Speaker 1: Love.
Speaker 2: This is pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 3: Hello, feeline friends, Welcome to Catatude. I'm your show host
Michelle Byrne. I have a very special guest today. We
actually talked about her on our prior show, but I
reached out to her and I'm so glad she was
available to come on Catitude. She has done so much
for feelines and she has such an interesting background. So
stay tuned, we'll be right back.
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Speaker 5: Let's talk pets on Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 3: Welcome back everyone. I'd like to welcome Vanessa Morgan. She
is an author. She is a screenwriter. She runs a
website called Traveling Cats. She's done a lot for the
cat world. Welcome Vanessa, Welcome to Cat.
Speaker 1: Hello, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3: I'm so excited to have you. This is interesting that
you're on the show, and I'm so glad you're on
the show because we featured your book on a previous
episode of CTA Tude. The title was Kats and Horror,
Sci Fi and Fantasy Movies, and my guest was Christopher
Robinson and it was very very interesting book, and I
guess he got in touch with you and he reached
out and tonight you're on to talk about yourself.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 3: So it's very exciting to have you. Can you share
a little bit about your background for our listeners.
Speaker 1: I think, first and foremost, I'm really a writer, writer, publisher.
I think the main things I'm doing is I'm writing
about gets and about horror movies, and sometimes the two combined,
not always, but yeah, it's always gets, oh horror.
Speaker 3: I've been doing cat Tude since twenty seventeen, so what
is that about? Close to eight years? And it's kind
of a thing. Cats and horror movies not you know
all the time, but it is a thing. You don't
hear as much with dogs and horror movies. Wolves, you know,
they're more like wolves dogs, they're not like regular dogs.
So but cats, all kinds of cats and horror movies.
Why is that?
Speaker 1: Well, I wouldn't necessarily agree that earned any horror movies
with dogs because that will actually be my next book. Ah,
because there are quite a lot of them also. But yeah,
cats and horn that's indeed the thing as well, And
a lot of it goes back to really like medieval
times and even from way before when the cats were
associated with witchcraft, with the plaque and everything, and also
just because even way before that, when yeah, there wasn't
that much knowledge cats were really they seemed a little
bit scary to some people because they prowled at night
and they had some scary eyes at night and everything,
and that led to quite a lot of superstition actually,
and that really aggravated during the times of witchcraft in
which they said that black cats in particular where which
is familiars And then unfortunately a lot of these cats
were executed back then, and that was really even worse
when the plaque started and that they even more cats
got executed for that reason as well, and that kind
of started it all, like to combine cats with fur
and witchcraft. So what really changed everything was when Edgar
Alla and Po published his short story The Black Cats.
When that became public domain, a lot of movies started
to get made, not only based on that phone, but
sometimes they were just like using the word a black
cat in the title just to cash in on the
popularity of the right and sometimes just like putting a
black getting there and combining it with horror or with
a mystery element. And that's kind of started to the
whole idea that gets had somehow linked to horror, to
the mysterious.
Speaker 3: I think you're right, and we've done a lot of
shows on Catitude about black cats because there's a lot
of stigma around them, and that's another rabbit hole. So
that would be the whole show just on itself. But
I think also people don't understand cats. They're not as
easy to read as say a dog is. And I
know dogs could be scary, that's for sure, So yeah,
them scary in your next book. But cats, you know,
they're they're stoic creatures. They're not as easy to read,
not as easy to understand, and they're they're mystical, and
they've been very much hyped up in the world of mystique,
even in TV shows, even in TV shoes that are
not scary with talking cats and everything. So yeah, that's
I think a good enough explanation of why there's so
many cats in horror movies.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but at the same time, but also I think
is interesting when when you have a look at all
the movies that are being disgusting, my book me out
cats in horror is that a lot of the times
the cats in these movies aren't really the bad guys.
They're actually more of like the hero who are helping out,
like catching the real bad guys, the humans who are
doing bad stuff. And of course, yeah, there are a
couple of films where the cats are bad, but they're
kind of like a minority.
Speaker 3: Yep, I could see that what led you to love
horror movies because we're kind of opposite in this. I
cannot watch a horror movie because I appreciate them, but
I can't sleep.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I get that. I hear that a lot from
a lot of people.
Speaker 3: But you not only love them, you write them. So
where does this love of horror movies come from? Do
you think?
Speaker 1: I think it's really for me, that it's a way
unconscious to like maybe process my own fears because when
I was like a child, I was really afraid of
so many things. It was really exaggerated. And my philosophy
is that these horror movies and the scary stories, especially
the ones where the horror doesn't seem real at all,
where everything is exaggerated, that it's kind of helped me
to process these feares. But on the other hand, I
really have a hard time watching the news, for example,
because that is real horror, and for me, that's a
lot more difficult to process than horror movies, which are
just like, yeah, something fun and it's not real.
Speaker 3: You hit done something very true. Watching the news these days,
especially we're based in the US, we are grateful that
you're able to do the show because it's later in
the afternoon here you're in Belgium and we're not going
to talk politics. But I've had shows with people out
the country not since current politics, and I can't even
imagine what people outside this country think of the US.
But yes, watching the news these days is scary.
Speaker 1: Yeah, indeed. Indeed, I also think that this is one
of the reasons I think maybe that we love bets
so much because they really remind us also fold the
good things in life.
Speaker 3: Very true, and they are non judgmental. They have unconditional
love for us. And we're going to take a short break.
We're going to come back and talk about your amazing book.
It such a beautiful testament, such a beautiful memoir, your
book avalon. So we'll be right back.
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Speaker 3: Welcome back, everybody, we're talking to the NASA Morgan and
she is an author. She went to website called Traveling Cats.
She wrote a memoir for her cat, Avalon, and she
writes thrillers. So tell us about Avalon, which was a
beautiful book.
Speaker 1: Yes, Avalon was my real life cat and my first cat,
and of course, as we all know, our first cats, Yeah,
we love them with the idea that they're going to
live forever because I got them when I was quite young.
And then, yeah, when you're young, you always have the
impression that your entire life is in front of you,
that the cat's life is going to last for decades
and decades in decades, and so I got attached really
fast to that cat and with a lot of passion.
So yeah, when he passed away, it was really an
entire process of grieving because it was kind of my
first loss as well. In life and at the same time, Yeah,
I wrote about this loss and everything that the cat
meant to me in his memoir A Alone, So that
was the name of the cat, and it was a
book that I wrote just after he passed away. So
I just wanted to do something to commemorize that cat
and to do something like yeah, that I could remember
him by. And it kind of like, even though it
has a lot of funny moments, I think because my
cat was also a horror movie star and it was
really quite a character both on sets and at home.
It was almost too intelligent for a cat. But at
the same time it became yeah, really like a very
very personal and honest story because because I realized that
my attachment to that cat wasn't the usual attachment like
many other people, they didn't have the same love for
their cat, or maybe they did, but they didn't want
to express it, because I think there's still kind of
a taboo around that that people, Yeah, you can say
you love your cat, but you're not allowed to say
that you love a cat more than a human being,
for example, And that certainly wasn't my case, because I
loved my cat awful on more than anything else. And
it was also because I had, like at that point,
I think I've grown a lot since then, but at
that point I really had a lot of difficult relationships
with the people in my life. I had a difficult
relationship with my family, and all of that led to
me being very attached to this cat who gave me,
for the first time in my life, this unconditional love,
which was something that I'd never experienced before. So yeah,
it really became a very very personal story. And I
remember that when I wrote it, I was like, even
though I did it to commemorate the cat, I always
really thinking, like, I hope no one will ever read
this story because you know, I'm so vulnerable in this
and I share things in it that, yeah, I never
air share with anyone else before.
Speaker 3: That's what makes it lovely. And it was probably I
mean you probably a bad about it that it was
somewhat cathartic in a sent in writing it.
Speaker 1: And not immediately. I think it was one of the
hardest things I've ever done because it really forced me
to be, yeah, to be honest about a lot of
things that I was suppressing, like the feeling that I
wasn't good in it, for example, stuff like that, or
that I didn't feel love, that I wasn't like lucky
in life. All these things. Those were feelings that I
just I didn't care sharing them with other people. It
was kind of like my secret. And yeah, writing about
my cataph alone really forced me to do that, but
it was much later that it really helped me to Yeah,
to deal with these emotions as well. But I think
writing it was super hard because you're kind of like
reliving all those moments as well, and because I just
my catch just passed away. It's kind of made it
hard as well because I was only be able to
process the grief once I stopped writing the book. Once
the book was finished.
Speaker 3: And it never goes away the griefs.
Speaker 1: We continue to love them like forever. It's been now
more than ten years since he's gone Avalon, and yeah,
I still love him. It doesn't change.
Speaker 3: Let me ask you this Avalon was a rare breed,
a Turkish van cat, which is very rare, and you
found him.
Speaker 1: Yes, that was such a weird story. Also, because or.
Speaker 3: You tell the story, I have this question, do you
think that it was more than a chance situation or
a coincidence.
Speaker 1: Do you think it looks like it, doesn't it.
Speaker 3: He was meant to be there for you to find,
so you could go through this period with him.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe, Yeah, that's very possible. It's always hard to tell,
of course, because we never have proof for these kinds
of the but yeah, the story is so weird that, yeah,
it's always a possibility, of course.
Speaker 3: What's so rare about the breed and what's so unusual
that you just happen to find them? If you can
share that.
Speaker 1: Well, like you said, the breed is really rare. And
back then, before I met Avalon, I was always telling
my boyfriend back then that I really wanted to have
a Turkish ven cat one day and I thought about
adopting one, and I was looking for a breeder, but
they just didn't exist in my country and they were
super hard to find. And I went to trade shows
and everything, I just couldn't find a Turkish van cat.
But for me, they were really I was really like,
it was hard to say why because usually I'm all
for adopting shelter cats. That's what I'm always aiming towards.
I'm always telling people, no, don't go for a breed,
you have to go to a shelter, but I was
really really attached to that idea of a Turkish fan cat.
Didn't say why, but for me it was a thing
like there's something about it. I want to have a
Turkish van cat one day, but I just couldn't find it.
And then one evening, I was coming back from a
horror film festival, which is also one of my main passions.
It's going to film festivals and horror film festivals. And
it was an evening that I saw the movie Avalon,
which is like a Polish Japanese movie. And that evening,
just before I got home, we parked a car in
our street and we got out of the car and Avalon,
my cat was sitting right here was coming towards me,
and I was going to like, I can't believe my eyes,
this looks really like a Turkish ven cat. It's exactly
the same cat. I've never seen him in the neighborhood.
And the cat it was almost like he recognized me
when he saw me, and he followed me home, which
also thought was sweet because when does a cat follow
you home? And I was thinking like, Okay, maybe he's
lost or yeah, he can't find his family anymore. But yeah,
the cats. Just he wanted to come home with me.
He wanted to stay inside if I was trying to
let him in the street. And then yeah, for a
few days I was, Yeah, I was keeping him, but
at the same time looking for who could have lost him,
if there were any messages online or in the street,
but I couldn't find anything. And so yeah, little by little,
these Turkish fan cats became my cats.
Speaker 3: In the book, you described some of his antics, and
I want people to read the books. I weren't go
into too much detail, but I mean, he did some
crazy things.
Speaker 1: That's the least you can see.
Speaker 3: I have three cats right now, and they all have
their special craziness. But like you would vomit on your
guinea pig's head, like you wanted the things before I
got cats, as I was always concerned they would be
jumpers and jump and knock over things. And I had that,
you know, a little bit of that anxiety prior to
having cats, because I didn't have cats as a child
and we had dogs. Dennis was my first cat. And
none of them are jumpers, none of them are flyers,
but avalone like flew all over the place.
Speaker 1: Yes, But also I think he had too much energy,
and he was definitely a neurotic cat. He was very jealous,
very neurotic. I really think like if there could be
like something like a cat shrink or something, oh boy,
that would have been really good for him. I never
want to see one. But honestly, I think he had
a few issues, and that's combined with like having too
much energy, the psychological problems. He was all over the place,
and especially he was so extremely jealous of people and
other animals. It was crazy. And again that's combined with
his super intelligence. Just to give an example, it's also
an example that I describe in the book, and I
really think he describes well, like how intelligent he was.
At a certain point, I was dating someone and the
cat just didn't agree. So what did he do when
all is mewing and trying to do the usual antics
to show him that the guy wasn't welcome in our home.
He just took his jacket, dragged it toward the front door,
and then he started tapping the keys with his pause
really like to say, get out of here. And honestly,
the message was clear.
Speaker 3: That's incredible.
Speaker 1: I've never heard of a cat or even a dog
doing saying so that.
Speaker 3: Maybe a dog, maybe that would be a stretch a cat,
get it. I mean my cats they don't want to
be bothered. That's too much trouble. They would just pit
their pop and just swipe or something. Yeah, the person,
but he was brilliant. Tell us about your current cats
you have right now?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 1: Unfortunately, my second cat passed away very recently.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 1: She was a little black cat and she was more
than twenty years old, so yeah, she just got a
bit too old and she passed away really suddenly a
few months ago. So now I have just one other
cat who is a previous shelter cat, a rescue cat,
and his name is Fekna, and he's a ginger and
he's definitely not as intelligent as Avalon, that's for sure.
He's absolutely adorable.
Speaker 3: And how did you come about creating your website, Traveling Cat?
And why I say that, I'm so sorry about the
loss of your cat. It doesn't cut your your or
and Avalon, but I know that's been a while, but
your recent that's even yeah. Yeah, yeah, so I'm sorry
for your lost your website, Traveling Cat, Why did you
create it? And what's it about Traveling Cat?
Speaker 1: Is like a travel blog but for cat lovers. So
I talk about cat centric destinations, cat cafes, and at
the same time also talk a lot about how to
help stray cats when you're broad like in Greece, because
in quite a lot of countries a lot of the
straycats really need help. And the way tourists react, which
are sometimes natural responses, such as feeding the cats in
restaurants and everything, can sometimes do a lot more harm
than good. But the basic idea for the website is
just have something fun, and it's really about mixing the
beauty of cats with the beauty of some destinations. And
it really started like a long time ago as of
just the photo block. Actually it was almost it was
before Instagram when I started this, and so it was
a little bit similar where I just posted the photos
but not really articles. But now it's really become like
a real travel websites where I really have in depth article.
So it changed a lot over the years. But yeah,
for me, when I started it, at a certain point,
I was going through some of my travel photos back
then and I was thinking like, huh, I have actually
more photos of cats than of the destination itself. Wow,
that's kind of like gave me the idea like maybe
I could just share them online, and because I thought
it were so cute to all these photos and I
thought it can be really fun to share them with people,
and that's how it started.
Speaker 3: They're great pictures. Which country do you think is the
most obsessed about cats? And I know that in Greece
there's an island just for cats, and I have had
someone on Ctitude that runs a shelter in Greece, which
is exciting. So yes, I think it's probably Greece. But
traveling cats is your creations. You probably know a lot more.
What country you think is more obsessed cat centric?
Speaker 1: I should say, Well, I would definitely not say Greece,
not at all, even because it's true that in Greece
there are a lot of cats, but they are almost
all strays and spain uturing is still not an option there.
Little by little it's starting to change and more people
are doing it, But in Greece, in fact, cats are
still very much seen as vermin.
Speaker 3: Ain't you for correcting me because I'm way off? So
what country is best about their cats that you think?
Speaker 1: Well, recently there has been a study about it and
it seems that it's that the country that is best
for their cats, that it's Belgium where I'm coming from.
And I was surprised and not surprised at the same time,
because when I think about it, Belgium is also the
country with the most cat cafes per square kilometer. It's
a super tiny country here, but we have no less
nineteen cat cafes.
Speaker 3: That's a lot.
Speaker 1: That's a lot, indeed, right, And it's true that here
there's a lot of dolls in place to protect the cats.
Spaying and neutraine is normal. We are pampering our cats,
and it's true that a lot of people here have
cats as well. So yeah, for that reason, I'm not surprised.
But on the other hand, yeah, it's true that, yeah,
countries like Greece, if you want to see a lot
of cats in one place, then you have to go
to Greece because cats are everywhere. But at the same time,
these are not happy cats.
Speaker 3: Now that I'm remembering my show from Greece, I think
we had a lot of talk about that. I don't
know why to mine, but I'm glad we talked about that.
So who knew that Belgium besides being known for chocolate
and a beautiful country. You're also very cat powered and
cat family. Yes, I know it's not the US because
we have such a ways to go. There's too many
cats that are euthanized in this country. We're doing better,
but we have a long way to go, Niah Vanessa.
Where can people find out more about you? And what
is the URL for your Traveling Cats site? And where
can they find out about your books and what your
upcoming book is going to be about? For those that
are listening work ctitude, but there might be some people
listening that have dogs or maybe they love cats. They
want to see a dog in a horror book for
a change. So where can people find out more about
your site? Your site traveling Cats, and about you and
what you've done.
Speaker 1: So my site Traveling Cats, it's really like traveling hyphen
gets dot com and there you can also find my
social media that are related to traveling Cats. So I'm
a bit everywhere. I'm on X, on Facebook, on Blue Sky,
especially on Facebook, have a Traveling Cats group where everyone
can post their own travel photos of cats, but also
ask for help regarding straits they found in other countries,
for example. So definitely go ahead and subscribe to the
Facebook group of Traveling Cats and post your own pictures.
Also retweet pictures if you tag me on x or
on Blue Sky for example. I'm a little bit on
YouTube as well, not as much, and on Instagram of course,
also with Traveling Cats. And on the other hand, if
you want to know more about my books, I also
have my personal social media, which is either Vanessa organ
or Eerie Stories on a lot of these accounts, But
be careful because there are two Vanessa Organs. Apparently there's
also a Vanessa Morgan who is an actress, and that's
not me.
Speaker 3: I did do some googling and looking around and I
did find another Vanessa Morgan.
Speaker 1: Yes, but if I think if you type something like
Vanessa Morgan cats, or if you don't see any cats
on our social media, then it's not me.
Speaker 3: Right. Well, wonderful information, wonderful to talk to you. What
can we look forward to coming from you next?
Speaker 1: Well, my next book will be about dogs in horse
sci fi and fantasy movies. And there are a lot
of movies as well with dogs in them. And apart
from that, I'm also working very hard on Traveling Gets
for the moment to get more articles ready, to visit
more destinations, and to really spread the words about how
to help stray cats when you're abroad, because I really
think that spreading the right information about it is really important.
Speaker 3: I absolutely agree, absolutely agree. Oh, I want to thank
you so much for coming on Gratitude.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: I hope you all enjoyed this show, this episode of
Ctitude with Vanessa mor again, I loved having her on
the show. Thank you Vanessa for coming on Catitude. Thanks
to my cat crew, Dennis, my first cad who taught
me all about cats, Molly and Charlotte, and of course
thank you for listening to Catitude. I greatly appreciate it,
and this show would not be the same without the
magic of my producer, Mark Winter. And hey remember lose
to Attitude, Have Catitude.
Speaker 5: Let's Talk Pets every week on demand only on Petlive
radio dot com.