Bella the Cat's Last Gift

Some goodbyes don't announce themselves. They arrive quietly, in the way a cat stops jumping to the top of the refrigerator.

When six-year-old Olivia notices that Bella - her family's beloved thirteen-year-old cat - is sleeping more and moving less, she doesn't fully understand what it means. But she knows something. So she does the only thing she can think of: she makes a list.

Five things Bella should do before she gets too tired.

One sunny morning in the garden. One silver tin of tuna. One movie night on Dad's lap. One long look at the birds through the big window. And one whole night in Olivia's bed.

What follows is a story about a family - a father who holds himself still so as not to disturb a sleeping cat, a mother who sits on the kitchen floor for no reason except that her daughter needs her there, a brother who says he doesn't care but whispers secret things in the dark. It is a story about the small, deliberate acts of love we offer at the end of things, and how they become the most important things we ever do.

Bella the Cat's Last Gift is a tender, luminous novel about grief, love, and the gifts that loss leaves behind - for readers of any age who have ever pressed their hand against the warm side of something they could not keep.