Seriously ... cats

[kinzel]

Cats

Name a couple of your favorite books about cats. Can be fiction, can be nonfiction.

Also, do you have a favorite cat magazine? How about a favorite cat movie? A favorite cat toy?

Favorite cat site?

Favorite real life well-known cat...


Warning: I'm making lists... and will without hesitation pick and choose as the Catwhisker Digest (over there at Catwhisker.net) is set for a makeover.

Comments

[keristor.livejournal.com]

T.S. Eliot's "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats".
CatFantastic (anthology, I unremember the editor).
"The Door Into Summer", Robert A. Heinlein.

http://icanhascheezeburger.com

[reedrover]

Seconded all of the above. CatFantastic was edited by Andre Norton.

Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Er, Lloyd Alexander of the Prydain books? I don't know that one (in fact the Prydain series are the only ones of his I've ever found).

[reedrover]

Oh, yes, that Lloyd Alexander. http://www.nndb.com/people/057/000044922/

"Initially he supported himself with an assortment of publication-related jobs (including cartoonist, advertising writer, and magazine editor) while trying to get his start as a novelist. After several years of rejections he published And Let the Credit Go (1955), the first of a series of early autobiographical novels. It was followed in 1956 by My Five Tigers, a book about his cats. Pets, and especially pet cats, soon became an recurring theme for Alexander, and in 1963 he made the switch to the juvenile fantasy market with Time Cat: The Remarkable Journeys of Jason and Gareth. Originally inspired by the mysterious comings and goings of his own cat, the novel featured a cat who spirits his owner to various significant places in history. It was while doing research for Time Cat that he revisited Welsh mythology and became inspired to write his extremely popular and award-winning Pyrdain novels."

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Ah, an earlier book. Hmm, I sense a trip to Amazon. Thanks...

[reedrover]

You are very welcome! Enjoy!

The Cat Who Would Be A Man - Lloyd Alexander

[jane-barfly.livejournal.com]

A theme, I sense a theme! We don't currently own a cat, since three of the four of us a allergic asthmatics who don't like ER visits.

But the Lloyd Alexander books are way up there. I do also like T. S. Eliot, and did long before the musical.
Laura

Re: The Cat Who Would Be A Man - Lloyd Alexander

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, I grew up with Practical Cats long before the musical was even an idea (ALW is a few years older than me, but not older enough I think to have started writing the musical before he was ten!). I don't currently share living space with a cat, because I'm freelance and go where the work is, and that wouldn't be at all fair on any animal, but the last contract I was lodging in the same place for over 2 years and sharing with a cat (sometimes literally when she decided that my bed was the most comfortable place to sleep). I'm not allergic, fortunately.

[xinef.livejournal.com]

"Cats in Cyberspace" by Beth Hilgartner
"The Abandoned" by Paul Gallico

[topayz4.livejournal.com]

Favorite cat site: Cats In Sinks" (http://catsinsinks.com/)

Favorite cat toys:
Sheepskin Mouse Toy (http://www.cattoys.com/sheepskinmouse.html) (but they seem to be out of stock everywhere)
About anything from Fat Cat Inc, (http://www.fatcatinc.com/html_site/hhome.shtml) but the best is the Boogie Mat. Their dog toys are also amazing, as they're about the most durable ones we've ever had.
The best of all is the catnip filled Firecracker, maker unknown but I think it's in Maine. Basically a fabric tube filled with catnip with a ribbon on the end.

Favorite cat movie: Cat from Outer Space

[nephir.livejournal.com]

Born Free by joy Adamson (I read it when I was in middle school -- it stuck with me)
StarKaat by Andre Norton & Dorothy Madlee

[6-penny.livejournal.com]

Short story: Kipling's "The Cat Who Walked By Himself"

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

Amber: a Very Personal Cat, by Gladys Taber.
Cats in the Belfry.
The Secret Cat. [childrens book]

[kimuro.livejournal.com]

The Mrs. Murphy mysteries by Rita Mae Brown
Keepers of Cats by Elizabeth Boyer
The Book of Night with Moon by Diane Duane
Song of Sorcery by Elizabeth Scarborough
The Cat who went to Heaven ?

Oh, and the Summon the Keeper series by Tanya Huff

I like serious stories wherein cats talk.

[sleary.livejournal.com]

matociquala's Presumptuous Cat (http://matociquala.livejournal.com/tag/presumptuous+cat), especially in her Cat vs. Monkey adventures.

[melibabe.livejournal.com]

Tad Williams' Tailchaser's Song.

[k-10b.livejournal.com]

I second this recommendation.

[elektra.livejournal.com]

Non-Fiction: Legacy of the Cat

Fiction: Carole Nelson Douglas's Midnight Louie books
Tanya Huff's Keeper Chronicles

[nlbarber]

Summon the Keeper for fiction with a cat who talks like cats would talk, if you know what I mean. Book of Night with Moon also rings true. Gallico's The Silent Miaow is a well-loved classic, especially as one of my current cats is a master of the silent miaow. I'm also very fond of Merlin in I Dare, but his role (though critical) was rather small in the scope of the book. For nonfiction reference, The Book of the Cat by Michael Wright is what I reach for first.

Favorite cat toys of my three are the fruit-shaped catnip toys by Yeowww! The lemon is most favored but is very tattered, and the local store hasn't had replacements when I've been in--the banana shape suffices instead. I must also confess that Fish finds the little ceramic pellets tracked from the "Breeze" litter box to be great for batting around on the floor.

[barsukthom.livejournal.com]

Carbonel the King of the Cats by Barbara Sleigh

[ouatic-7.livejournal.com]

I was going to put that! I've never met anybody else who had ever read it or heard of it!

[barsukthom.livejournal.com]

I think it can only be read by those who find it in a small town library when the stars are right.

[baggette.livejournal.com]

Puss N Boots


and the Man from Saint Ives?

[romsfuulynn.livejournal.com]

From the sublime:
The Silent Miaow: A Manual for Kittens, Strays, and Homeless Cats, by Paul Gallico

to the ridiculous - I loved these
Space Cat
Space Cat Meets Mars
Space Cat Visits Venus
Space Cat and the Kittens
all by Ruthven Todd and Paul Galdone

cats

[(Anonymous)]

most recently : Dewey the library cat
C. J. Cherryh the Pride of Chanur series

Fave Cat Book

[fiopi.livejournal.com]

The Fur Person by May Sarton

[(Anonymous)]

The cat in the old movie Bell Book and Candle - was his name Pie? Pyewacket?

[barsukthom.livejournal.com]

Yep. Pyewacket. Named after one of the classic Familiars in the woodcut of Matthew Hopkins.

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

Book, nonfiction: The Unadulterated Cat by Terry Pratchet (illustrated by someone whose name escapes me)

Magazine: Cat Fancy

Cat toy: Cat dancer AKA cat teaser AKA fishing pole

[ouatic-7.livejournal.com]

I love Graham Oakley's Church Mice series. One of the main characters is Sampson, the church cat. I especially like The Church Cat Abroad where Sampson gets a role in a TV commercial filming in the south seas. Of course, Arthur and Humphrey come along.

Magnifi-Cat by Carolyn Sheehan. I read this as a teen (a long long time ago) and it stuck with me.

[otterb.livejournal.com]

I second Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander, and the website catsinsinks.com

For a movie, That Darn Cat, the original Disney one with Dean Jones. Just watched it recently with the kids and it's held up remarkably well since my younger days.

cats

[(Anonymous)]

SKitty short stories by Mercedes Lackey

My friends cat loved to play with what my friend called 'turd birds'. She had horses and very well cared for barn cats. The exact composition of this toy is left as an exercise for the reader.

Sue H

[(Anonymous)]

"Cats' A.B.C." and "Cats' X.Y.Z." by Beverley Nichols

Cathy C.

Maine Coon Cats I Have Known

[gilraen2.livejournal.com]

http://home.pcisys.net/~mem/cats.html

cat books

[mtz322.livejournal.com]

the Star K'at series by Andre Norton.

personal acquaintance
My beloved Satin, a black-calico medium fur cat genius. Very plain looking kitten grew into a beautiful cat.
Smart? Anything she saw the other cats do she could do, with a twist of her own. She also thought up things none of the others understood. Not that she always applied the knowledge herself. Younger brother Mouse was long and lean. He could open any standard door easily, so, Satin would get him to open doors for her. (I got curious one day about her coming out and poking him. He'd get up and follow her down the hall and return shortly without her. So, I followed them. They got to my mother's door, Mouse reared up, opened the door, down and left while Satin strolled in.) Later, when Mouse was no longer with us, I saw Satin open doors. More of a stretch for her, but she did it.

The best story about Satin was after my mother developed sleep apnea. I worried any time I had to leave her alone for fear she'd nap. She'd promise not to, but... Came home from a quick shopping trip one day and Mom was sitting up grinning. She told me that if that cat had been born human she would have been a wonderful nurse. Huh? Mom explained that she had dozed off sitting up and apparently stopped breathing only to wake with a start. Satin was on her lap with one paw, claws extenced and piercing Mom's chest. This was a cat who never used claws or teeth against humans. After that, I didn't worry if I had to leave.

The thirteen years I had the privilege of knowing Satin were all too short.

[amm-me.livejournal.com]

site - I can has cheezburger, of course

Most of the above books, though I haven't read the Alexanders

Serafina -- read to us by 3rd grade teacher, I know no further info

A book I know almost nothing about because I read it before remembering author's names was important to me - boy is changed to a cat, old-hand neighborhood cat shows him the ropes, including the most important advice - "When in doubt, WASH."

real cats - mine, of course, all of them over the years from the first Butter I found when I was six, through Queenie, Minx, Jinx, Anna, Butter II, Smoke, Eclipse, Penumbra, to Alabaster, Tut, and Agate (whom I frequently call Butter by mistake) That's over 50 years of cats, mostly two at a time.

Star Man's Son -- Andre Norton

Cat detectives

[(Anonymous)]

Well, other than the books already mentioned - plus your own fine mentions of Lucky, and later Lady Dignity, Merlin and company -

Lillian Jackson Braun's "Cat Who..." series.
Primarily because Koko and YumYum made sounds I've heard come out of real Siameses. Siamesii? Anyway. Anyway, Penelope and George would have Understood.

I'm in the middle of a cute mystery anthology edited by Carol Nelson Douglas: "Midnight Louie's Pet Detectives" Lots of good cat stories in there.

I'd like to second everything mentioned above!
Lauretta

PS A neighbor down the street when I was growing up had 7 cats - all unusual names, all distinct personalities, all well-known and many loved by the neighborhood kids. Cat Balak, Zelda, Clyde, Noko Marie, and drat, can't remember the other 3. And I used to feed them when their humans went on vacation too. Pooh. This is going to keep me up
tonight. Well - it didn't help that Clyde actually had FIVE NAMES, because he'd convinced FIVE FAMILIES in the 'hood that He Was Their Cat. Yep, he was skimming of a bunch of houses and answered to 5 different names. We all had a good laugh when we figured that out.

[(Anonymous)]

Books:
The Silent Meow by Paul Gallico
HeartMate by Robin D. Owens
Enticed by Kathleen Dante

Movie: The Aristocats
Toy: Dabird feather wand
Site: Icanhascheezburger

~ Kath

guess who's another of my faves besides yinz guys

[(Anonymous)]

I'm fond of the characters in Diane Duane's cat wizard spin-offs to the Young Wizard series - Book of Night With Moon was mentioned, but there was also To Visit the Queen and her online serialized novel (still in progress I think) called The Big Meow. The cats in her Tale of the Five series are also nicely done, I think, though no major appearances.

Cat

[(Anonymous)]

I like the Cats in the Honor Harrington Series by David Weber.

Cat Items Survey

[chipwyn.livejournal.com]

I can't believe that no one mention Ursula K LeGuin's 2 books for kids and cat lovers of all ages: Catwings and Catwings Return.
Other cat mystery series out there: Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown have a long running series, as does Shirley Rousseau Murphy.
For Movie I would have to go with those who mentioned the original That Darn Cat.

[hairmonger.livejournal.com]

Robert Westall: Devil in the road, Blitzcat, and Walk on the wild side have cats of varying importance and varying reality in them and their catness is exact.

Mary Anne in Kentucky