Are ‘Christmas at the Catnip Cafe’ & ‘The Nine Lives of Christmas’ in the Same Universe?

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Christmas at the Catnip Cafe.]

Hallmark, especially in recent years, loves a cameo. Faves show up in each other’s movies all the time, and that includes, of course, Paul Campbell and Kimberley Sustad, who have starred in and written Hallmark films together. Sustad has appeared in all three movies of the Three Wise Men trilogy (which she co-wrote with Campbell). And she also makes a cameo in his Christmas at the Catnip Cafe, which costars Erin Cahill and premiered on Sunday, November 30, as part of the annual Countdown to Christmas.

The film follows Campbell’s Dr. Ben Kane, a veterinarian, and Cahill’s Olivia Pierce, a marketing executive, who have both been left half of a cat café and the obstacles they run into when they have very different ideas about what to do with the location. It’s during an event at the café that Sustad shows up as an unnamed character (as tends to be the case with these Hallmark fave cameos).

“That was really cute,” she says, referring to a (failed) story time and holding a cat, as she approaches Campbell’s Ben. “Cats make everything better, am I right? I like cats. A lot. I love them.” He gets that then begins, “I don’t think—” She interrupts with a suggestion: “You should really think about adding a fireman to the whole thing. … Cats love a man in a uniform. I have one at home.” A cat, he asks. “A fireman. And a cat. Two, maybe three.” With that, she makes her exit.

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Sustad starred in 2014’s The Nine Lives of Christmas and the 2021 sequel The Nine Kittens of Christmas as Marilee, a vet student, then veterinarian, whose love interest was Brandon Routh‘s firefighter, Zachary. Sustad had to be referencing that in her conversation with Campbell’s Ben in Christmas at the Catnip Café. The sequel ended with Marilee and Zachary, who had broken up between films, back together and adopting a kitten — and getting engaged. With Sustad’s character now mentioning a fireman at home, if she is, indeed, playing Marilee, that means that Marilee and Zachary are still together.

Luba Popovic/Hallmark Media

Or that line could have simply been a fun nod to her previous films and she wasn’t playing Marilee. After all, Paul Campbell did make a cameo in The Nine Kittens of Christmas, with Marilee helping his character with a kitten. He didn’t have any lines and appeared to be playing a firefighter, not a vet.

What did you think of Kimberley Sustad’s cameo in Christmas at the Catnip Café? Do you think she was playing Marilee? Would you want to see another movie about Marilee and Zachary? Let us know in the comments section below.