Age Level: 9 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up | Series: Kiska Trilogy
Kiska is her name, charming is her manner. With wit and whimsy, Kiska brings forth her touching story, and leads us to the end of her journey. She mixes her palette with no regard to conventional rules; she writes from the heart.
In the final book of The Kiska Trilogy, walk with Kiska from Vancouver, British Columbia to St. Simons Island, Georgia. Follow this tender story of her loyalty, love and courage. In this direct, touching and lightly sophisticated account of her life, Kiska records ordinary events with extraordinary insight.
With lyrical power and grace, “Eight Paws to Georgia” enlightens our hearts and minds to the complexities of life. Kiska fans will rejoice, and new readers will be won over by her deeply moving memoirs.
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Follow Kiska from Vancouver, BC, to St. Simons Island in a sweet and sad tale that beautifully celebrates her life. -- Brunswick News-Georgia Coastal Illustrated, November 10, 2001
“Eight Paws to Georgia” has just been published by Pinata Publications to the delight of cat lovers of all ages. -- The Golden Isles Weekend, October 26, 2001
About the Author
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pamela Bauer Mueller was raised in Oregon and graduated from Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon. She worked as a flight attendant for Pan American Airlines before moving to Mexico City, where she lived for eighteen years. Pamela is bicultural as well as bilingual. She has worked as a commercial model, actress, and an English and Spanish language instructor during her years in Mexico. After returning to the United States, Pamela worked for twelve years as a U.S. Customs inspector. After serving six years in San Diego, California, she was selected to work six years on foreign assignment in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Pamela took an early retirement from U.S. Customs to follow her husband, Michael, who received an instructor position at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Brunswick, Georgia. They reside on St. Simons Island, Georgia with their cats, Jasper and Emmeline. Pamela completed her Kiska Trilogy in Georgia, and now looks forward to writing historical novels in her new southern home.
I was raised in North Bend, Oregon, a peaceful town close to the sea. As the oldest of five children, I often entertained my siblings with fabricated stories about witches and magical creatures. My parents passed on to us their love of the written word and we became avid readers. Dad, a radiologist who had several medical books and a few short stories published, told us we could do anything if we really believed in ourselves.
In the middle of my high school freshman year our family moved to Klamath Falls in southern Oregon, with a lake for water-skiing and exciting new educational and social challenges. Reading and writing were my favorite school subjects. Through them I began a life-long quest for travel and new adventures.
During my second year at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, I traveled to Mexico with twenty-two students and two professors to study for six months with the Experiment in International Living. For two months we lived with families in Merida, Yucatan, before moving to Mexico City to study with local University professors. While living in a pension in Mexico City, I met a young architect who would eventually become my husband. But first I had to convince my parents to let me return to Mexico to study for a year at the University of the Americas. I finished my final year at Lewis and Clark College with a B.A. in Spanish.
Now I could follow my travel dreams! For two years I flew as a flight attendant for Pan American Airlines, flying to every continent except Africa. In those days we had 3-4 day layovers in amazing places like Argentina, Aruba, Tahiti, and Thailand; my hungry mind was already storing information for book material.
I married Eduardo Gual in 1969 and lived happily in Mexico City for eighteen years. We raised our two daughters to be bi-lingual and bi-cultural. In my free time, I entertained myself by working as an actress in Mexican television programs, American movies filmed in Mexico (Caveman, Under Fire, Volunteers, etc.) modeling, and filming commercials. I also taught Spanish to American executives and English to Mexican businessmen and children.
In 1986, after my divorce, I brought my daughters to San Diego to start over. I became a U.S. Customs Inspector and was sent to Brunswick, GA to the Federal Law Enforcement Academy for training. As fate would have it, I met my future husband Michael in my basic training class! After a seven-year relationship, (three of them long distance), we married and have just celebrated our thirteenth anniversary!
While working as a Customs Inspector, I wrote my first book "The Bumpedy Road" as a tribute to my daughters to thank them for their courage in following and supporting me and the life changes my divorce had inflicted on them. I decided to write it with our Mexican cat Kiska as narrator. We thought it would be a "stand-alone" book, but school children wrote to me, again and again, asking for a sequel. "Rain City Cats" was written next, also during my six-year tour of duty in Vancouver, B.C. Canada, and "Eight Paws to Georgia" was completed after our move to St. Simons Island, GA. Now we had a "Kiska Trilogy" -- I was really an author! I had worked for twelve years as a Customs Inspector and now my husband encouraged me leave the government and work full-time as an author.
About this time, my younger daughter was raising a guide puppy for Guide Dogs for the Blind. Soon we met Aloha and learned all about the "Puppy-Raising Program." When the time came for her to return Aloha to the school for formal training, she phoned us in tears. I asked her what I could do to make it easier and she answered: "Write a book about Aloha's story." "Hello, Goodbye, I Love You is that story."
Since moving to coastal Georgia, I've been intrigued with local history. Neptune Small lived as a slave on one of the fourteen island plantations during the antebellum period, and he performed an incredibly loving and heroic deed for his master's son. This local legend had never been written in book form, so I sought out Neptune's descendants and asked their permission to write it. "Neptune's Honor" has been well received and has given them their great-grandfather's legacy in written form.
My second historical fiction was released in early 2007. Entitled "An Angry Drum Echoed: Mary Musgrove, Queen of the Creeks," it tells the story of a Creek woman who met General Oglethorpe's ship when he landed to colonize Georgia. She became his interpreter and emissary and smoothed the path to cooperation between the Creeks and the colonists.
This keen interest in southern historical characters takes me back to my youth, when reading biographies and historical fiction captured my imagination and took me to other places. My books are written for children and young adults, to educate yet entertain. Michael and I enjoy traveling and sharing our favorite books. Sometimes we'll even read them to Jasper and Sukey Spice, our cats! We are members of Lions Club International, and I was the local chapter's president in 2006-2007. Our grandbabies bring us great joy and we visit them in Australia and San Diego whenever we can.
This review is from: Eight Paws to Georgia (Kiska Trilogy) (Paperback)
This is a wonderfully warm story for young and old. Take one ordinary "runt of the litter" tabby cat, give her one extraordinary amount of love, and see what transforms. Kiska teaches us what that kind of love can do, if we give the animals that touch our lives the respect and adoration they deserve, right to the end. I can't wait to read this story to my grandchild and know that we have shared something very special.
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This review is from: Eight Paws to Georgia (Kiska Trilogy) (Paperback)
Pamela Bauer Mueller has a special gift in communicating the feelings and emotions of both humans and animals through the written word in a very unique and loving way. Together with the accompanying illustrations, which at times are humorous, the author guides her readers through the many adventures and challenges that Kiska and Jasper face as they move from the rainy and cool Pacific Northwest to the warmth and humidity of the "deep South", adjusting to new adventures and surroundings. Her insight in expressing the personal loss of a loving family pet through the words of her own beloved Kiska, make this little book a fitting tribute to the final saga of the Kiska Trilogy. It will be great reading for both children and adults
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5.0 out of 5 starsNot Just for Children!, May 9, 2002
By A Customer
This review is from: Eight Paws to Georgia (Kiska Trilogy) (Paperback)
While recently vacationing on St. Simons Island, Georgia, I purchased Eight Paws to Georgia as a gift for a young child. I started reading a few pages and was totally captivated by Kiska and her story. Although I am a "dog person", Kiska's disarming personality and dignity pulled me into her life and that of her mistress until I had finished the book in one sitting. I laughed and cried during Kiska's story, finding that it has immense therapeutic value for those of us young and old who have lost a loved one. Also as an artist I was intrigued by Kiska's description of the beauty and individuality of the Georgia coast. Now I must buy Kiska's first two books and read about her perspective on life in Mexico and Canada!
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