Episode 14 - The Cat Who Moved a Mountain

Episode 14 - The Cat Who Moved a Mountain  

This is the second of what I call the Travel books - where Qwill tries to leave Moose County and regrets his decision.

Qwill celebrates officially inheriting the Klingenschoen fortune (he’s officially a billionaire!) and decides to celebrate by spending the summer somewhere else - at the recommendation of the MacDiarmids (they publish the Lockmaster paper), he and the cats head for the Potato Mountains (not an actual location - although there is a Potato mountain in California).  He rents a 90 year old former inn - the entire thing, because that’s the only way he could find a rental that would take pets, and naturally, he stumbles across a land development scam, an illegal liquor ring, and a murder, with the wrong man in jail for it!

We have our very first guest on the podcast - the delightful Meg Ralph (who has never read any Cat Who Books and gave us some great perspective from a newbie!)

Listen to the Podcast here:

https://www.podbean.com/eu/pb-5jkhe-f7b9b3

While a lot of the characters we meet in this book are wonderfully drawn and interesting, this is the only time we see them!  Clearly with book 13, she was trying out some new techniques.  Some work, some don’t and while the book is an oddball in the series at this point (it’s really similar to the Cat Who Played Brahms, but Qwill has money) it’s definitely one of my favorite individual stories, with the appearance of the most random character - Vonda Dudley Wix, former rumored girlfriend of the murdered JJ Hawkinfield, wearer of ridiculous hats, writer of florid prose and the only person I've ever heard of who gets drunk (like stumbling drunk) off of strong coffee.


Qwill and I have similar feelings on mugs - they should be large and deep. He complains that the fancy china at Tip Top has “Finger trap” handles and can be emptied in two gulps. 


Despite Qwill’s constant comments on the appearance of others, for some reason in this book he takes umbrage to people freely discussing his mustache  (or maybe it’s just Vonda Dudley-Wix).  


The prominent family in the Potatoes are the Lumptons. Qwill tries to make a joke about all the Lumptons in the Potatoes, but it falls flat. 


Qwill does spend some of his time in the mountains debating what to do next.  Now that the money is his outright, he can go wherever he wants and his debates are as followed:

  • Move back to a larger city (but he’s beginning to prefer small towns).

  • Buy a newspaper (but now that he can afford one he doesn’t want to - and technically he already did since the K Fund bought the Something).

  • Travel  (but what to do about Koko and Yum Yum?)

  • Teach Journalism (which is what everyone says he should do, but he’d rather do it than teach it.)

  • Get in to acting (TV maybe?

  • Build a hotel in Pickaxe (go six stories high and call it the Pickaxe towers!)


Cats will be cats - Yum Yum does NOT like the Potatoes and ends up having to have the local vet give her anti-anxiety meds before she tears all the fur off her flank.  Koko likes to play the radio at unexpected times, and they both gravitate towards any new and soft surface brought in to the house. They have waaaay too much fun terrorizing Sherry Hawkenfield, who’s terrified of them. 


I give this book three paws but with a caveat - while the mystery is interesting, and these are some wonderful characters, I feel like she started this book trying out a new place for Qwill to move, and ends up scrapping the idea, which is why the dam bursts and Polly gets threatened enough to get Qwill to go home in a hurry. I feel like I’d enjoy a series of books set in the fictional Potatoes as they recover from JJ’s mismanagement and the Environmentalists take over the town’s growth. Vonda Dudley Wix could be the villain.


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