AustLit

'Billy's grandmother moves to an Retirement Home for the elderly up in the hills. While cleaning her bush cottage for a tenant, Billy finds a ring among the rubbish. She slides it on her finger, quickly discovering she can talk and understand birds and animals, especially bossy ones like her grandmother's Siamese cat... Life will never be the same again.. 'Come on, ' the husky voice said crossly. 'We must hurry.' I stared at the cat. Did the voice come from the cat? The cat stared back. Grandmother always said Bast was intelligent, but talking cats! Was I going down with heat stroke? 'Bast?' 'Beloved of the Goddess, the ring has accepted you, ' the cat hissed. 'The ring, ' I repeated like an idiot. 'The ring...' the cat hissed. She stopped lashing her tail and stared at me with her mad crossed blue eyes. 'It gives you the power to understand and be understood by all creatures.' 'Like the Dr Doolittle who could talk to animals?' 'Never heard of him, ' the cat hissed. 'So I can understand cat language, ' I said. 'All creatures, ' the cat hissed.' (Publication summary)