Among The Pigeons

Unpleasant things are going on in an exclusive school for girls – things like murder...

During the last century, global domestic cat numbers rocketed past 200 million, along with a surge in cat diseases and numbers of feral cats and sick, injured and malnourished cats. Cat shelters are overflowing. Hundreds of thousands of cats are euthanised every year by despondent animal welfare workers. Misplaced sentimentality, sometimes promoted by corporate greed of cat food companies, has exacerbated this situation through promoting irresponsible feeding of strays. Ecologist and author John Read has travelled the world consulting cat experts and collating the most recent science. In Among the Pigeons he balances the allure of indoor cats with the animal welfare, human health, and conservation issues they create when allowed to roam. But he also presents solutions, from breeding ideal indoor pet cats to development of humane and targeted tools to control feral cats. In striking parallel to the repercussions of human-induced climate change, warnings about the damage wrought by free-ranging cats have been largely denied or overlooked. But we ignore these issues at our peril. For our own mental health and endangered wildlife worldwide, time is running out.

A brilliantly funny collection of poems involving everyone's favourite anti-hero Dave Dirt, the extraordinary afternoon of a prawn and the mysterious tale of Zoe's earrings. Witty, touching and clever - this is a classic collection from the irreverent Kit Wright.

When you can't fit in, you have to learn to stand out.

Keith is a cat, but he'd rather be a pigeon. He loves to watch them and learn their ways, but they won't let him get too close. Will Keith ever make friends with the pigeons and learn how it feels to be one? Will he ever find out who he really is and feel comfortable just being Keith?

Author Blaize Clement has earned herself a legion of fans with the first five books in her pet-sitting mystery series. Now Blaize's beloved heroine, Dixie Hemingway, is back, and when Dixie's latest assignment turns dangerous, it's up to her to save the day. Dixie, no relation to you-know-who, is helping an injured and cantankerous man take care of Cheddar, his orange shorthair cat. Soon Dixie finds herself totally smitten with the man's adorable infant great-granddaughter. But the baby's naive young mother has enough knowledge about certain powerful local big-mney honchos to send them to prison for life, and they are willing to do anything, even kill her baby, to shut her up. Caught in the turmoil caused by the grandfather's prickly pride, the granddaughter's misguided plans to regain her young husband's respect by telling the truth in court, and the ruthless determination of wealthy villains to preserve their ill-gotten millions, Dixie is the only person who can rescue the baby. And she has to do it without letting law-enforcement people know -- not even Lieutenant Guidry, with whom she has a new romantic relationship. Does Dixie have her claws sunk too deep to make it out of this one? Find out in book six of Blaize Clement's splendid series.

MYSTERY, DISGUISES, AND A FIGHT FOR FREEDOM. The second episode in the CAT ROYAL ADVENTURE series plunges readers into the underbelly of London in a mission for justice. Pedro's old slave master wants him back, but his friends on Drury Lane won't give him up without a fight. Disguised as a boy, Cat enters an aristocratic boarding school and scales the heights of London society before joining a street gang to probe its depths, all to secure the freedom of her friend. Like THE DIAMOND OF DRURY LANE, CAT AMONG THE PIGEONS features mysteries, theatrical spectacles, the evil Billy "Boil" Shepherd, and, of course, the irrepressible Cat, who never fails to stir up trouble and save the day wherever she goes. Coming in Spring 2009, Cat travels to Paris during the French Revolution in DEN OF THIEVES.

This definitive monograph focuses on the population, biology, and behavioral ecology of feral pigeons, a familiar but seldom studied bird. Includes a thorough listing of primary references of U.S. and European scholarly literature.