LAKELAND, Fla. — Victoria J. Saunders absolutely loves "chonky," "floofy," and "grompy" cats.
In fact, the Plant City author and digital artist adores colorful plus-sized kitties so much, she wrote and illustrated a best-selling hardcover picture book about them.
Recently a #1 cat book on Amazon, "The Chonky Alphabet" is her love letter(s) to fleshy felines, especially her own cat Mishka, who is a certified "unit."
Don't know what a "unit" is? Just open up this quirky alphabet book.
"U is for Unit," said Saunders, who goes by her married name, Vicky Smude, on Instagram. "To use that in a sentence: 'That cat is an absolute unit.' Meaning that's just a big ol' cat!"
Saunders said that "Mishka's vet described her as a potato. So I figured that was the threshold to get her into chonkydom."
"Chonky" is part of the secret online language of plump-pet owners. That's where Saunders found solace and smiles a few years ago when she was furloughed from her job as a — wait for it — CAT scan tech in Lakeland.
"I loved going on [chonky cat sites]," she laughs. "I loved the community, and everyone was just so positive."
So to lift her spirits, she started matching chonky words with chonky illustrations.
And the rest is chonky history.
In the book, the letter Z is for "Zoomies" (that is, cats running around crazy fast), which Saunders had in human form when she discovered that "The Chonky Alphabet" hit No. 1 for cat books on Amazon.
"Oh, when I found out, I definitely had the Zoomies myself," she said. "But Mishka just looked annoyed with me."
Saunders will be signing "The Chonky Alphabet" at the Tipsy Bookworm in Plant City on August 6 from 2-4 p.m. The event is pet friendly (of course).
