About

About Dusty Rainbolt

Cat Writer/Rescue Bio

Science Fiction/Fantasy Bio

Paranormal Investigator/Writer Bio

Science Fiction Bio

Pet Product Development/Reviewer

ABOUT DUSTY RAINBOLT

Dusty Rainbolt, ACCBC, (alias the Cat Wrangler, alias the Litter Box Queen) is an award-winning author, cat rescuer, cat behavior consultant, public speaker and product evaluation professional. She lives and works in her quaint English Tudor-style home in North Texas along with her small herd of test kitties and well-trained husband. (Flower Mound is named for an ancient Indian ritual mound in the area, which looks like a big pile of weeds most of the year, hence the name “Flower Mound.”)

Dusty is an award-winning cat writer according to her answering machine. She’s worked as a professional free-lance journalist since the late 1980s, and began specializing in pet journalism in 1995. Today, she’s the editor-in-chief of AdoptAShelter.com, a shop-to-donate website that benefits animal charities.

Her writing genre encompasses nonfiction cat-related topics, science fiction/fantasy (hey, not that kind of fantasy), paranormal mysteries, humor, short stories and cat product reviews. When Dusty isn’t slaving away at her  computer or talking on her cell phone, she frequently runs around the house with a Litter-Lifter, scooping cat boxes. This is her primary form of exercise these days.

But for thrills (back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth), Dusty dived in Lewisville Lake to recover murdered bodies and lost articles. Fortunately for her, she never found any bodies, but she did find a number of missing cars. For several years she regularly flung herself from an ancient airplane held together with duct tape. (Really.) She also enrolled in the Space and Rocket Center’s space camp training course just in case there is an opening in NASA’s Shuttle program. (Guess that won’t be happening now.)

She has since traded her parachute for a keyboard. She’s editor-in-chief at AdoptAShelter.com, a shop-to-donate website that benefits animal charities. She’s a regular contributor to Cat Fancy, Catster.com, and she manages social networking for veterinarians and pet product companies.

She also squeezes in a book or two between deadlines. She has eight fiction and nonfiction books out: Kittens For Dummies, Cat Wrangling Made Easy: Maintaining Peace & Sanity in Your Multi Cat Home, Ghost Cats: Human Encounters with Feline Spirits, Death Under the Crescent Moon, All the Marbles, The Four Redheads of the Apocalypse, Apocalypse Now!, Redheads in Love.

A pet product reviewer and product development consultant, Dusty keeps The Rainbolt Test Kitties busy trying out the latest in kitty fashion, cat litter and healthy food.

CAT WRITER/RESCUE BIO

Cat lovers know Dusty Rainbolt, ACCBC, best for her cat care/behavior books Kittens For Dummies (John Wiley & Sons) and Cat Wrangling Made Easy: Maintaining Peace & Sanity in Your Multicat Home (The Lyons Press.)

Dusty is an award-winning cat writer according to her answering machine. She recently stopped writing on her cats because they move around too much and they smeared ink all over the furniture. She’s worked as a professional free-lance journalist since the late 1980s, and began specializing in pet journalism in 1995.

Today, she’s the editor-in-chief of AdoptAShelter.com, a shop-to-donate website that benefits animal charities. Her award-winning column “Ask Einstein” appears every month on the popular website, Catster.com. You can also read Dusty’s articles regularly in Cat Fancy and on Catster.com and Petfinder.com. She frequently guest blogs.

Dusty serves as vice president of the international journalism organization, Cat Writers’ Association. Since joining CWA in 1995, Dusty’s books, columns, reviews and articles have been honored with more than 50 writing awards. She is a two-time recipient of the prestigious Friskies Writer of the Year Award.

In 1986, a chance event changed her forever and set her life on a new course. A family moved away from their apartment, leaving their pregnant tabby cat behind in the snow. An accidental midwife, Dusty received a real life lesson in the plight of unwanted pets. After she found homes for Mom and her kittens, Dusty jumped head-first into cat and kitten rescue. Over the years, she has successfully bottle fed over 800 orphan kittens, and rescued and rehomed more than 700 adults and weaned kittens. She’s an associate certified cat behavior consultant and member of International Association of Animal Behavior Consultants.

Her scifi fans know Dusty for her comedy, including the humorous science adventure, All the Marbles (Yard Dog Press.) Along with three other redheaded writers, Dusty co-authored the outrageous fantasy Four Redheads series, The Four Redheads of the Apocalypse, Apocalypse Now! and The Four Redheads: Redheads in Love. Her latest science fiction/fantasy anthology, The Mystical Cat (SkyWarrior Books).

PARANORMAL INVESTIGATOR/WRITER BIO

Some people describe Dusty as a Renaissance woman, or maybe they really mean she’s ahead of her time. Six years before the premiere of Syfy Channel’s Ghost Hunter show (and the TV ghost-hunting craze that followed) Dusty got her kicks hanging out in creepy locations wielding EMF meters and video cameras. Her experiences Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs, AR later provided her with fodder for her latest paranormal mystery, Death Under the Crescent Moon (Yard Dog Press.) (You can watch Dusty’s Crescent Hotel ghost voice video that inspired her novel at http://youtu.be/N4evQfzfczE.)

She was involved in groundbreaking investigations of the Baker Hotel in Mineral Wells, TX.

Readers who love both ghosts and cats might also enjoy her award-winning nonfiction book, Ghost Cats: Human Encounters with Feline Spirits (The Lyons Press) and her latest science fiction/fantasy anthology, The Mystical Cat (SkyWarrior Books).

SCIENCE FICTION/FANTASY BIO

Her scifi fans know Dusty for her comedy, including the humorous science adventure, All the Marbles (Yard Dog Press). Along with three other redheaded writers, Dusty co-authored the outrageous fantasy Four Redheads of the Apocalypse series, The Four Readheads of the Apocalypse, Apocalypse Now! and Redheads in Love.

Find out about her fiction and paranormal work at Dusty Rainbolt’s Universe. Read Dusty’s blog, “Confessions of a Cat Writer” at her cat care/behavior website, www.dustycatwriter.com. Follow her at http://www.facebook.com/dusty.rainbolt or checkout her feline heartworm awareness Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/NixiesHEARTwormBEAT.