Shirley Murphy - The Catswold Portal

San Francisco Chronicle, September 20, 1957.

A strange disappearance of San Francisco’s cats has led to complaints over the last week to police and to the Humane Society. Most of the disappearances seem to have occurred last Sunday night. Cat owners reported their pets acting unusually nervous, pacing and yowling. The cats that were let out were not seen again.

The same night, Marin County residents reported seeing groups of cats running into a garden near Sam’s Bar, a wellknown jazz cafe. Cats were seen by the dozens in the headlights of heavy traffic, and there were more than the usual number of complaints about barking dogs. About three A.M. the barking stopped. No more sightings were reported.

San Francisco Chronicle, August 8, 1959.

Business News:

Meyer and Finley appointed their first woman broker today. Anne Hollingsworth, brokers’ assistant with the firm for twelve years, was appointed head of the San Francisco office. And in another surprise move, nine previously terminated brokers and key personnel were re-hired, after their mass firing two years ago.

The firm has been completely restructured, though it will remain in its Union Square offices. It had been virtually bought out by the Lillith Corporation in early 1957, but that corporation has since filed for bankruptcy. Lillith’s extensive charitable branch has been sold to the new philanthropic Alice West Cat Rescue Foundation, named for the late and well-known animal artist, Alice Kitchen West.

If you enjoyed The Catswold Portal, you’ll love Shirley Rousseau Murphy’s award-winning Joe Grey Mystery series. Joe Grey is not your average sleuth—he’s a tomcat who, with the help of his feline friends Dulcie and Kit, uncovers the nefarious doings in his sleepy hometown of Molena Point, California. Besides their exceptional sleuthing skills, Joe, Dulcie, and Kit have one more advantage over your average cats—they can communicate with humans. But these fine felines don’t talk to just any Tom, Dick, or Harry; they choose their human friends carefully, and only when the case is at stake. From fighting an evil, green-eyed “cat” burglar, to solving murders of a more human nature, they take the case and use a healthy dose of feline intuition to collar the killer.

Turn the page for a glimpse into the mysterious and intriguing world of Shirley Rousseau Murphy’s Joe Grey series.

Joe Grey was content just being a regular old tomcat. But after a mysterious accident, everything started to change. First he found he could understand human speech, then he found he could talk (quite useful for scaring dogs), and then even read! But he really wanted to worry when he found himself feeling human emotions like guilt and sympathy. And now he’s in a real predicament—when a man is murdered in a dark alley behind the local deli, Joe is the only witness. He must put his newly acquired skills to the test to make sure the killer ends up behind bars. Now Joe has to deal with the responsibility that comes with being a Cat on the Edge —not a human, but no longer just a regular old tomcat!

Perusal of the human mind was not a feline concern. Cats didn’t think about human perversion. Cats felt human depravity. They knew that human lust and dark human hatred existed, and they accepted those aberrations. Cats did not analyze those warped human conditions. Cats left the philosophizing to men.

Yet all the time he had been fleeing from the killer, a part of him had been trying to analyze the man. Trying to guess at the man’s motives. Trying to figure out his intentions not only at chasing him, but his purpose in killing Beckwhite. Trying to unravel the mystery that had transformed that thin human face into a killer’s mask.

What did he care what drove the man to kill? He wasn’t connected to this man’s problem, and he didn’t want to be. And inside him, alarms were going off. These thoughts were new and terrifying. A gut level signal was warning him that he was in the throes of mental and emotional change. A new facet of himself had awakened, new concerns were surfacing.

The transformation had been coming on him for some weeks, but it had not been stirred violently alive, not until tonight. Now, some foreign presence within him had come alert. And it was clawing to get out, to break free.

He ran the last two blocks caught in a distressing tangle of fears and wanting nothing more complicated than his warm, safe bed, wanted to curl up safe on the blanket next to Clyde, protected by his human housemate.

Joe Grey never regretted the mysterious accident that gave him the ability to talk and understand human speech. And now he has company—this mysterious gift has been given to his girlfriend Dulcie, too. The problem is, Dulcie isn’t only listening to humans, she’s believing them! She is convinced that the man in jail for killing a famous artist and burning her studio is innocent. And, leave it to Dulcie, she is determined to find the evidence that would convict the real murderer—even if she has to get Joe Grey—a real Cat Under Fire —killed in the process!

At least if Dulcie had to solve puzzles, the murder of Janet Jeannot was better than agonizing over the mystery of their own pasts. They’d done enough of that this summer. Their sudden onslaught of uncatlike thoughts, and their ability to speak human words had been a shocker. When Joe had first experienced his new and alarming talent, he had tried to remain cool and laid-back. Scared as he was, he’d attempted to handle the matter with some restraint. But not Dulcie. She had exploded into her new life with wild eagerness, embracing her sudden new talents with hot feline passion. Wanting to learn everything about the world all at once, trying to make sense of the entire universe, she’d just about driven him crazy. Even watching TV had become a challenge as she soaked up information.

Ever since she had been a kitten, Dulcie had watched TV with her elderly housemate. Curled cozily on Wilma Getz’s lap, she had basked in the music and motion of the programs, and in the incomprehensible but fascinating voices. Then suddenly this summer, when she had begun to understand human words, she’d fixed her attention on the programs, eagerly lapping up the smallest detail. Sitting rigid on Wilma’s lap, like a little furry scholar, she had soaked up the daunting new experiences and ideas as if, her entire life, she had been waiting for this moment to learn and discover.

Joe Grey is, well, peeved. His human housemate Clyde has been trying to volunteer him as a once-a-week Animal Therapy cuddle-kitty. And just when Joe is about to nab the cat burglar who’s been terrifying his usually quiet coast town, he has to add this to his plate as well! But when Joe finds out that this “pet-a-pet” scheme is really his girlfriend Dulcie’s idea, he can’t say no. Dulcie needs Joe’s help to prove that the old folks’ home is hiding more than just lonely seniors—she’s already uncovered a severed finger and a very, very busy open grave. In Cat Raise the Dead , Joe can’t resist Dulcie’s feline feminine charms, even if he sees nothing but trouble from butting into yet another human mess!

Leaping up, she wandered among the bottles and crowded jars, stepping carefully, sniffing at the lids, trying to identify the contents. Makeup, certainly, but some smells were very strange. Stepping over an array of lipsticks and little boxes of eye makeup, over eyebrow pencils, cotton swabs, and a pair of tweezers, she paused to look into the three-way mirror, enchanted by her multiple reflections. To see herself from all angles at once, see herself from the back as if looking at another cat, was like an out-of-body experience.

Forgetting Joe, preening shamefully, she heard, from the drive below, from somewhere beyond the kitchen, a car start up and pull away, heard it move around the front of the house and head off up the long drive.