Since I got such a wonderful response from all you Crazy Cat Peoples in Training and just finished the second and third Carbonel books, I thought I’d start compiling a list of the awesome cat books (with a few other-animals stories stuck on the end, plus a few fabulous books that mention the word cat at least once!) that you all recommended. I can’t personally recommend all of them, but other people did wholeheartedly.
This is absolutely a work in progress and if you leave more ideas in comments I’ll totally add them.
Books entirely about cats, from what I can tell:
(and more kitty pictures for rosetintdworld)
Recommended by Blacksmithbutnotemo and lostinshadow, descriptions and further recommendations courtesy of the fabulous Lindsay Ribar:
-
Tailchaser’s Song by Tad Williams
“I fell for this one in junior high, and it remains a perennial favorite. This world, in which cats have their own language, culture, and mythology, is a lesson for all aspiring secondary-world fantasy writers in How To Do It Right. Most importantly, Williams’ characters are distinctly feline, but never in a cutesy way. Plus, the baddies were creepy enough to give me nightmares when I was eleven, and that’s always a plus.” -
White Cat by Holly Black
“Everyone and their mom is giving this one a thumbs-up. The titular cat begins as a MacGuffin of sorts, but ends up being one of the best characters in the book. I won’t say anything more, for fear of spoilers, but this cat is a winner.” -
Mossflower by Brian Jacques
“Given that the heroes of the Redwall series are usually mice, there are surprisingly few cats in the series, even as villains. Mossflower, however, features Tsarmina Greeneyes as the fabulously evil dictator who must be defeated, and her traitor brother Gingivere as one of the most lovable minor characters in the series.” -
What the Cat Told Me in Unexpected Magic, and Castle in the Air by Diana Wynne Jones (Note: Plus lots of other DWJ books!)
Recommended by ceitfianna: A Circle of Cats by Charles De Lint and Charles Vess
Recommended by “Just Jo”: The Moon in the Cloud by Rosemary Harris
Recommended by Freelancer: The Three Lives of Thomasina (A movie, not a book)
Recommended by “Carbonel”:
-
Breed to Come by Andre Norton (Carbonel’s note: “Andre Norton is simply excellent on cats, whenever they make an appearance.”)
-
Grimbold’s Other World by Nicholas Stuart Grey (Also recommended by “geraniumcat”.)
-
Jennie by Paul Gallico (Note: I’ve not read this, but Gallico is one of the most beautiful writers ever.)
-
Jenny Linsky, authoress Esther Averill
Recommended by leighdb:
-
Storm Rising by Mercedes Lackey (Her Valdemar books are mostly about companion horses, but cats show up later.)
-
Tower and the Hive by Anne McCaffrey (“I’m not sure I would recommend the books regardless; they start out well but go swiftly downhill in quality.” Note: These are actually the only Anne McCaffrey books that I loved pretty much wholeheartedly.)
-
Bunnicula by Deborah and James Howe (“[They] are hilarious and absolutely delightful…told from the point of view of the dog, Harold, but Chester the cat is unquestionably the best character in the books. Great fun. Also, The Celery Stalks at Midnight is one of my favorite pun titles ever.”)
Recommended by jamesedjones (seconded by Nina): The Black Unicorn by Terry Brooks
Recommended by Amalisa: Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats T. S. Eliot (Note: I am ashamed to say I haven’t read this.)
Recommended by Quercus:
-
Beautiful Joe by Marshall Saunders (Pam Adams says: classic children’s dog story)
-
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis (Note: While there is a major cat plot point, there aren’t really cats in the book. I’m leaving it in however, because it is one of my favourite books of all time and everyone should read it. Right now.)
Recommended by jskanderson: Fool on the Hill by Matt Ruff (jskanderson says it has a terrific cat and dog)
Recommended by Angiportus:
-
Thomasina by Paul Gallico
-
The Story of Serapina by Anne H. White
-
The Mysterious Cat of Cobbie Bean by Barbee Oliver Carleton
-
The White Panther by T.J. Waldeck
-
Harimau, Simba of the White Mane, Jangwa, Yellow Eyes, Utah Lion, Bichu the Jaguar, and the Wahoo Bobcat (Note: WARNING at least one of these, Harimau, has a grim ending.)
-
Animal Heroes by Ernest Thompson Seton (All recommended by Angiportus. Note: I worry about including a lot of this list because I suspect some of them don’t qualify as happy stories. Thoughts? Gallico is one of my favourite authors, ever, but his stories are often unhappy.)
Recommended by cybernetic_nomad: Catwings Ursula K. LeGuin’s
Recommended by NancyLebovitz: Cats in Cyberspace by Beth Hilgartner
Recommended by Jstarr:
-
Outworld Cats by Jack Lovejoy (Josh mentions he hasn’t actually read this; can anyone say anything about it?)
-
Rosemary and Rue by Seannan Macguire (Note: There is a major cat character, he’s just kind of human, sometimes. Maybe.)
Recommended by Megan Messinger:
-
Catswold Portal by Sherwood Smith
-
Calling on Dragons by Patricia C. Wrede (Note: All of her Enchanted Forest books are entirely worth reading and full of great animals)
-
Timecat by Lloyd Alexander
-
No One Noticed the Cat by Anne McCaffrey
-
Watership Down by Richard Adams
“It’s about rabbits, not cats, but a) there is a cat in it, and b) it’s awesome.”
Recommended by Irene:
-
The Questing Road by Lyn McConchie
-
Starcat World by Andre Norton (Irene mentions that she hasn’t read it since 5th grade and has been told it doesn’t stand up well over time)
We are entering the section of the list that deals more with “and a cat” than “all about a cat” (also possibly substitute rat/dog/pony etc. for cat):
Recommended by cybernetic_nomad:
-
Rootabaga by Carl Sandburg (stories include one featuring “5 rusty rats”)
-
Cheek by Jowl by Ursula Le Guin (“She has some cogent and thought-chewy things to say. Therein, she points out that some works, like Watership Down, impose human gender-roles/politics on animals and these are neither true/realistic nor edifying even when the books are otherwise a fun read.”)
Recommended by Milo1313:
-
Coraline by Neil Gaiman
-
The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
-
Chrestomanci series by Diana Wynne Jones
-
Milo and Otis
Recommended by me:
-
Red Dwarf: Infinity welcomes careful drivers by Grant Naylor (There’s a highly evolved cat-person)
-
Cat The Who Walked Through Walls by Robert Heinlein
We foster cats and are always looking for cat names, what would you or have you named a cat that you are proud of?
Nina Lourie is totally enraptured with tiny baby tiger cubs this time, thanks to Melissa Singer. Tybalt (His Tybs), we recently discovered, is part Maine Coon and has started growing to prove it. He still needs a loving home who wants a ginormous, purring, ginger lap kitty with tufty ears. Tad Williams once inscribed the title of this post in a well-loved copy of Tailchaser’s Song, to the delight of a friend of mine.
These are short stories rather than books, but I would recommend Lovecraft’s The Cats of Ulthar and The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, where the cats totally kick butt. I’ve read Andre Norton’s All Cats are Gray and really liked it. I second Le Guin’s Catwings. I read it as a kid, and it’s still on my bookshelf, but I haven’t picked it up in quite a few years. I also like her stories ‘Schrodinger’s Cat’ (featuring a cat and a dog) and ‘Mazes’ (about mice), both in The Compass Rose, but they’re not terribly happy.
This is awesome, this is basically going to be my summer reading list.
About White Cat by Holly Black, everything I’ve read says that it’s a story about people but a cat plays a major role in it (so it’s not a book entirely about cats).
In City of Bones there was a cat named Chairman Meow and I always wanted to name a cat that, though it was pretty cute.
Our current cat is (Mad) Leela, after the Fourth Doctor’s companion. She survived a very difficult kittenhood and we felt she deserved a warrior’s name.
Awesome list, Nina! I haven’t named any cats, but my rats were/are: Weasel, Squeakers, Nala (from The Lion King, Autumn, Daisy, Chico, Russia, Dexter (after the TV/book character), Hywel (Welsh for “Howell”, after Wizard Howl), and Odd (after Gaiman’s Odd and the Frost Giants. My last betta was Tarsem (the director of The Fall) and the newest boy is Raylan (from Justified and Elmore Leonard).
Oh, and Spindle’s End by Robin McKinley features talking animals, though not so much cats. Just about every other animal, especially foxes, dogs, and a hawk, as well as insects, mice, etc., and even a talking house. Plus it’s a totally awesome book :)
Wrong genre but:
For years I thought I’d name my next cat C. K. Dexter Haven but, when the time came he jumped out of the carrier and I sad, “You’re home, Jack” without thinking about it.
Thought I’d mention the two “Feline Wizard” books in Diane Duane’s Young Wizards stories, _The Book of Night With Moon_ and _To Visit The Queen_.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_duane#Feline_Wizards
Another cat: the horse-tall, harp-loving Llyan of Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain books.
What about “the amazing Maurice and his educated roddents” ? By Terry Pratchett, Maurice thinks just like I thought a cat thinks (wich means, mostly of himself) It’s a great children’s book, but definitly recommended for adults as well!
I can’t believe no-one has suggested Gabriel King’s The Wild Road and its sequel The Golden Cat! Wonderful books, and they couldn’t be more cat oriented. Not at all fluffy – it’s style and tone is more along the lines of what Watership Down was for rabbits.
Another cat book I read recently was Catalyst: A Tale of the Barque Cats by Mercedes Lackey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough. Great idea in principal, but I wasn’t a fan of the storytelling – it seemed rather… unfinished, and rushed. This is the first in a new series. It’s about the emergence of telepathic cats and their human bonds on spaceships. And some Egyptian influenced mysticism thrown in for good measure.
Speaking of telepathic cats/humans, that covers The Ghatti’s Tale and all the subsequent books in the series, by Gayle Greeno. They are about cat/human pairs which use telepathy to determine truth. I liked these a lot to start with, but (for me) they went downhill and I particularly didn’t like some of the later ones when they got into unpleasant characters and gratuitous explicitness. Or perhaps it wouldn’t seem gratuitous to everyone, but it was not to my taste. I stopped reading the series at that point.
There’s also Kij Johnson’s Fudoki, about a dying princess in Heian-era Japan who writes about the adventures of a cat who turns into a woman (and yet is still pretty much a cat). Not sure if that counts. :) Jo Walton wrote about it not too long ago.
Two short stories for your cat needs:
‘Tobermory’ by Saki (H H Munro)
‘The Price’ by Neil Gaiman
My favorite fantasy cat is Mogget in Lirael, Sabriel and Abhorsen by Garth Nix. Rude, obnoxious, loves fish, and just happens to be extremely deadly if his collar is removed. Otherwise he’s a talking small white cat.
As for cat names – my most loved and missed cat was called Tornado Max, named because he ran around our tiny apartment at top speed the entire time the tornado alarms were going off the night we brought him home. He was 6 weeks old and we should have realized what a terror he was going to be. My husband wants to name cats after food, especially Muffin or Doughnut. These are best fits for cats who enjoy eating these foods, which we have had. I prefer human names, like Charlie, but I also have Mitt (for Mittens), Tiggy and Smokey who all came with their names from the humane society as adults.
I’m surprised no-ones mentioned – Varjak Paw by SF Said
Previous cat names from my family:
Jacques Cousteau (Cousteau)
Auscious
Florence Nightingale (Nitey)
dog: Sir Winston Churchill (Winston or Winnie)
Robert Westall has written several great cat stories, including The Cats of Seroster and Blitzcat. I would also recommend an amazing story from Rachel and the Angel which unfortunately I cannot remember the title of…
Holly Lisle’s Faia-Series (Fire in the Mist, Bones of the Past, Mind of the Magic) is not about cats, but has some small scenes about cats with hands and the mischief they get into …
Usul and Chani (Chani died about eight weeks ago…was 15 years old) brother and sister cats found in a field in Florida.
What a great post! Don’t forget the sequel to Rosemary and Rue—A Local Habitation. Not to mention, Ellen Datlow’s recent anthology, Tails of Wonder and Imagination. :)
Just to add one oldie, Cordwainer Smith had some memorable cat-people in his stories (“The Ballad of Lost C’Mell”, e.g.). And on the new end of the spectrum, Jay Lake’s very entertaining novel Green has a great cat-like race.
My one and only’s cat was named J.J. – He was fast like Jimmie Johnson. Seemed fitting.
I would love to see a post about dog books – or books with dogs in them!! I’m always looking for more…
There’s one book that may be out of print but I’ve always loved it. “archy and mehitabel” was written by Don Marquis. It’s told from the point of view of archy, a cockroach, but mehitabel is the cat. Here is the wikipedia page about it.
What about Cat-A-Lyst by Alan Dean Foster? It features a race of sentient cat-like beings.
How could anyone miss Fritz Leiber’s short story, “Spacetime for Springers?”
In the novel category, not yet mentioned (?), is Solo’s Journey by Joan Aiken
And, since someone notified me that my Ratha series was mentioned here, (though I can’t find the comment ?), I will say it is about large sentient prehistoric cats struggling to survive and create a community.
The first book is Ratha’s Creature, followed by Clan Ground, Ratha and Thistle-chaser, Ratha’s Challenge, and the new Ratha’s Courage. For more info:
http://www.rathascourage.com
Clare Bell
Tamsin, by Peter S. Beagle and (to a lesser extent) The Door into Summer by R.E. Heinlein both have cat plot points. There are also many wonderful cat short stories in the anthologies Catfantastic I through V, edited by Andre Norton and Martin Greenberg.
The Catswold Portal is actually by Shirley Rousseau Murphy, not Sherwood Smith. It’s an excellent book with some really sad backstory revealed throughout that builds up the plot.
There a few that I’ve done covers for:
“Track of the Cat” by Nevada Barr, featuring a mountain lion,”The Man who Understood Cats” by Michael Allen Dymmoch, depicts a self-portrait and “Mittens”, Lucifer’s own sidekick, and”The Enchanted Cat” by Ellen Dugan, which is about the cat’s connection to the occult world.
Hm, to follow up on the awesome cat in Watership Down, a mention should definitely be made of Peter S. Beagle’s The Last Unicorn. That’s also a book in which the cat isn’t a central character, but he absolutely embodies what I’ve always felt a talking cat would be.
Tanya Huff’s Summon the Keeper has a great cat in it.
Oh, and you list Catswold Portal as being by Sherwood Smith when the author is Shirley Rousseau Murphy (who also has a great mystery series with a talking cat)
~Nicole
I had a Twilight Zone moment as I started reading this page, as I only recently read the second and third Carbonel books myself. I read the first two as a kid many many times, and didn’t even know the third existed until last year (thanks Amazon!).
There’s an entire series of Jenny books by Esther Averill. My favorite is Jenny Goes to Sea.
For younger kids, Graham Oakley’s Church Mice series features a wonderful ginger cat and his many mousey friends.
And bringing in the big cats: How about the Kzinti in Larry Niven’s Known Space books? Speaker-to-Animals is one of my favorite characters!
This was a great post. I love cat books and all of the books in the Joe Grey series by Shirley Rosseau Murphy are really fun to read. Make sure to read “Catswold Portal” first so you have the backstory. Thanks for all the new titles to look for.
As far as cats’ names go…I currently have
Notion, Buddy (so-named because he reminded me of Gilligan…remember Skipper always saying, “Hey, little buddy…) and Peep, for the sound he made we he showed up weighing only .9 of a pound. According to the vet, he is part Maine Coon and to quote him, “when he grows into those feet, he will be huge.”
Former cat names have included Skidget, Sunshine, Ishmael, Li’l Bit, and Patches.
The Chanur series by C. J. Cherryh (which I recommend) has a “feline-like species” as main characters.
Here is the wikipedia page
My first thought was Cat-A-Lyst, but someone beat me to it. I also agree the Joe Grey books are a good read. If we’re going outside genre (the Joe Grey books are mysteries, not SF/F), then the Mrs. Murphy series by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky-Pie Brown should get a mention.
The article mentions “The Tower and Hive” series by Anne McCaffery. I think they meant the Doona series. The Doona series features a race of cat-like aliens.
I don’t recall any cats in the Tower and Hive series. I could be wrong though, unlike the Pern series I don’t re-read it on a yearly basis… hmm, I think I know what I’ll go do right now…
I am still fairly convinced that the best SF cat story of all time is Leiber’s “Space-Time for Springers.” If you have not read it, do yourself a favor. But you can skip the sequel. In my admittedly biased opinion. There are also some fine cats in Heinlein (for instance in The Door into Summer).
I remember reading Sam the Cat: Detective and it was pretty awesome. I went to verify the title just now and discovered that there are more than just that one in a series. Wow! I might have to track the rest down now for some childhood nostalgia.
Oh, come on! No mention of Nanny Ogg’s Greebo in Witches Abroad?
And, worse yet, not mention of Cheeryh’s hani in the Chanur series?
Tsk tsk tsk.
(I second the reccomendation for The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents: Pratchett knows cats)
A friend of mine sent me the link to this page, knowing that as a cat-lover, I love to read about cats. :) I have a few additions.
I’m surprised that two classics weren’t mentioned:
The Fur Person, May Sarton – told from a wandering cat’s point of view, very charming.
Particularly Cats, Doris Lessing – A memoir about all the cats in Lessing’s life.
Also: A Snowflake in My Hand, Samantha Mooney – This is also a memoir, by someone who took care of very sick cats. To be honest, I’ve had this book on my bookshelf for maybe 30 years, and I still haven’t been able to bring myself to read it! I’m sure it’s very sad… but some may find it uplifting, so I’m including it.
Cat Stories, collected by Roger Caras – This is just a collection of previously published stories that feature, or are sometimes even about, cats, although in some stories, cats are somewhat peripheral. The stories are all very well written and span a number of genres. And I think there are two volumes, but I’ve only seen one.
And I just thought of two more!
Terrier by Tamora Pierce (a fairly advanced young adult book). It’s about Bekka Cooper, a teenage girl from the slums of the city of Corus in Tortall who is training to be a “Provost’s Dog” – a member of the police. It documents her first training year on the streets. It features a mysterious, sometimes talking, cat called Pounce, who also appears in a another guise in Pierce’s Song of the Lioness series set in the same world.
Secondly, the early original series Star Trek novel Uhura’s Song by Janet Kagan. This is more a fantasy novel than a Star Trek novel. The usual characters find themselves battling to find the cure for a deadly disease afflicting a race of sentient felines (and humans), and the cure lies with their lost homeworld. The book documents the crew’s rite of passage to gain the knowledge they need in the feline culture of the homeworld, who are not primitive, but choose to live in the forests in harmony with nature. Wonderful book! Imagine a race of bipeds like us but evolved from cats!
Terry Pratchett also wrote The Unadulterated Cat. It’s all his wit and parody talent, unhampered by any need for a coherent plot.
Yay! A list of feline literature, what a wonderful idea. An author who really understands cats (and who is awesome in a number of other ways) is Neil Gaiman. I saw Coraline mentioned above, but my all-time favourite cat-story remains A Dream of a Thousand Cats from the third volume of Sandman (Dream Country). It is a free-standing short story that can be read without the context of the rest of the Sandman universe. I would warmly recommend reading the series in its entirety, though. Not only is it awesome in all possible ways, but there are quite a few cats (or feline deities) showing up throughout the story.
As for cat names, I tend to name my cats after fictional kitties. My current darling is called Mizar, who is a character in the Sandman series (though not a feline one). Well, that’s at least half the reason I named her Mizar, since her name is also the name of a star in the Big Dipper. Yes, I’m an astronomy geek. And proud of it!
I can recommend “Felidae” from Akif Pirincci. He is a German author with Turkish origins. I read it years ago and enjoyed it very much. It’s roughly about a cat who plays detective amoung the cats of the neighborhood.
Don’t forget _Decision at Doona_ and its two sequels by Marion Zimmer Bradley concerning a sentient felinoid race, and H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Rats in the Walls” which features a cool cat.
Roger Caras also wrote The Tribe of Tiger. Although I haven’t reread it in several years, stories and scenes have stayed with me. There are several other books (different authors) that weren’t as spot on, but I can’t find them to list them.
So far, we have had: Tom, Madame Ting (Ting), Muang Thai (Thai), Monsieur Monstair (Monster), Beltane, Arioch, Merlin, Gwynnedd (“Gwyneth”=Gwenny), Devon, Thor, Sif, Cai, and Olivia. I’m waiting for that singular personality that will be Samhain, pronounced “saw win”, which is Gaelic for “Halloween”.
lcwsites.org, under The Illustrated Field Guide to Lisa’s Cats has a truly impressive list of names of past and present cats.
I forgot to mention my other friends’ cats: Armageddon, Lulu, Buster, Betty, Grace (Brat Cat), and Whisper. There are several others, but memory fails.
I forgot to give my family’s cat and dog names:
Saint Francis (shorthair ginger tom – we didn’t name him)
Cinnamon-Sugar (white with brown patches)
Humbert De Non De Plume (bassett hound)
Genji (golden Lab) Her wagging caudal appendage was known as the Tail of Genji
Jennie (calico – named after Paul Galico’s heroine. I modeled one of my big cat characters after Jennie)
Lalo (small mix of who-knows-what, named after a composer)
My present cats are:
Athena (silver-gray shorthair, may be part Korat, comports herself like a Greek goddess, hence the name)
Dannycat (big longhair ginger male tom, very affectionate)
Takeo Kenzei, (huge silver-gray shorthair male, named from the Heroes TV series)
Tweak (very small tortie, named for slightly odd-shaped ear)
Scrappy (tabby and white, recently adopted us)
For tons of cat short stories, the CatFantastic anthologies, edited by Andre Norton.
My best friend has two of the most appropriately named cats ever: Calamity (Callie) and Mischief (Missy). She has plans to name a future cat Trouble (Trouby) to complete the set. My current cats are Esperanza (Esper) and Kiki (who was named after the human female in “Kiki’s Delivery Service”). My husband’s family has a small fur-covered death machine (rodents beware!) named Mama Cat, and an even smaller fur-covered menace to society named Hoffa (because he showed up on their doorstep on Labor Day). Here are some other great cats of friends and family:
Gracie (after singer Grace Slick)
Ebony
Maggie May (Maggie – after the song)
Brillig
Persephone
Cairo
and
Bocci (pronounced “Botch-ee”)
Here are some cat books I really love and highly recommend:
The Cat, a novella by french author Colette, is the fascinating, moody study of a young man’s relationship with his beautiful Russian Blue cat.
Accelerando by Charles Stross features a very feline robot cat that eventually plays a VERY important part in the lives of his main characters.
Catkin by Antonia Barber is a beautiful children’s book with illustrations by P.J. Lynch. It is a dramatic faerie tale in the classic style and the hero is a precious, brave little cat.
Beasts of New York: A children’s book for grownups by Jon Evans is a fast-paced adventure story with animals as characters á la Watership Down. It contains some great cat characters: mainly Zelina, Queen of All Cats; and also a tiger!
I also second the recommendation of Charles de Lint’s [b]A Circle of Cats with its gorgeous illustrations by Charles Vess.
Cat names: hmmm…there have been so many. We have had lots of cats with regular people names, like Cassie, Kevin, Peter, Nancy, Esmeralda (after the bumbling witch in the TV show “Bewitched”) and Lilith. We also had one called Square (don’t ask why, a child named him). Also, in Jane Lindskold’s book The Buried Pyramid, a character names her kitten Mozelle (the feminine form of Moses) because she finds the kitten in the bulrushes.
I read “Tooth and Claw” and “Skin and Bone” by Stephen Moore when I was a teenager remember them as being good stories about both cats and dogs.
My cat’s name was Victor (RIP) – I named him after a lawn mower brand because his purr was loud.
Highly Recommended Cat Book:
Ophelia by Florence Stevenson is a novel of murder, reincarnation & revenge per the paperback version’s blurb (1969). Ophelia is physically a cat in the 1st part of the book, before she is murdered & reincarnated.
Though Amazon does not show a hardback version , I borrowed one about 6 months ago through interlibrary loan & reread the book. Even after growing up it was just as good as I remembered it.
One more vote for “Space-Time for Springers” ..
Was this list only for fantasy/SF. If not I can’t believe no-one mentioned those that fall into the Crime category – Midnight Louis (Carole Nelson Douglas) and Koko (Lillian Jackson Braun). Also all the Cat Crimes collections plus many other short story collections. What about the ‘Warriors’ series?
I have one bookcase dedicated to cat books and thanks to this list have found a whole lot of new authors to look out for. Thanks!
I had never heard anyone else mention Grimbold’s Other World, which I’ve loved since childhood, so I’m delighted to see it mentioned here. It’s a lovely offbeat book; I’ve just coaxed my son into starting it.
If you’re going with movies as well then there’s the anime movie The Cat Returns from Studio Ghibli.
I had a cat who was an escape artist, so I named him Silk after the thief in the Belgariad Series by David Eddings. Just so happens that he grew up to have the most amazingly soft fur.
A favorite series of mine is the Honor Harrington series of books by David Weber. They feature a race of empathic felinoids known as Treecats.
Wow! Thankyou so much Rathacat!!
I have been searching for the book Solo’s Journey for years! I read it from the library as a child and absolutely adored it – but could only recall the word ‘Solo’ about it. I’ve been doing intermittent google searches for it for years and only just found it online due to your comment! There is a few copies at amazon, so i’m off to buy myself a copy right now!!
P.S – Jennie by Paul Galico was another alltime favourite – I was on the edge of my seat the entire time – especially the ending! His wonderful portrayal of cat mannerisms as social etiquette has always stayed with me, and to this day I can’t see a cat washing itself without thinking ‘When in doubt, Wash!’. Loved it!
Thanks again!
Epsilon
Australia