My cat Tips has switched from her usual routine of howling at 2 a.m. - now she howls at 5 a.m., giving us an early wake up call (hey, I'm a writer, I don't do mornings).

Apparently, the 13-year-old Tips isn't a banshee in disguise. Her uncannily human-sounding wails are attributed to failing kidneys, making her thirsty in the middle of the night (or just before dawn).

Of course, she can't just go to her dish and drink. She wakes up the whole household instead. Maybe she's complaining about the switch from Wiskas to vet-recommended dry food. I'm too tired to tell.

BOOK REVIEW: WARRIORS - DARK RIVER

WARRIORS - POWER OF THREE: DARK RIVER. By Erin Hunter. HarperCollins Publishers. 334 pages. $16.99.

In life and in literature, cats have fascinated people for centuries. The source of that fascination lies in the felines’ unpredictable nature. They’ll act like your best friend one minute, then once they’re fed they’ll shun you and scratch at the back door to be let out.

In her series of novels for children, Warriors, Erin Hunter takes Native American motifs and applies them to a population of feral cats. There are clans, magic and medicine cats. The clans squabble and battle, forge friendships and treat Millie, a “kittypet” (domesticated cat) with suspicion.

The relationships between the characters are a strong hook for readers, and a knowledge of previous books is recommended before anyone tackles Dark River (it’s the middle book of a trilogy within the series, to boot).

There are 90 characters alluded to in the book, all saddled with names like Thornclaw, Berrypaw and Tawnypelt. With so many characters and scant description, the writing rapidly becomes repetitive; for example, the word “paw” is used ad nauseam, sometimes twice per sentence.

Somewhere in this book, there’s a solid story about an apprentice shaman. But unlike the capricious cats of real life, Dark River is sabotaged with plodding, predictable prose.