books for cat lovers

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BookReviews     

Cat Confidential

by Vicky Halls

Published by Bantam Press, priced £14.99

Vicky Halls is well known to delegates who have attended the FAB Annual Conference over the past few years. Brought back regularly by popular demand, she is always enlightening, sympathetic, sensible and often very amusing. Reading her new book, Cat Confidential (what a great title!) is like being able to take Vicky home after a conference and listen to her for a few hours more. It has the same approach as her talks - a fascination for feline behaviours, from the normal to the bizarre, and a sympathy for all the owners of her cases, whether they too are normal or bizarre. One of her great appeals is her ability to say that she, even with all of her experience, finds a case mystifying or even frightening and how she has learned from her work over the years, including her own mistakes. Saying she is sensible may sound boring, but sometimes it takes courage to say that perhaps some owners have too many cats or that being too obsessed with your cat can be unhealthy and the making of an unhappy cat. A great book for anyone fascinated by felines.

Claire Bessant, Chief Executive, Feline Advisory Bureau

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Making the Cat Laugh

by Lynne Truss

Published by Profile Books priced £7.99

Any woman who lives alone, through choice or necessity, will identify with these musings of Lynne Truss, author of the bestselling Eats, Shoots and Leaves. Making the Cat Laugh is a collection of columns written originally for publication in The Listener, The Times and Woman's Journal. As such, each five-minute read can be neatly slotted into the busy life of a single woman, faced as she is with household chores which "stretch out in long, miserable single file, like prisoners on a chaingang and are dealt with on the weary principle of one-damn-thingafter-another." Lynne's resident companions are, inevitably, her cats. Her acute observations of them are scattered throughout the book – a continuous thread as she rants endearingly about passive smoking, Christmas and snails or unveils her passion for Blue Peter and the form of male tennis players. Making the Cat Laugh is definitely a book for the (single) bed-side table!

Sue Edwards, Feline Advisory Bureau

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The Kitten Whisperer

by Claire Bessant

Published by Metro, priced £12.99

Known to all FAB members as the charity's Chief Executive, Claire Bessant is a leading authority on cats. This book enables you to make the right choice of kitten and to care for it properly.

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Breed Predispositions to Disease in Dogs and Cats

by Alex Gough and Alison Thomas

Published by Blackwell Publishing

This 235-page soft back book is designed as a reference text of breed dispositions to various diseases in dogs and cats. It is very commendable that the authors have tried to pull together much of the information that is currently available relating to this topic.

Unfortunately, the book is very biased towards dogs: devoting 150 pages to them and only 13 to cats. Following these sections there is a section on Disease Summaries. However, this too is very canine-orientated. For example, under the heading of dilated cardiomyopathy it states that purebred dogs have a higher prevalence rate and any cases are thought to be genetic. It then states that nutritional abnormalities and/or immune-mediated causes may also be involved. Unfortunately, for anyone looking up this condition after seeing it listed under conditions of Abyssinian, Burmese and Siamese cats, where it does say that it is now seen less commonly than previously, the book completely fails to make any mention of taurine.

Collecting together all of the information needed to write this book must have been a Herculean feat. It is therefore regrettable that in-text references were not included. This omission severely limits the book's usefulness. While in some sections the validity and strength of the reported breed predisposition is clearly stated, in others it is not. There are a large number of incredibly rare conditions included, without recognition of this fact, or statement as to whether the suggested breed predisposition is well understood, strongly suggested or purely anecdotal. Interestingly, while it states in the Introduction that anecdotes were not used, it then admits in the text that many of the entries are just that, but does not do so consistently. It is this lack of information that really invalidates much of what this book is trying to do, particularly as it suggests that the book may be useful when compiling differential diagnoses lists. As an example: Stating that domestic short-haired (DSH) cats are predisposed to hyperoxaluria is exceedingly misleading. In fact, this condition has only been reported once in cats, in a closed inbred research colony, and since none of the cats was allowed to continue breeding the mutation was removed. DSH cats are therefore no more likely to develop hyperoxaluria than any other breed of cat. While this differential should indeed be included as a very rare, but possible, cause of oxalate-associated renal failure, it should be considered for all breeds, not just DSH. While many very rare and anecdotal predispositions are included, a number of reasonably well-known conditions were omitted (eg wool-sucking in Siamese and Orientals, flat chested kittens in Burmese). Other entries appear rather unlikely and may warrant reassessment of the original data (eg corneal sequestration in Siamese).

In the Introduction, the authors acknowledge that geographical variation exists in breed dispositions and then state that they have tried to comment on this, when appropriate. Unfortunately, any comments of this kind appear to have been largely omitted from the feline section and some very well recognised regional breed dispositions, such as Burmese head defect, are left without comment.

This book was presumably written for both the UK and broader market. However, while it uses English spelling it lists only USAblood group prevalence and refers to some of the cat breeds by their American name, for example listing Himalayan as a breed, but not stating that in the UK this is generally referred to as Colour-point Persian (or by cat breeders as the Colour-point Persian Long Hair).

In conclusion, what should have been a very useful reference text has very limited use and is exceedingly misleading.

It is strongly recommended that any second edition should have in-text references added.

Dr Danièlle Gunn-Moore Purina Lecturer in Feline Medicine at

Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh

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It's a Cat's Life

Published by David and Charles, priced £9.99

A feline version of the baby record book. Includes useful information and space to record your cat's health, development and activities over a period of 20 years.

May appeal to youngsters who have recently become proud cat owners.

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How Cats Conquered the World

by Heather Hacking

Published by Hodder and Stoughton , priced £7.99

Cartoons depicting the cat's place in history and in the lives of owners.

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The APBC Book of Companion Animal Behaviour

edited by David Appleby

Published by Souvenir Press Ltd, priced £14.99

Although primarily concerned with dogs, there are a couple of useful chapters relating

to cats.

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More Cat Tales from Moon Cottage

by Marilyn Edwards

Illustrated by Peter Warner Published by Hodder and Stoughton, priced £7.99

Exquisite line drawings appear throughout this little book, which is a follow-up to The Cats of Moon Cottage.

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Caring for your cat and kitten

The Perfect Kitten – How to raise a problem-free cat

Peter Neville, Claire Bessant

All about Your Kitten

Bradley Viner

The Complete Guide to the Kitten

Sarah Whitehead

The RSPCA Complete Cat Care Manual: The Ultimate Illustrated Guide to caring for your Cat

Andrew Edney

Natural Cat Care

Bruce Fogle

The Complete Book of the Cat

Sarah Whitehead

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Cat behaviour

The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats

Jeffrey Masson

The Cat Whisperer – The Secret of how to talk to Your Cat

Claire Bessant

Do Cats need Shrinks?

Peter Neville

Claws and Purrs: Loving the two sides of Your Cat

Peter Neville

Why does my Cat….?

Sarah Heath

The Behaviour of the Domestic Cat

John Bradshaw

Understanding Cat Behaviour: The Complete Feline Problem Solver

Roger Tabor

The Cat Owners Questions and Answer Book: Your Top 350 Questions with 100s of Practical Solutions

Bradley Viner

The Character of Cats

Stephan Budiansky

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Feline health

One Hundred and One Questions your Cat would ask its vet: If your Cat could talk

Bruce Fogle

RSPCA What's up with My Cat?

Bruce Fogle

Robinson's Genetics for Cat Breeders and Veterinarians

Carolyne Vella, et al

Good Care for Cats: How to Keep your Cat in Perfect Health

Claire Bessant, Bradley Viner

A-Z of Cat Diseases and Health Problems

Bradley Viner

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Choosing a pedigree cat

 Cats - Bruce Fogle

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Gift ideas

Unadulterated Cat

Terry Pratchett

101 Favorite Cat Poems

The Secret Life of Cat Owners

Bruce Fogle

One Hundred Ways to a Happy Cat

Celia Haddon

One Hundred Ways for a Cat to Train its Human

Celia Haddon

One Hundred Ways for a Cat to Find its Inner Kitten

Celia Haddon

How to Read your Cat's Mind: Purring Matters

Celia Haddon

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Books for Children

Wild Cats of the World Colouring Book

John Green

Cats

Anna Milbourne, Emma Helbrough (Usborne Beginners Series)

Mog

illustrated by Judith Kerr (series)

Orlando the Marmalade Cat

illustrated by Kathleen Hale (series)

The Cat in the Hat

Dr Seuss

The Cat Who Got Carried Away

Allan Ahlberg

Thomasina

Paul Gallico

Jennie

Paul Gallico

This information sheet is produced by the Feline Advisory Bureau

FAB, Taeselbury, High Street, Tisbury, Wiltshire, UK, SP3 6LD

information@fabcats.org