Sunday Bookends: Sir, your (dead) cat is back.

On By Lisa R. HowelerIn Sunday Bookends, Sunday Salon

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing.

What’s Been Occurring

Little Miss’s birthday was this past Friday and that morning we had breakfast at our local diner and yesterday we took a day trip to a small city near us for  a day out.

It was so nice to see all the leaves changing and thanks to the cold nights I think our trees are going to be brilliantly bright this year.

I don’t think I shared on here yet a funny story that happened after we had our cat put to sleep in August. If I have, just skip it… ha!

Having Pixel put to sleep after a months long illness (not too mention her disappearing for three days and reappearing) was very traumatizing for our family — especially me and the kids. Warren took Pixel to be put to sleep and though he thought he’d be okay because he’d never been super close to her, he ended up really taking it hard when he got to the emergency vet. They allowed him to hold her as they sedated her and put her to sleep and he said he burst into tears at the idea of all she’d gone through and then losing her.

I’ve been a bit of a mess emotionally since then, both from her loss and the stress of caring for two very stubborn elderly parents who prefer to do things their own way even if it means a lot is put on their children and grandchildren.

I have only just started pulling out of the depression in the last couple of weeks.

So a couple of weeks ago Warren told me that a couple of weeks before that he’d gotten a call from the emergency vet office, but he ignored it because he was mowing the lawn. He checked the message after he was done and heard words that chilled him.

“Mr. Howeler, your cat is back. If you’d like to call back we can arrange a time for you to pick her up.”

He was instantly alarmed and quickly called the vet office back. That’s when the woman informed him that they had noticed he had asked for his cat to be sent away to be embalmed and then shipped back for burial. Her body was waiting for him in a drawer in their office, they said.

“No. No, I didn’t say I wanted my cat embalmed,” he said. “I wanted her remains cremated and for you to take care of them.”

At this point in the story I stopped him because I had no idea at all that vets even did that. Neither did he. But, yes, vets will send your animals away to be embalmed and send them back to you for you to burry them on your own.

“Sir, let me check your paper again,” the woman said. She was gone for a few minutes, came back, and said, “I’m so sorry. You are right. You did not want your cat embalmed. We will take care of her as you originally requested.”

Warren had been afraid this story would make me cry but instead it made me laugh so hard. I loved Pixel intensely. She was an interesting cat who was standoffish with most people but loved me and my son. She was moody and bold yet also timid and afraid of a lot. She seemed not to care at times but loved to lay on my stomach or side to have a quick pet and cuddle.

She could also be difficult — fighting being picked up, running outside when I didn’t want her to, and even acting like she was going to get better at the end and then just slowly getting worse and then better, worse and then better, for a couple of months.

She was always a character, leaving us with funny stories and now, even in death, she had been difficult and a challenge.

I told the kids I was just glad the vet’s office didn’t offer taxidermy services. Can you just imagined if they had shipped her to us all stuffed? I would have opened that box and fainted right there.

What I/We’ve Been Reading

In Progress

I am slow reading Stillmeadow Daybrook by Gladys Taber. Since each chapter is a month, I plan to read a chapter a month for the rest of 2026 and into 2027. I’m also reading Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.

I started a PG Wodehouse book that Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs sent me — The Plot That Thickened. I looked at the first page to see if I would like it and got hooked on it and now I have to finish it.

Like most of Wodehouse’s book it is full of humor and satire. This one is about  a young man named Monty Bonkin who starts out working for a movie producer in Hollywood to show the father of the woman he wants to marry back in England that he can hold a steady job. The man had told Monty that the only way he will be allowed to marry his daughter is if he holds a job for a year.

Monty has done that and returns to England only to be told by that father that the job was overseas and he has no proof so it doesn’t count.

Monty looks for a job in England and bumps into the wife of the producer he was working for in England and she says she’ll hire him as the man’s secretary so he can finish his book he’s writing about his studio.

Monty’s secretary from L.A. has come to work for the producer’s wife in England, partly for the job and partly because she is in love with Monty. Toss in some jewel thieves and you have got one crazy story, but that’s how Wodehouse writes them so I am there for it.

I am also reading The Pink Motel by Carol Ryrie Brink and then I’ll be reading it again with Little Miss later in the month.

Up Soon

I’ll be reading Sleeping Murder by Agatha Christie soon for the 2026 Reading Challenge and then I will be reading The Two Mrs. Abbott’s by D.E. Stevenson. I am also looking forward to Lark Rise to Candleford.

New arrivals to my bookshelf

I do have some new arrivals this week:

What I’ve Been Writing

Last week on the blog I shared:

Some Housekeeping

Erin (Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs), Cat (Cat’s Wire) and I host a monthly bookish link party called A Good Book and A Cup of Tea.  This link-up is for book and reading posts or anything related to books and reading (even movies based on books!). Each link party will be open for a month. You can find that link up for this month here.

Each week, I host the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot with some great hosts. It goes live Thursday night, but you can share any kind of blog posts (family-friendly) there until Tuesday of each week. You can check my recent posts on the sidebar to the right for the most recent link party.

Now It’s Your Turn

What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing?

This post is linked up with The Sunday Post at  Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer,  Deb at with Deb at Readerbuzz, and Book Date: It’s Monday! What are you reading hosted by Kathyrn at The Book Date and Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Reading Reality.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. I am a blogger, homeschool mom, and I write cozy mysteries.

You can find my Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find me on Instagram and YouTube.

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One thought on “Sunday Bookends: Sir, your (dead) cat is back.”

  1. Joanne's avatar Joanne

    OH my; that is quite a mix up and it really did result in a funny story indeed. I can only imagine your husband’s face or thought as he listened to “your cat is back.” My mind immediately went to that song we learned in middle school The Cat Came Back about a cat that seemed to have way more than 9 lives.

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