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Summary
Summary
Our feline companions are much-loved but often mysterious. In The Inner Life of Cats , Thomas McNamee blends scientific reportage with engaging, illustrative anecdotes about his own beloved cat, Augusta, to explore and illuminate the secrets and enigmas of her kind.
As it begins, The Inner Life of Cats follows the development of the young Augusta while simultaneously explaining the basics of a kitten's physiological and psychological development. As the narrative progresses, McNamee also charts cats' evolution, explores a feral cat colony in Rome, tells the story of Augusta's life and adventures, and consults with behavioral experts, animal activists, and researchers, who will help readers more fully understand cats.
McNamee shows that with deeper knowledge of cats' developmental phases and individual idiosyncrasies, we can do a better job of guiding cats' maturation and improving the quality of their lives. Readers' relationships with their feline friends will be happier and more harmonious because of this book.
Author Notes
Thomas McNamee is the recipient of a 2016 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation fellowship. He is the author of The Grizzly Bear ; Nature First: Keeping Our Wild Places and Wild Creatures Wild ; A Story of Deep Delight ; The Return of the Wolf to Yellowstone ; Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food Revolution ; The Man Who Changed the Way We Eat: Craig Claiborne and the American Food Renaissance; and The Killing of the Wolf Number Ten. He wrote the PBS documentary Alexander Calder , which won a Peabody Award and an Emmy. He lives in San Francisco.
Reviews (2)
Kirkus Review
A cat lover blends his personal experiences with research in this attempt to help us better understand our feline pets.McNamee (The Killing of Wolf Number 10, 2014, etc.), the author of several natural history books, wrote this book after winning a Guggenheim fellowship. He opens with a story about Augusta, a little black kitten that had been abandoned and found her way to his door in the middle of any icy Montana winter. The author lovingly describes her antics as well as her death by euthanasia some 15 years later. In between, McNamee turns to the work of others to explore the human-cat relationship, the way cats communicate, and their quirky behavior and how it is shaped by their wildness. He also looks at the problem of feral catshe reports that they kill billions of birds in the United States every yearand how colonies of them are handled in different cities around the world. There's a bit of history of cats in ancient Egypt and China, but clearly McNamee is interested in the present. While not intended to be a how-to manual, the book is full of advice on the care of pet cats, dealing with topics such as litter boxes, food, discipline, and diseases. In a bow to experts, McNamee reprints a copy of "Five Pillars of a Healthy Feline Environment" and a veterinarian's quality-of-life scale to help cat owners make end-of-life decisions. Footnotes abound, sometimes a half dozen to a page, and helpful websites and recommended book titles are cited in the text. The author does not hesitate to warn readers about some bad cat books, and he has cautionary words about cat behavioriststhat field, apparently, is largely unregulated. An affectionate yet realistic portrait of felis silvestris catus and a definite boon to anyone contemplating adopting a cat. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
With the publication of The Lion in the Living Room, Cat Wars, and Call of the Cats, the recent broadcast of The Story of Cats-a PBS Nature documentary-felines have been getting a lot of press lately. The momentum continues with this distinctive work by nature writer and Guggenheim Fellow McNamee (The Killing of Wolf Number Ten), who considers the house cat a unique domesticate. Living in close association with humans for thousands of years has not erased the cat's wild instincts, only tempered them. This title is part personal experience (how McNamee raised a kitten rescued from the Montana snow), part scrutiny of scientific studies about cats, and part advice on best practices for raising a well-adjusted cat. Whatever topics the author weighs in on-cat videos, cat whisperers, feline predatory instincts, what constitutes a good life for a cat, or the experiences of protected ferals in cat-loving Rome (with its army of gattare, or cat ladies)-his opinions are thoughtful and his suggestions humane. Cat owners who believe that one can establish a meaningful relationship with a cat simply by feeding it should read this insightful book. -VERDICT Highly recommended for cat lovers and anyone interested in the human-feline bond. [See Prepub Alert, 1/12/17; author Q&A, p. 105.]-Cynthia Lee Knight, Hunterdon Cty. -Historical Soc., Flemington, NJ © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.