The Compleat Cat

You already love your cat. This book will make you worship your cat. Cleveland Amory's Compleat Cat is a very long book, over 800 pages, because it's actually a collection of Armory's three international bestsellers, The Cat Who Came for Christmas, The Cat and the Curmudgeon, and The Best Cat Ever. I found that reading it makes me adore my own cat all the more, and I'm even able to forgive her annoying idiosyncrasies (waking me up in the wee hours of the morning for a snack, and frequent, loud mewing--what is she trying to say?). One great thing about this book is that you can keep it at your bedside and enjoy a few pages when you are able, and not have to worry about how much time has gone by since you last picked it up; it will immediately re-engage you. With everything from humorous quotes from Mark Twain, ' If man could be crossed with a cat, it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat', to amusing stories--a cat who manages a veterinary office-- observations about cats, arguments for animal rights (Armory founded The Fund for Animals in 1967), and much more (the book needs an index), this charming collection of anecdotes belongs in the library of every cat person. The Compleat Cat will confirm what you've already suspected, that, in the words of Leonardo da Vinci and Cleveland Armory, 'the smallest feline is a masterpiece'.

Pictured is Snowy, my mom's gorgeous cat. (I have a cat, too, but the photos I have of her presently don't do her justice.)