My pets love my books (and at least one blog reader)

One of many wonderful things my agent negotiated in my three-book deal with Sourcebooks is that with every new release, I get a ginormous box filled with my books.

I was unsure at first whether I was expected to do something official with them or just build myself a big book fort. Either way, it's been nice having them for giveaways and such.

Though I can't seem to find a copy of the picture because I'm a disorganized slob because my photography archival system is being updated, I'm pretty sure I snapped a photo of Matt the Cat snoozing in the box of Making Waves right after that shipment arrived last summer. Beyond that, I don't recall the pets taking much interest in the book.

So that's why it's odd how the animals have reacted since my shipment of Believe it or Not arrived last week:

In case you're unfamiliar with the brood, that's Matt the Cat sitting in the middle of the box. Peering beneath it is my gentleman friend's cat, Maestro. The big blue-gray lug on the left is Blue Cat, who has a starring role in my interactive fiction title, Getting Dumped. And of course, Bindi the dog is supervising the whole operation. Right after I snapped this, my gentleman friend's other cat, Maggie, wandered in to see what all the fuss was about.

Seriously, these creatures WILL NOT LEAVE THIS BOX ALONE. No one's peeing in it or humping the side of it or doing anything unsavory. They just seem fascinated by its presence in my office.

I'm probably not supposed to say this because authors should be all, "oh, I love all my books equally," but I have a confession – I like Believe it or Not a tiny bit more than I like Making Waves. Do the pets somehow know this?

Or is there something else going on here?

Either way, I should warn you up front that if you have a severe cat allergy, you might not want to enter any of my contests to win a copy of Believe it or Not.

Speaking of which, thank you SO MUCH to all of you who tweeted, Facebooked, blogged, buzzed, gossiped, or just bought copies of my book in Wednesday's contest. Since I figured I had a good thing going with the pets and Believe it or Not, I decided to let Matt the Cat select the winner.

I rifled through my recycle bin and found enough scratch paper to write each entrant's name on a separate sheet.

Then I waited for nature to take its course. It didn't take long for Matt to find his way into the room and start doing what he does best – making himself at home on all my papers!

 Pretty soon, Matt the Cat made his selection:

 A close-up of the chosen one:

Congratulations to Caryn Caldwell! Shoot me a message at tawnafenske at yahoo dot com and let me know where you'd like me to mail your signed copy of Believe it or Not.

Thanks again to all who played!

Now seriously....why are the pets so obsessed with that box of books?