Moen shares love of cats through book

Appealing to his family and friends, cat lovers and well-wishers, Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences Matthew Moen has now published a book he had tucked away in a drawer for years.

Moen had the opportunity 18 years ago to get his book, “Dumb Bunnies and Expecting Cats,” a piece of creative nonfiction, published under one condition — someone would have to “touch it up a bit” before it was ready for the public eye.

“I said no. I decided I wasn’t going to do that, that it was my product, it was my book, I was going to write it, I was going to keep custody of it,” Moen said. “So I put it in a desk drawer with the thought that sometime I would get back to it, and I didn’t get back to it for 15 years.”

Straying from his priorly written six political science books, he wrote the book before his 16-year-old daughter, Erika, was born. For her 14th birthday, he decided to give the manuscript to her as a gift after being inspired by her writing in “What Makes a South Dakotan?”

“(I said) ‘Here’s a book you didn’t know existed and is about my life before you were born,'” Moen said.

After that, he polished up the manuscript and hired a professional to create a cover design. He released it to sell as an electronic book on Kindle and Nook in April and then decided to print 300 copies, which he received in June.

Moen said the book is intended to be mostly humorous but a little bit tender.

“What I tried to do in this is a lot of often self-depreciating observational humor,” Moen said. “And that’s part of what I like about doing it. It’s a very different kind of writing, yet you can convey important messages while doing it, in a more whimsical way.”

The book is more accessible to students since the I.D. Weeks Library bought a copy. There are also plans in the works to have a book signing at the Vermillion Public Library soon.

Moen’s creative writing has reached Accounting and Finance Professor Thomas Davies. Davies was on the board of the Heartland Humane Society at the time the book came into the public eye.

He bought three copies — one for his mother and one for each of his children — at a fundraising event they held in Vermillion this past summer. Since part of the proceeds go to the Heartland Humane Society, Moen was selling and signing books downtown, and being the cat lover he said he is, Davies was intrigued.

“Dean Moen is a very good writer,” he said. “Obviously, he’s a scholar. As a cat lover and having been around cats for all of my 56 years, he captured what being a cat lover is all about.”

Davies and his wife currently have two cats, but their 18-year-old cat died about a year ago, and he said he is sure he’s had at least 20 felines in his lifetime.

“Cats tolerate us,” Davies said. “And I think Matt has done a wonderful job of capturing that we’re basically an inconvenience to the cats.”

Davies said the book does not end like a traditional story, but as pet owners, people learn to take the good with the bad.

Junior Becca Gaikowski, who has worked at the library since her first year at school, compared students taking general education classes to be more well-rounded as people with how Moen is showing that deans are not confined to one role.

“It kind of shows that their characteristics are all-around and they’re doing other work, as well,” Gaikowski.

Gaikowski said if a student was looking to borrow the book, it could easily be found by visiting the circulation desk with the name or author at the ready.

“It’s pretty remarkable, especially since we have access to the hard copy on campus,” Gaikowski said.

For now, Moen is preparing for two book signings — one at Prairie Pages Bookseller in Pierre Nov. 15 and at Zandbroz Variety in Sioux Falls Dec. 6.

The process, Moen said, has been a labor of love — one to show how dogs and cats can help people slow down for a “few unhurried minutes” in a frantic world.

Moen said whether or not he will continue writing in the creative genre depends on time availability for him, but he said he will return to writing after he retires from academic life.

“I hope to have a long, happy life of writing in retirement,” he said.

[notification type=”grey” title=””]“Dumb Bunnies and Expecting Cats” is currently available at Cedar County Vet, Davis Pharmacy and PetsPaw. It can also be found at Barnes & Noble and Zandbroz Variety in Sioux Falls and Prairie Pages Bookseller in Pierre. The electronic version of the book is available through amazon.com.[/notification]

(Photo: Matthew Moen, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences, wrote a creative nonfiction book entitled “Dumb Bunnies & Expecting Cats.” Moen said he and his wife have rescued multiple cats over the years including Simon, an orange tabby cat, which they found at a shelter in Sioux City. Malachi Petersen / The Volante)