Happy Wednesday, my friends! Patricia here. I’m excited to welcome to the blog my friend and fellow cozy mystery author Amanda Flower. Amanda’s a prolific crime fiction author who’s published in several mystery subgenres. But in her personal life, she’s a selfless and tireless cat-rescue champion. Today, Amanda’s taking time out of her busy schedule to chat with us about her passion project. Thank you, Amanda.

Writing Leads to Saving Cats

By Amanda Flower

Being a writer has given me so many wonderful opportunities, but the one I cherish the most is the time to save cats. Since I work from home and make my own schedule, I’m available to jump into action when there is a cat in need. Just this morning, I took a cat that I found to the vet. Soon he or she (I don’t know the gender yet) will join the clowder on the farm that I share with my husband. Right now, we have twenty-one cats at our cat sanctuary on our farm in Ohio.

The cat sanctuary started when I met my husband, David. He already owned the farm. Soon after we met and I would visit the farm, I noticed lots of cats around. Unfortunately, it is common for people to dump cats out in the country. I knew we had to do something. I started feeding them. Well when you start feeding a feral cat, that leads to more feral cats, and before long, there were kittens being born on the farm. We took the kittens inside so they would never have to know what the feral life was. To this day, they are some of the most spoil felines you have ever seen!

And as much as I love kittens, I knew having numerous litters born on the farm year after year wasn’t sustainable. A friend of mine told me about Trap Neuter Return (TNR), which is a method to control the feral cat population. The goal is to catch feral cats, get them neutered or spayed, and vaccinated. Then after their vet visit, release them again where they were caught. This controls the cat population, and the cats that are cared for are much happier because they are less likely to get into fights with rival cats when they are fixed. They are also protected from common diseases like rabies.

It took us a couple of years, but finally, we were able to trap all the feral cats on the farm and get them the vet care they needed. However, we didn’t stop there. We started focusing on taking in special needs cats who were elderly or had chronic health conditions.

As you can imagine, the cost of litter, food, and many, many trips to the vet added up fast. So, I had to think of something to pay for the cats. My husband and I started an Etsy shop, Amanda Flower Designs, and we make bookmarks, jewelry, pens, and even Christmas ornaments out of beads. I have always loved beads and beading. All profits from the shop go to the sanctuary. Then last year, I released my first self-published mystery, Caturday Crime. It is the first in the Cat Rescue Mysteries and all monies from the sale of that book, which is available on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, go to the cats as well.

Now before you ask, we are not a registered nonprofit organization, and we don’t take donations. It might be a step that we would like to make in the future, but right now the Etsy sales and sales of Caturday Crime are keeping the sanctuary afloat.

So in conclusion, I want to thank you. Without my readers, David and I would not have been able to save all these cats, which numbers over thirty and counting! I have always been an animal lover, especially of cats, but I never thought I would have a sanctuary someday. It’s been such a blessing for both the cats and my husband and me, and I’m so grateful that my writing made it possible! You can follow our cat adventures on Instagram at Cats of Amanda Flower.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: AMANDA FLOWER

Amanda Flower is a USA Today bestselling and three-time Agatha Award-winning author of more than 50 mystery novels. Her novels have received starred reviews from Library Journal, Publishers Weekly, and Romantic Times, and she has been featured in USA Today, First for Women, and Woman’s World. Her first Emily Dickinson Mystery, Because I Could Not Stop for Death, was an Agatha Award winner and Mary Higgins Clark Nominee. Her first mystery featuring the Wright Brothers, To Slip the Bonds of Earth, was an Agatha Award and Ohio Book Award winner. A former librarian, Flower and her husband own a farm and recording studio, and they live in Northeast Ohio with their adorable cats. Her next novel is the first in The First Ladies’ Murder Club Mystery Series, The First Ladies’ Guide to Murder, releasing Nov. 24, 2026.

Website: www.amandaflower.com

Etsy shop: Amanda Flower Designs

Instagram: Cats of Amanda Flower

Question: Do you have a passion project or do you have a passion you’d like to get more involved with? Share it with us in the comments. Thank you!