The Cat That Wouldn't Purr

A squinty-eyed cat named Talker lived with John Perry and his wife, Mary, for 12 or 13 years. He was, as John fondly recalls, "a great guy to have around the house."

The story of this special cat lives on in the charming book "The Cat That Wouldn't Purr," co-written by John and his good friend, H. Page Stephens, and illustrated by Chuck Ayers, former longtime editorial cartoonist for The Akron Beacon Journal. (If you're a comics page reader, you might recognize Ayers as the artist on the nationally syndicated strip Crankshaft, which debuted in newspapers in 1987.)

"The Cat That Wouldn't Purr" is a softcover that was beautifully designed by Ben Small of Live Publishing, which published the book in 2014. From the start, all proceeds have gone to animal welfare organizations in Portage County, Ohio.

A limited number of copies are left from the first run, but there may be subsequent printings. You can support animal welfare and get one of the remaining books by donating to Talker's Fund on the Portage Foundation's website. When you get to the main page, click on Donors and then on Funding Priority Areas. Scroll down to Animal Welfare, and you'll find Talker's Fund.

This is Kate Jones. Thank you for listening to The Gale Hill Radio Hour!

The show is available in Apple and Google Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast directories. Also on Substack and YouTube;  Facebook, Instagram  and LinkedIn.

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to The Gale Hill Radio Hour. 

I'm your host, Kate Jones, having a conversation with John Perry, co-author of a charming book for cat lovers of all ages. 

John, thank you for being on the show today. 

Happy to be here. 

I am so glad you're here because I'm very fond of "The Cat That Wouldn't Purr." I also like its mission, which always has been to raise money in support of animal welfare.

In this episode, we'll talk about the real cat on which the story is based and how long it took — 30 years! — for this labor of love to come to fruition. I should first mention that this slim, beautifully designed soft cover can be as difficult to track down as a stray cat. There are about 75 copies still available from its first and only printing. And we'll tell you later in the show how to get one of them. As an aside, I admit that I'm making it my personal mission to see if we can generate enough demand for "The Cat That Wouldn't Purr" to extend its life. Nine printings, nine lives — that would be nice, and all proceeds go to a good cause. 

So, John, please tell the story of Talker, the star of your book.

John:
Well, let's start off by saying that Talker was a real cat, and the story "The Cat That Wouldn't Purr" is a true story or at least true-based. Talker was just a stray cat that wandered into our lives. We had other cats, and he was auditioning to try and become a permanent resident. 

And then one day, on a Sunday morning, he came in and was crying. And I looked at him and said something's wrong. So we made a phone call and went out to the veterinarian in Stow [Ohio], and on a Sunday morning, of course, it's an emergency, right? So there goes the first hundred dollars. The vet said his jaw's broken. Somebody had kicked him.

And the street we live on is a street where you can hear people at 2 o'clock in the morning coming from the bars and stuff like that. So it was possible that he was kicked pretty hard. So they said we can wire his jaw back. I even helped the doctor down in the operating room. And we did, we wired his jaw back. 

I took him home. He was in pain. We had some rum sauce that we had left over from Thanksgiving. I put it down in a can's lid and he started licking it. And I guess he got a little tipsy or whatever, but anyway, he went to sleep. And he was there for three weeks before he could eat solid food again.

Kate:
So he got pretty high every day? 

Well, I didn't give him the rum sauce every day. Just the first couple of days. When he would eat, he would make noises. I think it was because of maybe the pain of the jaw, you know, he would sound something like this [sound effects by John] and we liked it. We said, you know, he talks so much, just call him Talker. And that became his name. And he was in our life probably 12 or 13 years after that. And we just loved him. 

He also had a squinty eye, very much like Popeye had. It had been affected by the kick. And so he became one of our cats. 

I was telling the story at a party that we held, and an old friend of mine, Page Stephens from Cleveland, said, "I like that story. I'm going to go home and try and put it to rhyme." And he did just that. 

Kate:
And was he a writer or a poet or what? 

Well, he was a cultural anthropologist. And on the X, Y axis, with X being crazy and Y being normal, he was right at that point. 

Kate:
Okay! He had a little bit of craziness, and that's why you liked him. That's why you were friends. 

John:
Wonderful guy. And I read how he did it, the verse, and I said, you know, it's not bad. And so I made a couple of changes and I went and met with Chuck Ayers, who was the editorial cartoonist for The [Akron] Beacon Journal at the time.

And I convinced Chuck to take a stab at drawing sketches to make a book. And Chuck did it, and the sketches were very good. And so we sent the copy and the sketches off to New York. And after about five polite rejection letters, I thought, well, I don't think this is gonna make it there. So I put everything in a box and put it in my closet and forgot about it for 30 years. 

Kate:
Wow. That is quite a story. 

John:
And those illustrations that he did were black and white. They were simple pencil sketches. 

So after 30 years, somebody you used to work with, John Schambach, who published Northern Ohio Live Magazine at the time -- he and I were having coffee one day and he said, you know, publishing has changed a lot. He said, "I'm doing books now. Not big runs, but books." 

Kate:
For when someone has a book, for instance, that maybe wouldn't have wide appeal or, or that person just wants to do a few copies. Then they'll do that publishing type of thing. 

John:
Right. And so I went home and went through the closet and found the old box and opened it. And here was all of this. I took it to John. I said, well, what do you think? And he looked at the sketches and the copy, and he said, "I think we can work with this."

So he took it to Ben Small, who was his colorist, I think at the time. 

Kate:
His graphic designer. He designed all of Northern Ohio Live and also the orchestra programs and, you know, just all those projects. 

John:
And I thought we would have to go back to Chuck Ayers and have him redo things, and Ben looked at it and said, "No, I can work with this."

Kate:
And he's a good artist too. 

John:
Oh yeah. Yes. So there were just, I think, two little changes that I had Chuck make. He had made the veterinarian look like me. With a mustache. And so, and I wanted a woman veterinarian, so he changed that, and the rest is history. I mean we published it and the proceeds support animal welfare organizations. 

So for a long time, you really tried to get animal welfare organizations interested in them. Yeah. And, and it was, I I'd be surprised, but I I'm not now because, um, animal welfare organizations, generally speaking are day to day survival.
So they have kind of peasant concepts in them. Uh, one is that they're so intent on surviving the next week. They don't have time to fiddle around with marketing and publications and things like that. So survival mode. Yeah. I didn't go versus didn't go anywhere with it. Mm-hmm and, uh, I was disappointed because I thought, well, they could make some.
Uh, out of it, a few thousand dollars or whatever might help. Uh, so I basically gave up and went to the Portage Foundation and said, okay, here's all my books, uh, on your website, if you just will create Talkers Fund there. And if anybody wants to come and make a donation, they can get a book. Okay. And all the proceeds went to organizations.

Well, now the, the proceeds go into Talkers Fund and then Talkers Fund makes. charitable donations out to the organizations. 




I do wanna say that. Live publishing did a really, really nice job in the book. Oh, book. Yeah. The front and back covers have such a soft feel and it's filled with these fun and fitting illustrations. I especially like talkers expressions throughout the book. They're really classic and good.

So the book was published in 2014, right. And you had created a Facebook page, which hasn't been updated lately. Would you tell why. 

Yeah. Uh, Page died. Yeah. The co-author, Page Stevens, passed away. And that was kind of ... I reached kind of the end of the rope on the thing with the organizations not that interested  and then Page dying.

It was just sort of the end of the project for you. 

It's still a good book and your interest in spurs me to become interested again. 

So, well, um, Jeff Ritter who works for Live Publishing, um, gave me a copy a few. Now it's been a few years, probably. Yeah, just a handful of years. And, and I have a lot of books.
I always was just, I was just, I. Took to it immediately. I really loved it. And, um, but of course things get buried and, you know, things, you know, you have stuff going on and everything, but I always meant to reach out to the authors. And then when I finally had some time after I retired from Cleveland clinic, um, had a little bit more time in my life.
I realized that, um, Page had passed away in 2018, right? In may of that year. And, um, and, but I, but I wanted to get ahold of you and it took me a while to, to get around, to asking the question about how to do that. And then finally getting your contact information. So it's been a journey for me too. oh, of course.
Yeah. And the book is, uh, it's kind of a Christmas oriented book, so it would really make a wonderful stocking stuffer, uh, Grandmas and aunts and uncles to, you know, pretend for cat lover. Yeah. And, and to read it to a child, it would, you know, would be great to do that in the illustrations. And it's just really a fun book and it comes across to me as a real right now, as a real tribute to your friend.
Yeah. Uh, I mean, he was a cultural, uh, anthropologist. Uh, he had his PhD. Uh, he very intelligent man, uh, but never published. Uh, and then. It was interesting that we finally got this one published with his name on it. Yeah. And, uh, and so he does go down in history as a published author. Oh, that is sweet. Yeah.
And you had been friends for a really long time, right? Oh yes. Golfing buddies and, uh, just crazy in the sixties and seventies. I mean, who was. Yeah. As so many of us were he was a crazy Scotsman. Oh, really? How so? Just give us a, a one little, um, tidbit about his craziness. Uh, well we would go out and play golf.
And he was, uh, he, he, uh, he could be very loud when he wanted to be, and he laughed, loved to laugh and his laugh was just, you could hear it all over the place. So a round of golf, uh, we had fun, but there were a number of people that were very upset with us, uh, simply because of the noise. Oh, yeah. Well, it is golf.
Yeah. When people speak in hush tones, correct. But you know, not the two of us. I know. I think a good boobing laugh is, is appropriate right now. And then maybe not on the golf course, but I don't know. I'm not on the golf course. Very well. We were equally bad golfers as well. Okay. . So you have to have some fun.
Yeah. So, um, would you describe your wife, Mary, and yourself as cat people or in general as animal lovers? No. I think we're animal lovers, uh, first. And, but when I married her, she had cats and I had cats. So it became a merger, uh, in that respect, which can be difficult sometimes merging of cats. well, we both believe that in the evolution of life on earth.
Man was the accident and that a, the animals. Were perfect. Yeah. And remain so well. That's what, um, I actually saw a little cartoon one time and it was, uh, there were two lines trying to get into heaven and the, um, animals, cats and dogs and all the rest, just waltz right in, it was open, open gate, but the, the humans had to check in and see if they were, if they qualified. 

Animals are animals, right? They do what their instincts are. And the fact that they love people (especially dogs) and I don't know why. Maybe they see something in us that we can't see in ourselves. 

Yes, they serve our highest selves. I think for most of us, except for people who abuse animals. we do have a soft spot yes for animals. 

And of course they can hear a can open!

They like their food, too, for sure. What would you say that Talker brought to your lives? 

Well, I mean, just the joy of seeing a cat that has undergone such a terrible punishment as being kicked in the head come back and still learn to love people.
Oh, uh, it was amazing. Uh, and he was, I, he would call. Mary's arms when she was in a rocking chair and fall asleep. Uh, he was just fun. He was a, a great guy to be with and to have around the house. Uh, and we've had so many cats, so many wonderful stories in our lives that, uh, but this one was special. Yes. Uh, and the fact that we were able to save his.
Uh, I think was something important to us as well. Definitely. Yeah. Yes. So you had cats after Tucker. We have 15 right now. 15? Yeah. That's a community of cats. Yeah. Most of them were feral cats that then became pregnant in the neighborhood or whatever. Okay. And found us because we do put out food. Yes. Um, But we had them trapped and neutered spade, uh, except for one mm-hmm that we haven't been able to catch yet.
Okay. And she is pregnant. Oh my. So there will be more, there will be more cash. Do they stay out in a barn or garage or they stay all over. Uh, but we did build a big housing unit on our deck. Uh, Eight feet by eight feet by seven feet tall. Oh my gosh. And it has all different levels of where they can go in and sleep and it's warmed.
Oh, wow. So this is out of, is it an actual stretcher out of wood or I built it. You built it? Yeah. Yeah. Wow. And, uh, we put heaters in there and they survived the water quite well. Oh my goodness. You really are animal lovers. You and. Yeah, crazy. That's wonderful. I, I think it really is. Um, so in the best possible world, yeah.
What would you like to see happen with this sweet story of talker? I think I need to have lunch with John Schmeck again. And, uh, and talked to him, uh, about putting for one thing, the ind show on the back of it. So that libraries would accept. It. Okay. Uh, right now it, uh, wouldn't be accepted by any library because it doesn't have that.
Right. Uh, so, and, and what is that that you're talking about? That's not a little, uh, sticker with a little bars on it that says what it is and how much it is or whatever it oh, okay. Uh, it's not the same as the, what is it? IBN number, whatever that is not the same as. I think that's it. It is. Okay. So that's the, that's registered with the library of Congress, right?
That's what it is. Ah, okay. Yeah. And, uh, so they just don't accept things that aren't registered with the library. Ah, okay. It's so that would be one change. I don't think it's, you know, for, um, my first job with how I got to Cleveland clinic, cuz I've always been in communications. Yeah. Uh, my first job was with a short lived, um, Enterprise within Cleveland clinic called Cleveland clinic press mm-hmm
And, and I worked there for three years before it went by the wayside. And that was, I went to Cleveland clinic in 2005. This was not a good time for publishing book. Publishers had no idea what they , what to do in the climate that, you know, it, that existed. So, but we had a lot of fun. We produced a lot of books.
They were all on health for the general public mm-hmm . And, um, and so as I recall the process, wasn't that difficult to get, you know, to register with the right library of Congress. So. I'm sure you can do it. And, and you know, that I would would promote this new addition of, of the cat that couldn't, it wouldn't purr.
Could purr, he wouldn't per and want to just see where it goes from there. I think that would be I, yeah, I would love to see nine more printings, nine more lives for this, for this. Or a total of nine lives. So right now, and this probably needs to be updated, but can, how do people get a copy of the cat that wouldn't per well, they go to the Portage, uh, foundation Portage foundation.org.
Okay. Website. and then where it says donor funds, you would click on that button and a list of funds would come up. Okay. And then you, one of those funds, it says talkers fund. Okay. And you click on that and then you can. Fill out the information and make a donation. I think of $20 in a book will be mailed to you.
Wonderful. Okay. That's simple enough. Yeah. So after your, your time with the director, we'll, we'll find out more. Um, is there anything else John, that you'd like to add? Actually, no. Uh, it's been enjoyable to, you know, I got a copy of the book and looked at it again, uh, before this podcast. And, uh, it, it, it is nice.
It's nice. It would make a wonderful, wonderful gift. That's the whole thing, you know, when Jeff handed it to me, I was just like, oh my gosh, this is beautiful. And, and then I read it and it was terrific. You know, it's just, as I said, at the very beginning, it's a charming book. It is. Thank you for doing it.

This is Kate Jones with The Gale Hill Radio Hour until next time. Thanks for joining us, please remember to subscribe like and share it's greatly appreciated. Thank you.