Who Are the Cat Writers’ Association: Dusty Rainbolt 

By Mollie Hunt

“Who are the Cat Writers’ Association? is a series of interviews with CWA members, but not your usual who, what, and where discussion. I like to ask a different set of questions and am always amazed by the answers. I hope you are, too.

Our guest today on Who are the Cat Writers’ Association? is Dusty Rainbolt. Here’s what Dusty has to say about herself:

Dusty is an award-winning cat writer, according to her answering machine. She recently stopped writing on her cats because they move around too much, and they smeared ink all over the furniture. She’s worked as a professional freelance journalist since the late 1980s and began specializing in pet journalism in 1995. Today, she’s the editor-in-chief of AdoptAShelter.com, a shop-to-donate website that benefits animal charities.

Part 1:

About My Craft:

I started writing science fiction in the third grade, but journalism became my career path. I reported local news and politics for area newspapers. Eventually, I wrote a short piece about the Turkish Van breed for CatsUSA, and then they requested another article on cat safety.

I joined the Cat Writers’ Association (CWA) and went to my first conference in Anaheim in 1996. After that, work came steadily. 

I now have 13 books, both fiction and nonfiction (Kittens for Dummies, Cat Wrangling Made Easy, Ghost Cats 1 & 2, Cat Scene Investigator: Solve Your Cat’s Litter Box Mystery, and Finding Your Lost Cat: Your Practical Cat-Specific Guide to Your Happy Reunion) and have written thousands of articles, columns, and product reviews on feline health and behavior. My fiction books are humorous sci fi (All the Marbles), fantasy (The Four Redheads of the Apocalypse series), and light horror (Death Under the Crescent Moon).

 How Cats Inspire My Creativity:

I never intended to write about cats or to rescue them. Then I rescued my first cat: a very pregnant mama abandoned in the snow when her family moved. Mama was trusting, affectionate, and gentle. I never understood how someone could load the car and leave her behind like a piece of trash. 

The experience opened my eyes to the scope of the homeless cat problem. All of my kitties are unadoptable fosters. They inspire me to help people work through behavior issues with their kitty companions. I want to help keep cats in their home. 

Most of the books and articles I write are for the purpose of problem-solving. Nothing feels better than to have someone tell me that my article or book saved a cat.

What I Enjoy About Belonging to CWA:

I love the conferences, when we all get together and encourage each other. We learn; we share; we grow. When I joined CWA, I’d only had a couple of articles on cats published. The contacts I made at the conferences led to my books and long-term gigs – one of them lasting 14 years.

Part 2:

Mollie: What is your favorite cat movie and why?

Dusty: Picking just one favorite cat movie is nearly impossible! I enjoy different films for various reasons. My all-time favorite cat movie is The Nine Lives of Christmas, the movie that got me hooked on Hallmark Christmas movies. It’s a love story about a firefighter who rescues an abandoned cat. He falls in love with a veterinary student. It stars an orange tabby named Trace who plays the part of Ambrose. 

Although whoever wrote the script didn’t know squat about cat care, the cats were the focus of the show. Both cats and ailurophiles were depicted in a positive light. Trace was a splendid cat actor. Any movie with a hot firefighter and a cute cat has got to be a winner.

I also loved Bell, Book and Candle starring the Siamese Pyewacket with Jimmy Stewart; Alien, starring orange tabby Jones (played by four kitties), and the Austin Powers movies with Mr. Bigglesworth (played by Ted Nudegent). 

Come on. How can you pick just one?

Mollie: Did you grow up with cats?

Dusty: I grew up with dogs, horses, cows, lizards, white rats and mice, frogs, and fish, but I didn’t live with a cat until I was 17. My parents were convinced that cats transmitted parasites, ringworm, and a host of other zoonotic diseases, and moreover, that cats were vicious. So I wasn’t even permitted to pet a cat.

My senior year in high school my sister moved back home and brought her black and white cat, Mista Pia. Mista was clean, sweet, affectionate, and not at all what my parents described. It was the 1970s, and spaying wasn’t common yet, so Mista had a litter of kittens. I kept one of the babies, Bitsy. When I moved to my own place, Dad had become so attached to Bitsy, that he wouldn’t let me take her. The entire family converted to cat lovers.

Mollie: Have you taken a cat first aid course?

Dusty: Everyone should take pet first aid classes. I have taken several. The first was a Red Cross course. Then I took CWA Member Arden Moore’s Pet FirstAid4U. I’ve updated my certification several times. Honestly, I never thought I’d use it.

One night, I was working on a book when my husband walked downstairs with a limp tuxedo named Bette. She had been sitting at her bowl in our bedroom. When he returned from the bathroom, she was lying on the floor, unresponsive. I guessed she had aspirated kibble, so I performed an abdominal thrust (Heimlich Maneuver). Nothing. I did it again. Still nothing. After the fifth attempt, Bette gasped, and she started breathing again. It was my birthday. I got the best birthday present ever!

Mollie: Have you ever seen a ghost cat?

Dusty: I didn’t believe in ghosts or the paranormal. I dismissed my friends’ encounters as the result of maybe a bit too much recreational substance use in the 1970s. Then I had my lone ghost cat experience.

I had a foster kitten, Maynard, who suffered from hydrocephaly. He responded well to medication and was happy and pain-free. We knew it was only a matter of time before we lost him. While we were visiting my husband’s family over a Thanksgiving weekend, I got a call from a friend who was pet-sitting Maynard. It was time. I didn’t even get to say goodbye.

When you foster high-risk kittens, you move on quickly. A month had passed. I was lying in bed wide awake when a cat jumped on the bed, padded across the mattress, and laid down on my ankles (Maynard’s favorite place to sleep.) Without moving, I looked. 

Despite the weight I felt on my feet, by the light of the full moon seeping through the blinds I could see there was no cat there. I was afraid to move—not because I was afraid of what was happening, but because I was afraid it would stop. I fell asleep, and in the morning, the sensation was gone. It never happened again.

Whenever I visited my parents in San Antonio, as I prepared to drive back to north Texas, they always said, “Call us when you get home.” I’d always make a quick call. “I’m home safe. Everything’s fine. I love you. I’ll see you again soon.”  That’s exactly what Maynard’s visit meant. “I’m home. I’m fine. I’ll see you again, someday.”

Please give us the names and short descriptions of your cats.

George— He is a 16-year-old black-and-white. His litter came to me when they were two weeks old. It appeared mama had died in a severe thunderstorm. They were rescued by a college student. He’s the friendliest kitten we’ve ever had.

Duggie— He is a 12-year-old black lady. A shelter sent me a note the day before Christmas Eve saying any animals still at the shelter by closing that day would be euthanized because they didn’t want to mess with animal care over the long holiday. Duggie actually reached for me as I walked past her cage. She was the last cat, so I took her. Turned out she was neither socialized nor adoptable. After several years, she’s turned into a real love nugget. Still shy.

Einstein and Herman— Dallas Animal Control was overwhelmed with kittens and would have to start euthanizing litters if fosters didn’t relieve them. I took a mom and her four kittens. Two babies didn’t even belong to her. Einstein has an Albert Einstein mustache, and her brother Herman looks like a pedigreed Turkish Van. Genetics are weird.

Jeffy the Journalist -He is a 5-year-old blue mink Tonkinese-type. Someone dumped him in a Walmart parking lot. He was having hypoglycemic seizures. He was sick for so long that we kept him.

ChanChan – Also a black-and-white, she came from another shelter being forced to euthanize kittens because of overcrowding. I called to say I’d take a Russian Blue-type with white paws. The shelter said a different group was going to pick her up, but if I got there first, I could have her. If she had a place, I didn’t see any reason to take her, though. The group didn’t want her sister because she was a plain black and white. I can’t imagine taking only one sibling. Needless to say, I got one of the sweetest kitties ever.

Emily – She is a 12-year-old tortoiseshell who was trapped inside building insulation when she was two weeks old. It damaged one eye and her lungs. She’s my husband’s girlfriend, and she loves her food bowl.

Wigglebutt— WB is eight months old and came to us with a feral mom and three siblings. Ringworm, URI, diarrhea—you name it, this family had it. She’s a snowshoe type with the most stunning blue eyes. Unfortunately, one of her blue beauties has chronic inflammation, but we’re working on that.

Poppy— She was a feral kitten. Because I have a good track record for taming kittens, I was asked to work with Poppy’s litter, one at a time. Her two sisters socialized and were quickly adopted. Poppy was too young to go to a barn. At her age, she would have been eaten by an owl. She gets along with all the cats, even those the dominant kitties shun, so what the heck, we kept her. 

You can find Dusty Rainbolt on her website.

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