A Cat-Shaped Space
When a cat dies, the house gets a very particular kind of quiet.
Nell has a cat named Pepper — a white star on his chest, green eyes, and a rumble in him like a small engine. He has rules, and they are all his own. Then Pepper gets old, and the sunny square on the floor stays empty.
- Written for a cat specifically — the routines, the rules, the particular silence
- Says died, plainly, without euphemism
- Makes clear it was nobody’s fault
- Ends with keeping the memory, not with a new kitten
40 pages · ages 4–8 · read together, out loud.
The shape a cat leaves behind
Written to be read on the worst week, by an adult who is also upset.
Pepper first
The book spends its opening on what made Pepper himself — sitting on the newspaper, the sunny square, one cup pushed off the counter while looking right at you.
Then the getting old
He stops jumping to the windowsill. He gets thin under his fur. The story does not skip this part, because a child who watched it happen already knows.
A cat-shaped space
The grief in this book has an outline: the places he sat, the noise he made, the shape of him missing from all of them. It gives a child something to point at.
A book to read on a hard evening
- Plain language — no euphemisms a child can misread as “coming back”
- Cat-specific — the routines and the quiet belong to a cat, not a generic pet
- No blame — said clearly, more than once
- Room to remember — the ending is about keeping, not replacing
- Short enough — for a child who cannot sit with it for long
For the family in the first week
Written for parents and grandparents explaining something they are struggling with themselves, and for teachers and vets who get asked to recommend something.
There is a companion volume for dogs, Paw Prints on My Heart, written in the same voice for the same age.
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Same voice, same honesty — for the pet the family actually had.
Paw Prints on My Heart
The companion volume, for a dog — Sam, Biscuit, and a whole good life first.
The Complete Cat Care Planner
An undated health record book for the years before — vet visits, vaccinations and daily care.
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Keepsakes, training, care planners and memorial books for every stage of a pet’s life.