During the height of COVID, Dr. Artemis Nicche was fighting to save lives at Sterling Hospital in Connecticut, until watching patients die in spite of her best efforts shattered something inside her. But her breakdown began long before the pandemic — it started the day she watched her brother Jack fall from a tree and die when she was just eleven years old.

 

After leaving medicine behind, Artemis finds herself drawn to a struggling animal shelter and the companions who will reshape her understanding of love, loss, and purpose. As she transforms the small shelter into a sanctuary for thousands of creatures, she finally learns to forgive herself for the brother she couldn’t save and discovers the life she was always meant to live.

 

Narrated by Lucy, her beloved cat speaking from beyond, this is the story of how animals don’t just comfort us—they teach us to live again. From Phoebe, the tiny kitten who becomes her anchor, to Maggie and Jessie, two devoted Labradors who restore her faith in joy, each animal arrives precisely when needed. 

 

Raising Artemis is a deeply moving novel about grief, healing, and the extraordinary ways animals guide us toward our truest selves — told with the wisdom and wit only a cat could possess.