I have known a few cool cats like that, and this book is one of which they would certainly not disapprove. I sensed Page’s love and concern for cats, clearly evident in the appendices that draw attention to the epidemic of nutritionrelated disease linked to feeding cats manufactured pet food, especially the dry kibble types. I was glad to see him focus on the most common ailments in the various purebreds, some of which may be hereditary—an increasing problem—or linked to breed sensitivities to certain food ingredients, antiflea and other veterinary drugs, anesthetics, and vaccines. So I felt that further examination of this book was called for. Like opening a cat’s mouth, I wasn’t sure what I might find when I scanned the contents and began to sniff out the introduction. Would it bite and grab my attention? Catchy titles aside, the introduction was like being greeted by my cat Igor when I come home from work. I felt the immediate embrace of a kindred spirit dedicated to the task of helping people better understand the nature of animals, and the animals of nature. What better way for us to see, or at least get a better glimpse of, the cats’ world than through their eyes? Satisfied and encouraged by the introduction, I stalked through the book swiftly, enjoying it, and then returned to savor the heart and marrow of each chapter like a big cat who first surveys the herd of wildebeest or antelope before deciding where to start first.
From the first chapter on I was captivated and appreciative of Page’s accumulated and well-integrated natural history knowledge. Thanks to writers like him, the often painstaking and patience-demanding observations of ethologists—scientists who study the ethos/behavior of fellow creatures, and whose findings, along with those of other natural scientists, are too often buried and forgotten in academic journals—are rescued and shared with a wider readership. People’s attitudes toward cats vacillate between revulsion and reverence, fear and kinship, from age to age and individual to individual. Cats, as you will read, have been victims of human prejudice and cruelties based primarily on ignorance and indifference for centuries. This book is an antidote and will do much to further people’s acceptance and enjoyment of cats. It is also an antidote to cats being victims of misperception and misunderstanding that can cause them to be overindulged, inappropriately disciplined, or otherwise mistreated; and to be so highly anthropomorphized as to be regarded and treated like infant children or surrogate offspring rather than as cats with their own special nature, ethos, spirit. I was hoping to see some mention of the psychic and spiritual aspects of cat mythology and phenomenology so as to compare my findings and conclusions with the author’s. This is not within the scope of feline natural history, however, so I respectfully refer the reader to my own work, Cat Body, Cat Mind. As a scientist I became intrigued when many years ago a reader of my syndicated newspaper column, Animal Doctor, told me of the family cat who suddenly began to pace and cry in evident distress one morning around ten. Then, around 11:00 a.m., the veterinary hospital called to say that the family’s beloved dog, which was very closely bonded with the cat, had expired on the operating table at around 10 a.m. Somehow the cat seemed to know when her beloved canine companion had passed on. But how? Over the years I have collected many such anecdotes, and they do make one wonder about the awareness and sensitivities of other creatures, and our own limited senses. Scientific studies of feline behavioral genetics and the almost
No comments