5>died in twenty twenty one, and we did everything we
<v Speaker 5>could save him, and we did manage to extend his
<v Speaker 5>life beyond what the vets said was possible. They gave
<v Speaker 5>him three months and I kept him going for seven.
<v Speaker 5>And when he died, I was, understandably, as all listeners know,
<v Speaker 5>absolutely bereft. And when he died, I said he was
<v Speaker 5>sliding down rainbows with glitter coming out of his tail,
<v Speaker 5>and that kept me going. And I was just so lonely.
<v Speaker 5>I live with my family and we have family cats.
<v Speaker 5>As I said, I've always had my own familiar, my
<v Speaker 5>own cat. I was so unhappy not having my own cat.
<v Speaker 5>I started looking, but twenty twenty one was lockdown, and
<v Speaker 5>I don't know what it was like in America. In England,
<v Speaker 5>it was nigh on impossible to get a cat from
<v Speaker 5>a sanctuary, which is where we've always got all our
<v Speaker 5>cats from. And I know you promote that a lot,
<v Speaker 5>and you know I think that's the best place to
<v Speaker 5>go and find your cat, but it was just impossible.
<v Speaker 5>So I ended up actually buying Michikins. I knew I
<v Speaker 5>wanted a ginger cat because they asked such characters and
<v Speaker 5>I'd always had black cats before. And the night before
<v Speaker 5>I picked him up, I thought I was playing with
<v Speaker 5>the name, and I was going Minsky, Minsky, Michigans. And
<v Speaker 5>I said to my family, I'm going to call him Michigins,
<v Speaker 5>and if the name suits him, I'm going to write
<v Speaker 5>a children's book about him, and he's going to run
<v Speaker 5>an apope three. And it was as simple as that,
<v Speaker 5>and I picked him up, look went, yeah, sure, Michigans.
<v Speaker 5>And the most curious thing we got him home. He
<v Speaker 5>was an eight week old kitten. We got him home.
<v Speaker 5>At most kittens when you bring them home scared, aren't
<v Speaker 5>they They run around and they hide and they were, oh
<v Speaker 5>my gosh, for what's going on? And I put him
<v Speaker 5>on the blanket next to me and he just laid down.
<v Speaker 5>He looked at me, crossed his front paws side and
<v Speaker 5>just went to sleep. I've ever had that before.
<v Speaker 2>That's incredible. So Michigans is a ginger and he is
<v Speaker 2>the protagonist, the star of this is the second book.
<v Speaker 2>You first book was Mister Michigan's apathe Carrey, and this
<v Speaker 2>one is the Magic of Mister Michigins. You already told
<v Speaker 2>us a little about why you decided to write the book,
<v Speaker 2>but why did you want to make a cat the
<v Speaker 2>protagonist of the story.
<v Speaker 5>When I grew up, my favorite book was Gobbilino, the
<v Speaker 5>Witch's Cat, and I loved reading that. And yes, it's
<v Speaker 5>a sad story and everything else, but my children's books
<v Speaker 5>are quite sad in many ways. Think of back beauty,
<v Speaker 5>and I just always wanted to write about my cats,
<v Speaker 5>I suppose, And it was a great way to honor
<v Speaker 5>all the cats I've had before, because every single cat
<v Speaker 5>who appears in the book is real. So all my
<v Speaker 5>previous cats are in their Minsky Minsky man and they're
<v Speaker 5>the magical m cats who come to save the day
<v Speaker 5>when things go wrong, and they all float around on
<v Speaker 5>different cushions with glitter coming out of them, because why
<v Speaker 5>not have glitter coming out of a cushion for a cat?
<v Speaker 5>And it was just I don't know, I just really wanted.
<v Speaker 5>I know children relate to children, but sometimes, especially post COVID,
<v Speaker 5>life can be very isolating. And I think if you
<v Speaker 5>have an animal, the bond that you have with a animal,
<v Speaker 5>especially if you're an only child, that bond you have
<v Speaker 5>with them is everything. And I've had this most amazing
<v Speaker 5>feedback from parents since the first book was published. And
<v Speaker 5>one mother her son is autistic ADHD, dyslexic and PDA,
<v Speaker 5>and her son he very much keeps themselves to. He's
<v Speaker 5>very friendly, but he can't read, and he would get
<v Speaker 5>very frustrated because he couldn't read. He hate being read
<v Speaker 5>to because he couldn't read. They tried all the different
<v Speaker 5>texts that are meant to help with your autistic children.
<v Speaker 5>He still struggled with those. And but he loves cats
<v Speaker 5>and that's the thing. Children just love their animals. So
<v Speaker 5>she got him Mister missions Apothecary, and she managed to
<v Speaker 5>read him the whole chapter, which she's never done before.
<v Speaker 5>And the next day he came from home from school
<v Speaker 5>and said, can you read with some more please? And
<v Speaker 5>that's the first time in his whole life he'd never
<v Speaker 5>asked to be read to. He never wanted to be
<v Speaker 5>read to before. And that's how his favorite book, well
<v Speaker 5>book day. He dressed up his Michigans to go into
<v Speaker 5>school with. And that kind of thing, that bond, that
<v Speaker 5>unique bond that children have with their animals. That's I
<v Speaker 5>think why I wanted the main star to be the cats.
<v Speaker 2>You know, I think cats from are associated with magic
<v Speaker 2>and mystic and Alana. Then dogs, yes.
<v Speaker 5>They are, and I think, yeah, dogs tend to plod
<v Speaker 5>alogue and they are very lovely. And I do have
<v Speaker 5>a little dog character in the Magic of Mister Michigans.
<v Speaker 5>I was staying with a friend in California and she
<v Speaker 5>had a gorgeous mania are called Nero. I was with
<v Speaker 5>her for two weeks and I didn't miss Michigans while
<v Speaker 5>I was away because I had this lovely little snaws
<v Speaker 5>that sat on my lap all the time and just
<v Speaker 5>loving me. So I thought I need to put him
<v Speaker 5>in the book as well, and he's going to have
<v Speaker 5>his own spin off series, Nero the Hero. Ohow, But
<v Speaker 5>I just love the fact. There's this great scene in
<v Speaker 5>the book where Niro is outside the Apocycare, Michigans is inside,
<v Speaker 5>and one takes two step forward. So there the two
<v Speaker 5>steps back and then Nero goes into the shop and
<v Speaker 5>the apocyecare and he says, but you're a cat, and
<v Speaker 5>Michigan says, yes, but you're a dog. That doesn't mean
<v Speaker 5>we can't be friends. And I think that's a really
<v Speaker 5>good lesson for everybody in life.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, yes it is. I wanted to ask you if
<v Speaker 2>Michigan's was a specific breed, but you gave a hint
<v Speaker 2>at the very end of the bug, and I want
<v Speaker 2>to tell you I did get Yes, I had a
<v Speaker 2>feeling he was probably partner me in Kun because he
<v Speaker 2>was so tall. Yeah, so one of my cats is
<v Speaker 2>part me in Kuhn. He's not that big, but he's
<v Speaker 2>super friendly.
<v Speaker 5>Michigan's is the most loving cat I think I've ever had,
<v Speaker 5>and I've had some very very loving cats. My first cat,
<v Speaker 5>Minski was basically my babysitter because I was born in
<v Speaker 5>the seventies before the intercoms were developed, so my mom
<v Speaker 5>would know I was crying upstairs because Minsky would leave
<v Speaker 5>my bedroom and go down and me out at my
<v Speaker 5>mum until she heard me. So I've had always had
<v Speaker 5>this amazing bomb of cats, but Michigan's is something else.
<v Speaker 5>I think it's that the ginger main coon combination has
<v Speaker 5>just made him. I don't know. The bond I have
<v Speaker 5>with him is just so strong, and he's very happy. Today.
<v Speaker 5>He's in the office with me. He is so happy today.
<v Speaker 5>That was he spent the whole night in my bedroom
<v Speaker 5>for the first night ever because there was something going
<v Speaker 5>on in the house, and he was so happy. He
<v Speaker 5>was just like the cat who got the cream. He
<v Speaker 5>was like, I'm with my mum all night and I'm
<v Speaker 5>on her bed. This is just perfect. He did not
<v Speaker 5>stop pairing. He was very happy, and today he's very tired.
<v Speaker 2>Are the excitement of the show gearing up for it?
<v Speaker 2>The Apothecary? Does that have any significance other than it's
<v Speaker 2>the home for all the cats, and I know it's magical.
<v Speaker 2>It comes and it goes away. But does that have
<v Speaker 2>any specific significance, not.
<v Speaker 5>Necessarily, I suppose. In many ways I'm quite old fashioned.
<v Speaker 5>And you know, as a saiding Gobbolina is my favorite
<v Speaker 5>cat growing up, you know, who lived in the hearth.
<v Speaker 5>And I don't know where the apocketree came from. It
<v Speaker 5>just came to me. And it's not really a word
<v Speaker 5>that certainly many people these days are so familiar with,
<v Speaker 5>but especially children. So it's always actually is a great
<v Speaker 5>conversation opener right from the get go, because everyone's like, well,
<v Speaker 5>what's the nippocketry? And I'm really lucky. I'm actually doing
<v Speaker 5>the book launch in an old apocketry up in northern
<v Speaker 5>Norfolk next week and there's still got all the original
<v Speaker 5>pockety drawers in there. And maybe it was the drawers
<v Speaker 5>that drew me to it because I thought I can
<v Speaker 5>have the cats living in the drawers. But yeah, it's
<v Speaker 5>a strange, but it's just it just worked.
<v Speaker 2>I love them and I want one of those. I
<v Speaker 2>want one of those piece of burns or with lots
<v Speaker 2>of drawers. They also look like to me old Then
<v Speaker 2>some people might not know what I'm talking about, but
<v Speaker 2>old library card catalogs. Oh look, you know with all
<v Speaker 2>those bunches of drawers. I don't know, it's one of
<v Speaker 2>my one of my dreams to get one. Anyways, we're
<v Speaker 2>going to take a quick break and we'll be right back. Molly,
<v Speaker 2>here's your dinner.
<v Speaker 3>See that's not your food.
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<v Speaker 4>Let's talk past, Let's come Pet about.
<v Speaker 1>Life Radio Headline Radio.
<v Speaker 7>Cat Live Radio dot com.
<v Speaker 2>Welcome back, everyone. We're talking to author Samantha Maddick. She
<v Speaker 2>is the author of several books, including the Magic of
<v Speaker 2>Mister Michigan's. So, Samantha, you told us about one story
<v Speaker 2>with the book, how there was a child that wasn't
<v Speaker 2>very interested and his mother read him the book and
<v Speaker 2>he wanted another chapter another. Did you have any other
<v Speaker 2>surprises from people that read the book that you were thought, Wow,
<v Speaker 2>that's really great that happen. And also what age group
<v Speaker 2>is the book for?
<v Speaker 5>So yes, I do have some surprises, and I always
<v Speaker 5>say the book is seven to eleven, but it all
<v Speaker 5>depends because I have people buying it for their four
<v Speaker 5>year old children of reading it to them because the
<v Speaker 5>book is fully illustrated. I think, as I said, COVID
<v Speaker 5>has changed the way that children read, and I think
<v Speaker 5>to go straight for a picture chapter book to her,
<v Speaker 5>just a plain textbook, because it's a step too far
<v Speaker 5>for some children now. And so I've kind of bridged
<v Speaker 5>this gap and probably made a way unique market in
<v Speaker 5>doing so. But it does work. So I had the
<v Speaker 5>feedback I've had. The surprising one actually is I've got
<v Speaker 5>parents buying it for their twenty thirty year old children,
<v Speaker 5>but for whom English is not their first language, and
<v Speaker 5>then learning to read English through this book. Because obviously
<v Speaker 5>it's a lot easier be the children's book than it
<v Speaker 5>is use some heavy text with a newspaper, for example.
<v Speaker 5>And I've also had a parent who's she was a
<v Speaker 5>fourteen year old and she hated reading, readably hated reading.
<v Speaker 5>And no, I'm sorry, she was twelve at the time.
<v Speaker 5>She was now fourteen. She was twelve at the time.
<v Speaker 5>She absolutely hated reading. Had literacy lessons at school because
<v Speaker 5>she just hated it. And she come home they said, well,
<v Speaker 5>how is the reading today, and she'd go, oh fine,
<v Speaker 5>and girl says to her room. They got her probably
<v Speaker 5>mister Michigan's Apothecary. She took it into school, started reading
<v Speaker 5>that in literacy classes, and she come home and they
<v Speaker 5>say how is literally said, all my word, it was amazing.
<v Speaker 5>There were cats coming out of drawers and I know
<v Speaker 5>that thunder is just jasper, don't jumping down a mountain,
<v Speaker 5>and it's really really exciting, and there's rainbows and there's
<v Speaker 5>butterflies as all these cats, and she was really animated
<v Speaker 5>by it. And she no, not got to use lectual
<v Speaker 5>literous extra literacy lessons. Plus her dad actually contacted me
<v Speaker 5>the other day and said, I now have to buy
<v Speaker 5>By daw To a book every week at least because
<v Speaker 5>she's now reading so voraciously and be able to do
<v Speaker 5>that to inspire that gift of reading and a child,
<v Speaker 5>that's for me, that's magic, that's everything. That's you know,
<v Speaker 5>all the money in the world would not compare it
<v Speaker 5>to how that feels to have turned on that light
<v Speaker 5>bulb in a child and enable them to fall in
<v Speaker 5>love with reading, because reading can just take you to
<v Speaker 5>so many different places. And yes, I've got the apocrypsy realm,
<v Speaker 5>but it can take that child all over the world
<v Speaker 5>in the future and just open up their imaginations. For me,
<v Speaker 5>that's what it's all about.
<v Speaker 2>I absolutely agree with you. I've been a vorracious reader
<v Speaker 2>since I was a child. I can't imagine not reading.
<v Speaker 2>And I was doing some research one day, and reading
<v Speaker 2>has other benefits. It helps with vocabulary, imagination, and there's
<v Speaker 2>probably more that if you research you can find out,
<v Speaker 2>but it's I don't know. I generally I started reading digitally.
<v Speaker 2>I generally have a q you know, of like eight
<v Speaker 2>books at a time. Sometimes it's kind of nuts, but
<v Speaker 2>I think it's amazing. So thank you for sharing that story.
<v Speaker 2>How does the second book differ from the first one.
<v Speaker 5>That's a good question. I think people have met mister
<v Speaker 5>Missions in book one him a little bit better. They
<v Speaker 5>know more of the story of the apocy three, so
<v Speaker 5>they can follow it better. But it also reads well
<v Speaker 5>as a standalone book because I've had people read it
<v Speaker 5>this time through beta readers and societies are members of,
<v Speaker 5>and they've not read the first book and they've gone,
<v Speaker 5>on my word, this is amazing. So's you don't have
<v Speaker 5>to have read the first one, which I think is
<v Speaker 5>actually quite useful. It's a lot deeper as well. We
<v Speaker 5>learn a lot more about mister Michigans himself in this book.
<v Speaker 5>We share that the real mister Michigans has got the
<v Speaker 5>hip dyspraxia that maincoon cats can sometimes have. And that's
<v Speaker 5>why you know Michigans. We have five cats, and Michigans
<v Speaker 5>will spend his day outside in the office with me
<v Speaker 5>because he can't run about door day. He gets tired,
<v Speaker 5>he ends up in pain, but he chooses his moments.
<v Speaker 5>He will go and have a huli as we call
<v Speaker 5>a zoom time, and then he goes, yes, I need
<v Speaker 5>to need to sleep now and just rest. And we
<v Speaker 5>learn that about mister Michigans there's a bit more we
<v Speaker 5>learn about the apoccree in this book as well, and
<v Speaker 5>what's actually inside the drawers. It's kind of a bit
<v Speaker 5>of a secret at the start, and then a child
<v Speaker 5>actually jumps into the draws and goes running off because
<v Speaker 5>he's he doesn't want to be told what to do,
<v Speaker 5>and so we learn a little bit more about that,
<v Speaker 5>and that the empocketrey basic is this massive thing of
<v Speaker 5>feelings and emotions and any of the cats can control them,
<v Speaker 5>which I quite like.
<v Speaker 2>Actually another thing, and I don't know why this. I
<v Speaker 2>didn't think of this before, but another thing with reading
<v Speaker 2>is that there's a lot of it sometimes even and
<v Speaker 2>this is a fiction book, of course, but there's a
<v Speaker 2>lot of hidden messages. So you spoke of, you know,
<v Speaker 2>mister Michigin's with hip displays here, so you know, people
<v Speaker 2>know that children reading it can learn, you know, people
<v Speaker 2>have different ailments and it's okay, and you know the
<v Speaker 2>different value of that message. I also love that each
<v Speaker 2>chapter has a message that's dealt with.
<v Speaker 5>Yes, well did you do that in the first book.
<v Speaker 4>I did.
<v Speaker 5>I was a little bit more scientific in the first book,
<v Speaker 5>and you people say, no, I don't. I don't like clouds.
<v Speaker 5>I can't see the sun fed up because I can't
<v Speaker 5>see the sun, so I'd put in just a little
<v Speaker 5>scientific facts about why we have clouds and what they do,
<v Speaker 5>what causes lightning, and things such as that. So it
<v Speaker 5>was that was quite interesting. This one has got a
<v Speaker 5>bit more of the second book, The Magic ofv has
<v Speaker 5>got a bit more of a it's dark as in
<v Speaker 5>nighttime skies, stars the moon, the moon's a bit of
<v Speaker 5>fixation in this book. And just last Friday I did
<v Speaker 5>some planning on book three, which will be called The
<v Speaker 5>Kindness of Mister Michigan's and I've got the little under
<v Speaker 5>theme current that's going to run through that one as well.
<v Speaker 5>So it's very subtle, but it's there, and it's I
<v Speaker 5>love it because children see things that as we as
<v Speaker 5>I do, so off to miss. So I think just
<v Speaker 5>by putting some little extra things in there, they will
<v Speaker 5>pick up it a lot more than we would. And
<v Speaker 5>I do think that's a fun thing to do.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, I love the saddle messages, but there is also ambius.
<v Speaker 2>Each chapter has a different message, you know, one as
<v Speaker 2>a child with loneliness, one a child's board, there's one
<v Speaker 2>who scared of the dark, scared of the dark, yes,
<v Speaker 2>and bump.
<v Speaker 5>In the night, the creatures that live under your bed.
<v Speaker 5>That's one of my favorite lines is, yeah, everybody something
<v Speaker 5>along the lines of everybody knows that if you have
<v Speaker 5>your teddy bear over your shoulder looking at the door,
<v Speaker 5>then no monster can come into your room. And that's
<v Speaker 5>something I believed as a child if my teddy bear
<v Speaker 5>was there. And it's just trying to remember how I
<v Speaker 5>felt as a child and tap into that a little bit.
<v Speaker 5>But the Lonely chapter is interesting because we got adopted
<v Speaker 5>by a cat last year, Ricky, because again, all the
<v Speaker 5>cats in the book are real. And he went on
<v Speaker 5>the run. He went missing from his he was staying
<v Speaker 5>with his in laws, and he escaped and was on
<v Speaker 5>the run for eighteen months, wow, very eighteen months. Ended
<v Speaker 5>up in our garden and he was here for about
<v Speaker 5>six months before he finally said, you know what, I
<v Speaker 5>can't run anymore. Can you please look after me? And
<v Speaker 5>he's the loveliest, loveliest cat. And he's a very smart
<v Speaker 5>gray with a white tuxedo with brilliant green eyes. And
<v Speaker 5>as soon as we got him, I'm like, he has
<v Speaker 5>to be a chapter in the book. And he has
<v Speaker 5>to be lonely, because he must have been so lonely,
<v Speaker 5>you know, the cat to survive phraty months living in
<v Speaker 5>the countryside with foxes and dogs and farm traffic and
<v Speaker 5>everything else. You know, he did really well.
<v Speaker 2>Yes, and that's a long time it is.
<v Speaker 5>He's so loving. When we tracked down we did track
<v Speaker 5>down his original owners. They know that we have him.
<v Speaker 5>They don't have a Japanese sharpee dog, so they said
<v Speaker 5>that we can't have him back. But they're in touch
<v Speaker 5>all the time. They see all the pictures and they
<v Speaker 5>know that he's got a love at home and you,
<v Speaker 5>so they're happy to.
<v Speaker 2>Oh, wonderful. You talked about the illustrations briefly, but they
<v Speaker 2>are truly amazing. Can you tell us a little bit
<v Speaker 2>about the illustrator. I believe her name Gerda smid Gnda Smith. Yes,
<v Speaker 2>so Gerda is Oh, she's wonderful. She's South African. And
<v Speaker 2>I was in the UK obviously looking for an illustrator.
<v Speaker 2>I hadn't spoken of anywhere on social media that I
<v Speaker 2>was looking for the illustrator, but I was looking at
<v Speaker 2>I was really I knew exactly what I wanted and
<v Speaker 2>also what I didn't want. I didn't want a pencil drawing.
<v Speaker 2>I didn't want a cartoon. I wanted something really unique
<v Speaker 2>and wonderful. And she does these amazing watercolors. And she happened.
<v Speaker 2>She was just looking She's dommy herself since she was
<v Speaker 2>just looking for all children's book authors, and she followed
<v Speaker 2>me and mister Michigan's on Instagram and I was like, oh,
<v Speaker 2>let's have a look at her. And she'd done this otter.
<v Speaker 2>There's an otter story. It's very big in South Africa,
<v Speaker 2>and the expression on the otter's face that was exactly
<v Speaker 2>what I wanted. So we got in touch. We worked
<v Speaker 2>together for the first one, and she sent me this
<v Speaker 2>amazing message after us about how that came to a
<v Speaker 2>certain point in time in her life and picked her up.
<v Speaker 2>And I think that's the magic of Michigans. He healed
<v Speaker 2>my heart after I lost Merlin. It's helped Gerda where
<v Speaker 2>she was in her life. And then we've just done
<v Speaker 2>book two and there's a wonderful picture in there. I
<v Speaker 2>don't know if you remember it.
<v Speaker 5>It's when Selene is I don't say too much because
<v Speaker 5>it's a bit of a giveaway, but it's the one
<v Speaker 5>where she's if I just say she's dancing with the
<v Speaker 5>Siamese cata around her, you might know which one I mean.
<v Speaker 5>I think so she Girda sent me a message and
<v Speaker 5>she said thank you for reaching for the stars and
<v Speaker 5>taking me to the moon with you. And we've got
<v Speaker 5>such a wonderful friendship now. And I've just literally yesterday
<v Speaker 5>received all the original artwork a bit too, so she's
<v Speaker 5>said it down from his studio, She's sent it from
<v Speaker 5>South Africa. So I've got all the original A three
<v Speaker 5>watercolors which will go in the book, which then goes
<v Speaker 5>so the launch and they're so so special and we're
<v Speaker 5>both on a bit bereft because this one's finish, but
<v Speaker 5>we know that book three will be coming as soon
<v Speaker 5>as I write it.
<v Speaker 2>And I'm going to ask you about Bug three, but first,
<v Speaker 2>can you tell us about mister Michigan's charitable donations.
<v Speaker 5>Yes, so, I very much believe in giving things back,
<v Speaker 5>because I'm so grateful for every single person who goes
<v Speaker 5>and buys my book, and lots of people at the
<v Speaker 5>book cost thirteen pounds, lighting I am lots of people.
<v Speaker 5>Give me fourteen, say people change people give me fifteen
<v Speaker 5>and say keep the change. And then I also got
<v Speaker 5>some stickers done for him as well, which people could
<v Speaker 5>just make a donation to. So he has this big
<v Speaker 5>ginger it's actual tin in the shape of a ginger cat,
<v Speaker 5>so people just put their money in there. And the
<v Speaker 5>last year he donated twice one was too. I've sort
<v Speaker 5>of saved all up and then rounded it up as
<v Speaker 5>well with someone from me, and he donated to the
<v Speaker 5>very local Cats Protection, which actually is where we got
<v Speaker 5>one of our cats from when I was about eight
<v Speaker 5>years old. And then he's also donated to Anesta's Cat
<v Speaker 5>Sanctuary which is in Syria, and they've literally rescued thousands
<v Speaker 5>and thousands of cats who were abandoned after the war,
<v Speaker 5>and they actually got bombed themselves in October, and every
<v Speaker 5>single cat was safe because they had to save face.
<v Speaker 5>They knew where to go, they knew where to hide,
<v Speaker 5>and they've got so many gingers there as well. It's lovely.
<v Speaker 5>So he sent some money off to them too. He
<v Speaker 5>sent quite quite a nice donation to them, and he'll
<v Speaker 5>be doing the same this year and wonderful. It's always
<v Speaker 5>nice to give back, it is, it's so important and
<v Speaker 5>a fair bit for the grace of God. As I
<v Speaker 5>always say, go any of us and if he can
<v Speaker 5>help out some cats somewhere along the way. By his
<v Speaker 5>words and his magic was he's the want telling the story.
<v Speaker 5>Really not me, then so much the better.
<v Speaker 2>Oh yes, now we talked about you told this about
<v Speaker 2>the book and it has to be mister Michigan's. The
<v Speaker 2>third bug has to be written. Yet when can listeners
<v Speaker 2>expect to see the new bug out?
<v Speaker 5>So the Magic of mister Michigans is out. As we've
<v Speaker 5>said on eighth of Anger's International Cat Day, I would
<v Speaker 5>actually really like, if it goes well, for the next
<v Speaker 5>one to be the next International Cat Day. And I
<v Speaker 5>think realistically a year is a good amount of time
<v Speaker 5>because it has to be illustrated and the layout, and
<v Speaker 5>it does take time to do. And I like to
<v Speaker 5>go get the draft done by the end of this year.
<v Speaker 5>But Friday I half wrote it in my head anyway,
<v Speaker 5>so we're probably a little bit further along with than
<v Speaker 5>I thought I would to be. Cats give so much,
<v Speaker 5>and all animals give so much. Dogs and things as well,
<v Speaker 5>dogs and things and rabbits. I think as a companion.
<v Speaker 5>I think if a child has a pet when they
<v Speaker 5>are young, I think it makes them a very very
<v Speaker 5>rounded hum would be not naming him. But I had
<v Speaker 5>an X and he never had any animals growing up,
<v Speaker 5>and he was very cold. And we have horses as
<v Speaker 5>well as Arabian horses, and they now the orders to
<v Speaker 5>feed the horses first, and then he feed the cats,
<v Speaker 5>so then the humans come last. And his way was
<v Speaker 5>always like you do the humans first. It's I know
<v Speaker 5>they're here because of us, we have to do them first.
<v Speaker 5>And I think if you grow up surrounded by animals,
<v Speaker 5>loving an animal, I do think it does it makes
<v Speaker 5>you a little bit more of a rounded human being.
<v Speaker 5>That's why I believe.
<v Speaker 2>Think you're right. Work in our audience and all of
<v Speaker 2>our listeners by mister Michigan's bugs for themselves, for their friends.
<v Speaker 2>Where can they buy their own book? So the best
<v Speaker 2>place is mister michigans dot com.
<v Speaker 5>M I S h K I N S. And mister
<v Speaker 5>isbel properly m I S t e R. Because he
<v Speaker 5>had he's a very oldie worldy cat, so we'd had
<v Speaker 5>to be mister so yet mister missions dot com. There
<v Speaker 5>is a limited edition hardback as well, but you can
<v Speaker 5>find both books on there. Plus you can read all
<v Speaker 5>about the different Cats and their Inspirations. It is on
<v Speaker 5>Amazon dot Co dot UK. I'm trying to get it
<v Speaker 5>onto Amazon dot com. Mister Michigan's aproperies on Amazon dot com,
<v Speaker 5>but I'm just having a I will get it sorted
<v Speaker 5>for the Magic of Mister Michigans to be on Amazon
<v Speaker 5>dot com as well, but mister michians dot com is
<v Speaker 5>the best place, okay.
<v Speaker 2>I want to thank you so much Samantha for coming
<v Speaker 2>Oncatitude and sharing your book, The Magic of Mister Michigans,
<v Speaker 2>and I am very excited can't wait for it to
<v Speaker 2>come out.
<v Speaker 5>Thank you so much for having on Michelle. This is
<v Speaker 5>ba to beautiful podcast. I've been listening to them and
<v Speaker 5>you share so much and you do so much for
<v Speaker 5>the feline community. So thank you for that.
<v Speaker 2>Oh You're so welcome. I hope you andreyed the show.
<v Speaker 2>I want to thank my guests Samantha Maddox for joining
<v Speaker 2>us from as we in the US say, across the Pond.
<v Speaker 2>Very delighted to have her on. This book is incredible.
<v Speaker 2>It's a lovely story and the illustrations are just incredible.
<v Speaker 2>The Magic of Mister Michikins. I read it to my
<v Speaker 2>cat crew actually Dennis, Charlotte and Molly, and Dennis was
<v Speaker 2>beaming because you know, mister Michikins's partnering is mean Kuhn
<v Speaker 2>or partnering Kon and so's Dennis. So he had a
<v Speaker 2>friend in the book, so it's really fun. I'd like
<v Speaker 2>to thank everyone listening to Catitude. Thank you so much.
<v Speaker 2>I appreciate your loyalty, and of course thank you to
<v Speaker 2>my producer, Mark Winter because the show would not be
<v Speaker 2>the same without him. And remember, lose the attitude, have Catitude.
<v Speaker 4>Let's Talk Pets every week on demand only on petlifradio
<v Speaker 4>dot com.