I am TJ, founder of My Cat Jeoffry Bookstore and Cat Lounge, and I am a lifelong book and animal lover. After living in New York and Los Angeles for many years, working as an attorney, I returned to my native Arizona, where I live with my family, which now includes two dogs and a cat. One of our beloved cats recently passed away. My animals are often featured posing with the books I review here 🙂
I am an author of award-winning women’s fiction and several romance novels, which I publish as Tonya Plank. I am currently working on a series of children’s picture books inspired by my animals, as well as a cozy mystery series featuring a cat and dog sleuth team.
As an English major, I fell in love with Christopher Smart’s ode to his cat, Jeoffry, from his poem Jubilate Agno. Smart was a well-known figure in 18th Century London and I love that one of his nicknames was Kitty Smart 😀 The poem describes so many cats I’ve known to a tee, and to me it says that animals reflect divine beauty in the world just by being their natural selves. I thought a piece of literature so masterfully detailing the awesomeness of cats would be fitting for a “cat bookstore” 🙂