The Story of Almond

After I had written the Brownie the War Dog: Veterans’ Best Friend manuscript and that project was underway, an orange tabby kitten came up our driveway while I was letting our dogs out. I had always wanted an orange tabby cat, but my husband was not completely onboard with that idea. However, this orange kitten was so bedraggled and so charming, that he managed to do what I had not been able to do - convince my husband that he should stay.  We named him Lenny and he now lives the life of a well-fed and much-loved house cat. 

Up until this time, I had been focusing my attention on famous dogs from Wisconsin, but Lenny’s appearance made me wonder if there were any famous cats from Wisconsin. I began to research cat stories from Wisconsin, which is when I discovered that Almond and Ron Venden had become famous in 2010, when Wisconsin State Journal reporter Gena Kittner published an article about the cat that lived inside a tree and the carpenter that climbed a ladder each day to tend to him.

I called Ron and Marie Venden in 2021, and they were so kind and generous with their time and information, even inviting us to come down to Belleville to meet Almond in person. This led to my writing of the manuscript, the searching and finding of a publisher, the welcoming of retired Art Teacher and artist Ann Calverley to the project, and finally the completing of The Carpenter & the Cat: The True Story of Almond the Tree Cat.

Ann’s involvement in this project felt preordained, as she was my college roommate at the University of Wisconsin-Stout back in 1994, and we laugh as we remember how we would dream about collaborating on a children’s book someday. Who knew we were manifesting a dream in 1994, that became a reality almost 30 years later? 

Ron & Marie Venden, Ann & I call ourselves Team Almond, and pulling this project together was such a wonderful experience. Independent Publisher Nymeria Publishing published this book in 2025 and it was pure joy, from start to finish!