Miaow There! , livre ebook

Andrews UK - Sheila Collins

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54 pages

English

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Following on from the success of her previous book, All at Sea with Truffles, Sheila Collins continues on the theme of cruising, with the story being picked up by her mischievous grey and white cat, Misty. In this fictional account, Misty takes us on a journey on board ship, as we experience life at sea through the eyes of a cat. Being an independent kind of animal, Misty naturally seeks out different adventures to her predecessor, Truffles, with hilarious consequences. With a foreword by former MP and cat lover Ann Widdecombe, Miaow There! It's Misty at Sea provides the reader with a humorous insight into the mind of a cat. From the many different sights, sounds and smells to the strange and wonderful people she encounters, Misty will give you a tantalising taste of life on board a cruise ship as she travels with her best friend and owner, Sheila. This charming tale will appeal to anyone who has ever been on a cruise, or has thought about going on one, and to all cat lovers everywhere.

Informations

Publié par	Andrews UK
Date de parution	27 août 2014
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781910295915
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0200€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Title Page
MIAOW THERE!
IT’S MISTY AT SEA!
The SEAquel to All at Sea with Truffles
By
Sheila Collins
Foreword by Ann Widdecombe

Publisher Information
First published in 2014 by Apex Publishing Ltd
12A St. John’s Road, Clacton on Sea, Essex
CO15 4BP, United Kingdom
www.apexpublishing.co.uk
Please email any queries to Chris Cowlin
mail@apexpublishing.co.uk
Digital edition converted and distributed by
Andrews UK Limited
www.andrewsuk.com
Copyright © 2014 Sheila Collins
The author has asserted her moral rights
Cover photo: Sheila Collins
Cover design: Hannah Blamires
All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition, that no part of this book is to be reproduced, in any shape or form. Or by way of trade, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition, including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser, without prior permission of the copyright holder.

About the Author
Sheila Collins was born and brought up in Croydon. She attended Selhurst Grammar School and then went on to Croydon Technical College where she completed a one year secretarial course. During the years that followed, Sheila held various secretarial/PA posts at managerial and directorial levels in London, with a brief spell in Bournemouth, before moving to Cornwall to enjoy a slower pace of life. In recent years, Shelia she has combined two of her greatest passions; writing and cats and dogs, and she is the author of the successful Truffles’ Diaries series and several other books relating to pets. Sheila holds a diploma in cartooning and illustrating, a skill that she puts to good use. She lists her pleasures in life as the three Cs; cats, cruising and chocolate ... in no particular order! Miaow There! It’s Misty at Sea is Sheila’s ninth published book.

Author’s Note
Millions of us love cruising, not least myself! My previous book on the subject (“All at Sea with Truffles”) looked at cruising in a humorous way through a cat’s eyes (!) when my cat, Truffles, provided us with her observations and comments. Some of you may have also read her previous Truffles’ Diaries books! However, now that Truffles is up there in that big cat basket in the sky, her successor, Misty, has also decided to enlighten us with her views on one of our most popular forms of holidaying. As in Truffles’ book, Misty’s fictional cruise ship is a composite of two of my favourite ships and those of you who have travelled on either will recognise what she describes! I have ‘combined’ the two so that there is every possible facility on board for her to view! Misty has a completely different personality from Truffles so she has tended to look at different activities on board etc. Whatever, she and I hope this book will raise a smile or two!

Foreword
Alas! Truffles is with us no more but Misty is carrying on the tradition of giving us the cat’s eye view. This time that view is of the seas as, inspired by the adventures of the late Truffles, Misty sets sail.
The staff are captivated and produce shrimps, the passengers smile and Misty enjoys the new experiences, walking along decks, going to shows and accompanying her PA, Sheila, to coffee shops. But she is a cat and prefers to sleep in purring bliss while Sheila goes ashore. Even the seabirds do not inspire Misty to much action.
Truffles fans will love this book and will love Misty.
Ann Widdecombe

Hello from Misty... may I introduce myself
Hi folks!
As my housekeeper and personal assistant, Sheila, has just said, I am now the cat in command of her house in Cornwall, U.K. I remember fat tabby Truffles from when I was a kitten and she told me all about her cruise, so since then I have always wanted to try the experience too! I was very sorry that Truffles passed on, but she is regarded as a celebrity cat author and will certainly be remembered by her human fans, so I am hoping that I will be able to follow in her famous paw prints and also be able to entertain you... well, I will try my best anyway!
Truffles was a fat, brown striped tabby and - to be honest - quite lazy! I am small, pale grey and white and can move quite fast when I want to. Sheila’s human friends describe me as “petite” and “girly” though I’m not quite sure what they mean by that! I do admit to being rather over the top by washing and grooming my fur perhaps rather too often each day, but I do like to be immaculate at all times. I had a sad start to life before Sheila took me into her home from a cat rescue centre. The people who ran it told her that I was the cleanest and fussiest little cat they had ever had in there! (not sure if that was a compliment or not!) I don’t like wind and rain (either of which make me rush indoors immediately) so sometimes both Sheila and I wonder why on earth we live in Cornwall, where it appears to be windy and rainy nearly all the time! Though we did have a good summer this year thank goodness! I think Sheila wishes she could live on a cruise ship tripping around the globe to sunny places... dream on dear! And yes, though I am fussy about my appearance - well, so is she! For example, I insist that my collars are all pink to match my nose, as I must be colour coordinated. She also seems to be obsessed with colour matching her outfits and bags etc., though in her case she doesn’t wear collars.
Like Truffles said in her book, cats are not allowed on cruise ships today unlike in the past where all types of ships would automatically have a cat on board to perform rodent control. This was a very good job for a cat! I do believe that nowadays, just on a few ships doing transatlantic crossings, pets can be taken on board, but they are kept separately, except perhaps authorised service dogs, and not allowed to mingle with the other passengers. So Truffles, being a celebrity cat, was honoured that the cruise line agreed for her to come on board as they knew she wanted to look at the very popular human pastime of cruising to write about in her latest book. So they allowed her to visit most places on the ship in order for her to make her catty observations and comments! Since her book came out, it seems lots of you humans have read it and smiled, so it has, hopefully, proved to be a good advertisement for cruising! So as I intend to carry on the tradition she started - of making observations on the, sometimes very strange to a cat, ways of human life - they were also happy to let me come aboard with Sheila on just one of her many trips... to Scandinavia, which I feel must be a fair distance from Cornwall?
Anyway, let’s get on with the task in hand and I will tell you all about my adventures on the cruise!

Pre-cruise Preparations
I was feeling very excited about my forthcoming trip as I have never been anywhere on holiday except to the local cat camp when Sheila has been away cruising. It was also making me feel a little nervous to be going so far away from my safe haven here in Cornwall. It’s sometimes true that home is best, they say, but it can also get a bit boring. As I said above, I am a very... I believe your human term is ‘ladylike’... kind of cat. I’ve not had an adventurous life or been involved in sporty pursuits and rough and tumble situations. I admit I have caught the occasional slug or snail (oooh, nasty!) and one or two spiders, and once a daddy long legs, but I have never managed to catch a bird or mouse. The cats next door probably laugh at me behind their paws, but I could laugh at them now, because I would soon be doing something they certainly could never imagine... cruising!
A few days before we went, Sheila started her marathon job of packing all her outfits for the cruise. I mean, does one person really need FOUR suitcases! Her excuse, so I hear her tell her friends, is that where we live here in a country area there is just no opportunity to dress up, so all her best togs come out on a cruise ship. She also claims to never wear the same outfit twice on a cruise. Well, I guess I can understand that, because I also do not get the chance to wear many of my own wardrobe of collars! When Sheila visits stores in different countries on her travels, she always brings me home collars and treats that we cannot get around here. So we were both looking forward to swanning around showing off our best outfits!
So I sat and watched her do, what seemed to me, very hard work in bringing out umpteen different outfits and then selecting twenty eight (yes, it was a fourteen day and night cruise) plus four or five spare sets, then matching each of them with different bags and shoes, and finally deciding which sparkly ornaments to wear around her neck and on her wrists and fingers each day and evening. Phew, what a performance! It must have taken nearly all the day and at the end of it, everything she had decided on was laid out ready for packing the next day. That evening she sat doing her usual pointless activity of sitting watching a large box, while I dozed on her knee. I wondered what was ahead...
Next morning, Sheila set to with a vengeance and by lunchtime all was neatly folded and packed except for her sparkly stuff. Of course, she paid for her ridiculous extravagance in taking so many things, because she then had to somehow get all the cases down the stairs. I smiled to myself as I watched her panting and puffing and dragging them slowly down, sometimes uttering those words that certainly cats like myself would never utter! Well dear, it’s all your own fault! You could have made