Rita Mae Brown writes 3 mystery series.

One is the Mrs. Murphy series; these are terrific! ALl the animals talk to each other, and what they think about us humans is pretty fun. Mrs. Murphy usually solves the case and spends time trying to get her human to understand what happened.

Another is the Sister Jane Foxhunting series. Again the animals all talk; well, these aren't exactly cat mysteries, usually the OTHER animals solve things as Golly(the cat) is too busy chasing things. Read in order, same as for above, for the proper character development.

Third is a series Rita "co-writes" with her cat, Sneaky Pie Brown. The main character is helped by her 2 cats and her dog Tucker in solving the mysteries. Also a series, so best read in order written.

I also enjoy the Midnight Louie series. Midnight Louie is a black cat who not only has to solve the mystery but usually has to keep his human out of trouble along the way.

Here, this web site gives you these series and many others:

http://faculty.law.lsu.edu/ccorcos/l...T%20DETECTIVES

When you finish all those, get back to me and we can start on the dog detectives!

(Actually, I've not seen that site before and will have to start in on them. I've read The cat Who series as well. I am a library regular, every other Tuesday, have been for YEARS.) Yes, I've read a few dog detective series as well!