Juniper

Juniper is the first book in Ross Jeffery's proposed trilogy: a post-apocalyptic horror about an insane American town seemingly at the edge of reality.

As Juniper suffers from scorching drought and medieval famine, the townsfolk are forced to rely on the 'new cattle' for food: monstrous interbred cats kept by the oppressed Janet Lehey.

But there's a problem: Janet's prized ginger tom, Bucky, has gone missing, flown the coop.

As Janet and her deranged ex-con husband Klein intensify their search for the hulking mongrel, Betty Davis, an old woman clinging to survival on the outskirts of Juniper, discovers something large and ginger and lying half-dead by the side of the road.

She decides to take it home...