Caliclaus and the Christmas Contraption

Valerie Hart sheds light on overcrowded animal shelters in new coloring book:

Television show host teaches children about shelter animals in CaliClaus and the Christmas Contraption

MOUNT DORA, Fla. Valerie Hart, author of The New Tradition Cookbook and The Bounty of Central Florida, has been a community activist and food and travel journalist for 35 years. Her 10-year popular television show, The Back of the House, featured chef-owners of independent restaurants in their kitchens. In her new coloring book, CaliClaus and the Christmas Contraption: A magical cat finds homes for strays on Christmas Eve (published by AuthorHouse), Hart s entertaining story of a magical cat and her team of pedigree felines, brings awareness to the plight facing animals in overcrowded shelters.

CaliClaus has special plans for this Christmas. With her team of eight felines, she rescues 200 cats and six dozen kittens from a local shelter. The contraption they have built from wooden planks and pieces of a wire fence is just big enough to hold all the cats as well as the food and supplies they have stockpiled. They round up eight neighborhood dogs and attach them with ropes. Then she taps the dogs with her magical claw and, with a different member of her team riding on each of the dogs, they fasten their helmets and, with her in the lead on a borrowed Harley motorcycle, the contraption rises in the air to fly gifts of love to deserving homes.

The young reader - or listener - will be enthralled with this cat that performs magic and can fly followed by a bunch of dogs pulling her contraption over the rooftops on Christmas Eve, she says. Perhaps the children will convince their parents to visit a shelter in their area to adopt a homeless animal.

According to the Humane Society of the United States, about three to four million cats and dogs are euthanized each year because of overcrowded shelters. Hart hopes her book will not only be a fun read for children, but raise awareness to this issue and empower readers to adopt. She has dedicated this coloring book where children can color the illustrations to the animal shelters that do not euthanize cats and dogs, and to the many rescue groups who find homes for them. It is especially dedicated to her daughter, Katie, whose Hart s Last Chance Ranch gives new life to cats the local shelters cannot provide for.

Hart invites readers to visit her at www.cookingandtips.com.