In my novella, THE BREAK-IN now available from Dreamspinner Press, one of the main characters (besides the two men that fall in love) is a robot cat named Jeepers.

You might ask, why build a robot cat when you can just own a real cat–if you like cats at all. There’s a huge percentage of people that are dog lovers or just don’t like pets in general, on top of the pure cat haters.

But Jeepers, who looks like a black and white tuxedo cat, is more than just a companion in my story,  THE BREAK-IN. He’s got several jobs.

He’s Forbes’s confidant, privy to his innermost thoughts via his journals on the house network. Jeepers handles security for Forbes’s house and laboratory. He’s also an inadvertant matchmaker, as well–it’s Jeepers that recognizes the younger version of Forbes’s lover, Oliver.

And he has one more function–Jeepers is the story McGuffin. McGuffins have a long literary history and I couldn’t resist creating a cute one with little white paws.

How does his McGuffin role play into the plot of THE BREAK-IN? You’ll just have read it to find out. Until then, here’s an excerpt: