Novel Magic: Cats in Mysteries with Sharon Marchisello

Cats in Mysteries

by Sharon Marchisello

In my new mystery, Trap, Neuter, Die, I write about a topic dear to my heart: cats. But not the cuddly pet cats usually found in a cozy mystery. Feral cats.

A long-time cat servant, I’ve volunteered for the Fayette Humane Society (FHS) for almost twenty years. Before I became a rescue volunteer, I assumed all cats were potential house pets. I didn’t realize there are millions of unowned, unsocialized cats who call the outdoors their home.

My town, like most communities all over the world, supports multiple colonies of free-roaming cats. They populate wooded areas, trailer parks, and shopping centers, especially properties that house restaurants. Free-roaming cats might be lost pets, strays, or truly feral felines, born outdoors and never socialized to humans. Unfortunately, they reproduce exponentially. A kitten can have a litter before she’s six months old, sometimes as early as four months. And most of her surviving kittens will have litters of their own before she’s a year old. In a state like Georgia, where the winters are mild, cats breed all year; a couple of abandoned, unaltered pets can quickly grow into a huge colony.

Fortunately, volunteers from rescue groups like FHS are passionate about Trap-Neuter-Vaccinate-Return (TNVR). They set humane traps to catch these free-roaming cats, transport them to a low-cost clinic to be spayed or neutered and vaccinated, then return the unsocialized ones to their outdoor homes, where they can live out their natural lives but not reproduce. While the cat is under anesthesia, the veterinarian clips a corner from the left ear; if the cat gets trapped again, the ear tip saves everyone another trip to the clinic.

Since feral cats are mostly nocturnal, trapper volunteers must work at night, usually in deserted locations. A perfect set-up for danger… or finding a dead body.

Hence the premise for Trap, Neuter, Die.

I figured most readers would be as clueless about TNVR as I was before I joined FHS. So, how could I educate them on the program without a big info dump?

Our organization has a revolving door for volunteers, and we get a lot of short-timers who must perform court-ordered community service. I decided to make my protagonist, thirty-year-old divorcee DeeLo Myer, a new community service volunteer. Thus, the reader learns about TNVR along with the heroine.

The story opens with DeeLo’s first night on duty. A newcomer to the fictitious Georgia town of Pecan Point, she’s paired with seasoned trapper Catherine Foster, who’s not ashamed to admit she likes feral cats a whole lot better than human beings. And she’s particularly intolerant of DeeLo when she finds out the reason for her court-ordered community service. Needless to say, their working relationship gets off to a rocky start.

The night gets even worse when they discover a dead body. And Catherine won’t let DeeLo call 9-1-1.

From my involvement in procuring grant funds for FHS, I learned that many communities, including the county where I live, have animal ordinances that do not support TNVR, so volunteers operate in the shadows. These ordinances treat free-roaming cats the same as pets, with leash laws as well as ownership and abandonment restrictions designed for pet owners, not feral cat caretakers or rescue volunteers. A few years ago, a group of FHS volunteers attempted to work with the Fayette County Board of Commissioners to get the animal ordinance updated—let’s just say there was a lot of drama and hidden political agendas. Maybe fodder for a novel…

These draconian ordinances are rarely enforced; in fact, most people don’t know what’s on the books. But in my story, a cop with a grudge against Catherine Foster has read the county’s ordinance and found the loophole giving him the authority to arrest her for practicing TNVR.

When DeeLo sees Catherine arrested (and subsequently held under suspicion of murder), she’s amazed at the law’s stupidity and vows to change it. How hard could that be? She enlists the help of her boyfriend, owner of the law firm where she works.

DeeLo’s job at the law firm gives her intimate knowledge of the business affairs of key Pecan Point residents. And in her efforts to enlist support for her ordinance reforms, she comes in contact with some of the town’s most prominent citizens—including those who might have motives for murder.

What do I hope to accomplish with this book? I want to create awareness about the tragedy of pet overpopulation and show how some people are working to help solve it. And of course, give readers an entertaining mystery.

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Trap, Neuter, Die by Sharon Marchisello

Meet Sharon Marchisello