Twentysomething Austin lives alone in a crumbling office-turned-studio apartment of a former mops, brushes and brooms factory in Toronto. After a deformed and lice-ridden cat turns up at his door, then abruptly dies three weeks later, Austin begins to find frightening coincidences connecting him to a squatter living in his local Walmart, a botanical garden in Missouri, a shipping route from Greece, a muralist in Japan, the world of an online dystopia and more.

As the obsession with piecing together the mystery surrounding his dead pet, and the reward the cat is potentially worth, takes over, Austin confronts his financial and family issues, his self-imposed isolation and his abandoned sense of direction. He discovers what purpose this mystery might actually serve in helping him cope with, and potentially recover, all that he's really lost.

In the end, RIP Scoot is as much a story about an anomalous dead cat as it is a rich, conscientious depiction of grief, complicated relationships and the choices that occur when fighting change is no longer an option. (From Nightwood Editions)

RIP Scoot is available in March 2025.

Sara Flemington is a Toronto-based writer. Her work has been featured in a variety of publications, including the Feathertale Review, Painted Bride Quarterly, Eclectica, and subTerrain, among others. She is the author of novel Egg Island.