Peanut Hartofelis is surrounded by males—two cats and a dog as brothers; a cousin dog; and a cat and a dog who live with grandparents. She gets along quite nicely with the pack, but sometimes she craves female company.
“The Estrogen Club!” She purred aloud with anticipation of female companionship when she saw the novel by GP Whelan at her grandparents’ house.
The premise is simple. Five lifelong girlfriends started a book club when they were in high school. Calling themselves the Estrogen Club, they maintained the book club as a means of staying connected as they matured into womanhood, started careers, and married.
Peanut liked the idea and thought it would be fun to start a Feline Estrogen Club. But having been spayed, she didn’t have any estrogen. And after looking around and seeing no other female Feline-Americans, spayed or not, she put that thought on hold as she pawed her way through the book.
She read that the women not only continued the club, but also incorporated their husbands into it on an annual vacation to a small lakefront resort.
Peanut was excited.
“I’d like a vacation,” she trilled. “Especially on a lake.” She suddenly felt a bit guilty. Although she was on vacation at her grandparents’ house, and they treated her like a princess, it wasn’t a lakefront resort. She glanced out at the peaceful slough flowing beyond the lanai. Even though it was not a lake, and she would never, ever, dip a dainty paw into a lake or anything that resembled a lake, she was nonetheless inspired. Then she sighed her resignation. “A girl can dream.”
Tossing her head, Peanut returned to the book.
Despite the idyllic setting, she found that book club member Elaine and her husband Maurice are at the center of a twisty plot that involves deceit, accusations, and seductions. Peanut slipped her pink tongue around her mouth as if she had just eaten. The intimate setting spawned arguments and discontent among the five couples, with Maurice the most vexed.
His anger began with a misunderstanding.
Men—How to Torment, Tempt, Trap, and Terminate Them was the title of the last book the women had chosen. After reading only half of it, however, they laughed it off. Maurice, on the other hand, surreptitiously read the whole thing.
It was enough that he didn’t care for many of his companions and that he intensely disliked watersports—especially fishing and boating—but the ladies jokingly implied that Maurice could have been the model for the main character. He was, they hinted, a perverse, verbose, and vulgar bully desperate for attention and affection.
Maurice’s reaction to the book, as well as arguments, clashes, and run-ins with other characters, caused bitter arguments between him and Elaine.
Peanut got into the action. She hissed, snarled, and growled as catfights among the characters ensued, culminating in an explosive fishing excursion.
Engrossed with the intricate plot, Peanut could not put the book down. But when she finally did, she considered her male companions. As much as she craved female camaraderie, they weren’t so bad after all. They would never hurt her, and, as a member of a club or not, she would never torment, tempt, trap, or terminate them.
With a satisfying purr, she decided against a Feline Estrogen Club, and instead, went searching for a treat.
What the Cats Are Reading 