Pendergrass author published in Chicken Soup for the Soul's 'Lessons Learned from My Cat'

Peebles’ first story was published in 2007 in a Chicken Soup book titled, “What I Learned from My Cat.”

“It was a true story of how my 17-year old cat began to act strangely, pawing and nudging at a very specific spot on me which turned out to be a melanoma,” Peebles said. “According to my doctor at the time, they are almost never found before they are in advanced stages and because of my cat, mine was discovered and removed at the earliest possible stage.”

Peebles said she thought the story was remarkable and reached out to Chicken Soup.

“I had enjoyed ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’ books for many years and I knew it was the kind of story that they published, so I sent the story in and they bought it,” she said. “That began my 15-year relationship with ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul.’”

Peebles’ most recently published story can be found in the new “Lessons Learned from My Cat,” which details another unique medical-related cat story and her sister.

“My sister is a leukemia survivor thanks to a stem cell transplant eight years ago,” Peebles said. “She has a lot of health problems due to her treatments and immunosuppressant medications and she is also a diabetic. Even a common cold can be life-threatening to her.”

Peebles recalls her sister’s blood sugar had been high and she had been given a new medication.

“Not realizing how quickly and efficiently it would work, she had continued to take her regular dose of insulin, which made her sugar start dropping drastically — and worse still, in the middle of the night while she was asleep,” Peebles said.

Her sister’s cat woke the woman multiple nights in a row by yowling and refusing to stop until she got up. Each time the cat woke her up, she didn’t feel well.

“Upon checking her sugar, she found it dangerously low and so she would eat a light snack to raise it and then go back to bed,” Peebles said. “She called her doctor and he adjusted her dose again and that took care of the problem, at which point she realized the cat also stopped waking her up screaming at 4 a.m. Had her cat not insisted she get up, her sugar would have been so dangerously low that she most likely would have died in her sleep.”

Peebles has been published over a dozen times in “Chicken Soup” books. In addition to the two books focused on cats, you can find her stories in Devotional Stories for Tough Times, My Dog’s Life, Married Life, Messages from Heaven, Angels Among Us, Home Sweet Home, Life Lessons from the Dog, Miraculous Messages from Heaven, Magic of Moms, Parenthood, Touched by an Angel and Grieving, Loss and Healing.

“I feel like a synopsis of my entire life story can be read in ‘Chicken Soup’ for the Soul books,” Peebles said. “And my family now knows they are fair game as well.”

While writing isn’t Peebles’ career, it is a lifelong passion. She said she’s always been an avid-reader and that writing came naturally to her from a young age.

“I kept journals, wrote letters, poems, stories and personal essays,” she said. “I loved the written word and never had a shortage of something to write about. Everyone has stories and I just saw them in every situation.”

Peebles said she writes mostly non-fiction and slices-of-life pieces. She’s also been published in The Rockmart Journal, Farm and Ranch Magazine and Guidepost.

Peebles, a native of Georgia, moved to Pendergrass, about 25 years ago. They wanted to be closer to family and Peebles’ long-time best friend. Peebles previously lived in Rockmart, where she operated a part-time garden wedding business. She also worked in commercial insurance for 34 years as an executive assistant and account representative. She retired in 2018 from the National Aviation Practice of USI Insurance, formerly Wells Fargo Insurance Services.

PURCHASE BOOK

You can purchase “Lessons Learned from My Cat” on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.