October 1, 2020
This handy guide from veterinarian and feline-behavior specialist Hattori, of the Tokyo Cat Clinic, will help cat owners better know their pets, with both surprising facts (injured cats may use purring to hasten the healing process) and hilarious realness ("Cats often ignore their owners' call simply because they're not interested"). After the upfront "ten basic rules for understanding cats," which reference the page numbers where readers can find out more, six chapters cover caring for cats throughout their lifetimes, kittens to seniors. Bullet-pointed, two-color text and lots of useful diagrams and other illustrations from Ito Hamster, which star a sweet and sassy orange-and-white cat and her owner, make this both easy to read and fun to browse. Across all aspects of cats' bodies and behaviors, Hattori emphasizes getting to know what's normal for your cat so that warning signs are easily spotted. Most chapters end with "extra notes," one-page entries on subjects like training your cat to respond to an alarm in case of emergency. A very appealing, beyond-the-basic reference.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)