Environmentally responsible? For Elizabeth Hutchins, it’s a matter of cats. In this guest post, Elizabeth discusses conservation, the ‘cat problem’, and her recently republished children’s novel, A Matter of Cats.

Elizabeth’s dilemma, being a cat lover while appreciating the damage cats do to wildlife, was the catalyst for this novel.

When I speak to audiences of any age about A Matter of Cats I open by asking them, on a scale of 1 to 5, whether they adore cats, don’t mind them or can’t stand them. Their responses always cover the whole range. That’s good, I tell them, because this novel addresses the joys of cat ownership as well as the cat problem.

My interest in our wildlife and other conservation matters built up gradually in my teaching years, when city life was punctuated with stints in the south-east and Northern Territory. (Imagine the delight of seeing a tiny pouched mouse hopping across your kitchen floor. Or the shock of having a feral cat bite your toddler when you’re camping near an abandoned station homestead.)

Since I write out of my own experience, most of my stories have a local flavour. Having the chance to visit every state has been invaluable, while travel to many countries, either to see family or with a group of Californian children’s literature experts, has also broadened my perspectives.

Back on home ground, keen to ‘do my bit’ in the face of our country’s increasing environmental challenges, I have propagated about 22,000 Trees for Life native seedlings over the last 32 years. The majority have gone to Kangaroo Island where, I’m pleased to hear, feral cats have been eradicated from a large area of the western end of the island. My trees are not only providing shelter belts on organic egg farms, but are also helping regenerate bushfire affected areas. I picture the eucalypts hosting koalas, and critically endangered glossy black cockatoos, with their wonderful red patterned tail feathers, munching on sheoak leaves – their only food.

A farmer gave me these feathers in return for a promise to promote their welfare. That story stalled in the planning stage, but the red feather in the cat’s mouth on the cover of A Matter of Cats is a reminder to me to revisit that project.

A niggling feeling of guilt always accompanies this concern for our endangered species, since I harbour one of their chief predators. I became a cat lover when I got a tabby kitten, Monty, for my fourth birthday.

My response is to turn to another of my passions, storytelling. I believe that stories can not only entertain, but may also raise awareness, preserve our history, inspire, comfort, challenge – and sometimes change lives.

***

It was Book Week, 1994. Author talks in schools, story time in a kindergarten, croaky voice by Friday. Fortunately my audience of Year Sevens for the last lesson of the week was every presenter’s dream. Since they had read A Matter of Cats (Thank you, dedicated teacher!) the questions and comments kept coming.

Just one boy, slumped over a too-small desk in the back row, had mostly been avoiding eye contact until now. But as I rounded off my session he raised a wavering arm.  

‘When you sit down and write a book––’ he began.

I wanted so badly to interrupt: ‘You don’t simply sit down and write a book, kid!’

I was mentally tallying up the gestation period of this story, from the night the kernel of an idea was tossed at me, through a year of research about cats and endangered species, planning and writing. It’s just as well I heard the boy out because his words have meant so much to me; but I’ll save the rest of his question for later.

I’m still pinching myself that, so long after its first life, Wakefield Press would offer to bring out a new edition of this, my favourite book. Shortly after the first launch of A Matter of Cats I recall Michael Bollen saying to me as we passed each other in a TAFE corridor, ‘I really like that story. It’s a pity I don’t do children’s books.’ By now, we agree, it qualifies by age at least as a classic. (Start of a series, Michael?)

In the mid-1990s the novel was an immediate success, perhaps because the cat problem was the flavour of the month at the time, as it is again now. The book was shortlisted for three or four awards, and went into two substantial reprints. A sales rep from Melbourne told me that ‘Your books are going out by the truckload.’ It was also well reviewed, even if our trusty South Australian newspaper used the unfortunate headline ‘Catwoman’s Crusade’!

***

For ten good years I had used the book in different ways with students from Year 3 to high school. Boys as well as girls enjoy it, as a grandson attested the other day with an 11-year-old’s usual economy of words. (‘I read your book Gran. It was good.’) I have a box of several hundred letters, poems, drawings and stories sent to me by children – such a joy to revisit that I’ve filled a loose-leaf folder with a selection. Among the ‘It was fun having you here’ type letters are some from children who wanted to be an author like me (wow!), a vet or a park ranger. A class of girls in England told me about threats to their environment too.

It was a special treat for me to appear unannounced every year at Cats Adventure Camps in lovely Warrawong Sanctuary in the Adelaide Hills, the setting for my novel. Delighted campers always questioned me at length about how much of the story came from my imagination and what was real. ‘Is this really the lake in the story?’ they’d ask. ‘Is Bunyip your cat?’

Above: Elizabeth (middle, back) with Warrawong campers

I want A Matter of Cats to be read primarily as story. Although a contentious issue may be the catalyst for fiction, a didactic novel deserves to fail. A new child-friendly note to my readers begins:

To have Wakefield Press produce a new edition of A Matter of Cats – probably the favourite of my books – makes me feel like the cat that got the cream! I am so pleased that a new generation of young people will be able to meet Kate, Shane, Kristie and of course Bunyip the cat, and share their adventure.

This is a work of fiction. We are all storytellers: telling our tales and reading or hearing about other people, places and ideas not only entertains us but often helps us make sense of our own world. I hope you will relate to my characters as if they really exist.

Only then do I raise the matter of cats (and wildlife).

***

I’m very relaxed about this new edition. I believe the narrative’s framework of the interaction between two families facing different challenges still resonates. After Ann James’s brilliant cover painting of my Tonkinese cat Gus was refreshed, few changes were needed – chiefly some updates of young people’s language and clothing. Oh, and electronic devices.

Ten of the illustrations, done in the intricate and little-used technique of scraperboard, are treasures. They were created by my young friend Andrew Best (17 at the time), who sadly died a few months ago. He had been living in Berlin for some years, and when I traced him down he was thrilled to know that our collaboration would be acknowledged again.

Above: Bettong, Andrew Best. Reproduced in A Matter of Cats

One of my characters makes up rhymes to accompany the illustrations:

A kangaroo rat that loves to fight,
the bettong’s only seen at night.
Its nest is made of sticks and straw
carried by tail and not by paw.

***

I am grateful for heartening endorsements from children’s literature experts on the new cover. Mary Wilson, Patron of the May Gibbs Children’s Literature Trust, describes the story as ‘a gripping read, alive with laughter and empathy’, while teacher and librarian Karen Mutton sees it as ‘an excellent read aloud that challenges the reader to consider issues of endangered wildlife, conservation and personal responsibility.’ Karen pointed out to me that the topic fits right into the Year 6 curriculum. And on the first page fellow Wakefield Press author and friend Jude Aquilina enthuses about ‘the love and warmth of a cat on your lap’ and ‘the priceless role of the family moggie’.

Left: Elizabeth in 1994 with her cat Gus
Right: Elizabeth with Gus’ mother, c. 1990

So, as everyone asks, where did I get my idea from? I attribute it to Dr John Walmsley, well known former owner of Warrawong Sanctuary. When I took a visiting author there on a night walk, the first thing John said as we set off was ‘Get rid of your cats!’ Questioned by an incredulous tourist, he confirmed that he would shoot any cat that managed to traverse his unique floppy cat-proof fence.

 (Incidentally, John, whose conservation work I admire, later told me he actually likes cats – just not the damage they cause. And he ‘quite liked’ my story – a relief, since he is the inspiration for the rather aloof and single-minded, but not unfair, Dr Larsen.)

I was shocked at his words of course. My mind went into overdrive. What if a child’s cat somehow got into the sanctuary? What if–– ?

You’ll have to get a copy of A Matter of Cats to find out what happens! Here’s just one clue, for adults only: no, the cat doesn’t die because, after a dramatic climax, children deserve a satisfying ending to a story. Not necessarily a totally happy one though, since life isn’t a smooth path for anyone.

I’ll let two of my valued readers have the last words.

Following a library visit a girl made me a little card that said, ‘Thank you for talking about life and books’. Yes, I thought, you’ve nailed it. That’s what I do.

And finally there’s that boy who had outgrown his desk. He was also thinking beyond a tale about kids and cats. ‘When you sit down and write a book,’ he asked, ‘do you ever think about the influence you might have on someone like me?’

Elizabeth Hutchins is the author of over a dozen books as well as prize-winning travel and environmental articles and many short stories. She lives in Adelaide with her husband and her constant companion Millie, an RSPCA rescue cat. Her dilemma, being a cat lover while appreciating the damage cats do to wildlife, was the catalyst for this novel. It was short-listed for several awards when it was first published in 1994.