Cats

My 16 year-old cat, Nikky, would love local author Steve Fisher’s book The World Is Your Litter Box since it’s actually a how-to manual written for cats, not humans, which she could have written had she opposable thumbs. But for those of you still getting to know me, allow me to digress.

I wasn’t always a cat person. I grew up devoted to my Standard Poodle, Bridgette, and vowed to have dogs my entire life. Back in 1969, an eventful year with the Moon Landing and such, my brother found a stray cat which our parents allowed us to keep with the proviso it remained outdoors so as not to upset Bridgette. Well, our interest in that cat, which we’d imaginatively named Frisky, lasted about as long as the first moon walk. Soon after, Frisky began spending more and more time in our neighbor’s backyard and was aptly renamed Apollo.  The rest, good readers, is history.

Fast forward 20 years to 1989. My then future husband, Dan, had a cat named Tiger and so sparked my newfound fondness for all things feline and finicky. Tiger happily lived to a hearty old age of 19 and since then with our travel-filled lives, we’ve always only had cats as pets.

Now back to this delectable, delightful read as told to readers by Quasi, Fisher’s cat affectionately known as Big White Guy or Quaz. This is a seriously laugh-out-loud book which I have already read with tears in my eyes (yes I laughed that hard) to my husband, my son and L.A. Parent’s managing editor, Christina Elston. One of my favorite chapters is Humans’ Questions About Cats which includes these classics (and even these two were hard to choose since they are all so very, very funny. In fact  I am laughing as I type, but must remind you that the full impact does come when the list is read in its entirety!):

Late at night, do cats levitate themselves toward the ceiling and hover over their sleeping humans? Yes.

While sniffing catnip and kicking their back legs, do cats sing Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane songs to themselves? Yes.

Reading Amusing Tricks and Games is bound to bring a grin to your face, in particular, the Psycho Kitty entry and its accompanying warning  that playing this game will make your human extremely upset, to say the least. And frankly, if 20 Good Places to Throw Up doesn’t break you up, I don’t know what will! Fisher’s sense of humor and insight into a cat’s psyche is unparalleled, and the categories he’s covered are so on the mark (or should I say so in the litter box?). Even when he covers a visit to the vet, he’s got it down! However, he never met Ellis, my Tabby who died in 2005. In her prime, Ellis, though mush in my hands, could only be removed safely from her cage by vets wearing heavy duty gardening gloves!

At this point I’d be remiss if I didn’t add that I usually do not read these types of books, but now am so glad that I have. I’ve been told to expect a new book later this year and I simply cannot wait.