How to Talk to Your Cat
by Jean Craighead George
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jean Craighead GeorgeIllustrator: Paul Meisel
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2003-02-04
ISBN: 0060006226
Number of pages: 40
Publisher: HarperCollins
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780060006228
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of How to Talk to Your Cat
Book Review: Book filled with inaccuracies
Summary: 1 Stars
My daughter and I read "How to Talk to Your Cat" and were amazed by the number of inaccuracies stated throughout the book.
The author states that cats are "completely self-sufficient and can leave you at any time and go off and make a living." It's this kind of ignorance that contributed to the explosion in the feral cat population we face today! People pick up and move and abandon their cats thinking they can fend for themselves. Hunting is learned by watching other cats, and then putting those lessons into practice until they are perfected. Offspring of non-hunting cats rarely make good hunters themselves. In other words, house cats that have never been outdoors could never just "leave at any time and go off and make a living." They'd starve to death!
She also states that "cats are loners" and they "don't like company, including other cats." Cats are not anti-social. They have intricate social interactions with their own kind. Two of my cats are very social; they love the attention of people (even those they just meet) and the camaraderie of other felines. Feral cat colonies are found in every city and town throughout the world--the perfect example of their social nature. Cats also possess the ability to form close friendships with people. I own 8 cats and I have a unique relationship with each one. They are my babies and I couldn't imagine life without them.
She recommends only having one cat. She goes on to state "cats dislike other cats and will fight." Cats are social beings; they do like other cats and the only time they fight is to establish territory or male dominance, not because they dislike one another.
The author tells us that cats are o.k. with our leaving; they will not sulk. She doesn't know my cat Amber. Once I pull out the suitcases, she knows what's about to follow. She follows my every move when I go from room to room to gather things to pack all the while whimpering. I once had to cut a vacation short when her caretaker told me she wasn't eating or using the litter box. She was so upset by my absence.
Finally, she states that "the deeper the claws dig [into furniture], the more status the cat has." Huh? Scratching is a way of marking territory. Depth of the scratch has nothing to do with status. Feline social standing is measured by the amount of land a cat can lord over it. At the top of the hierarchy are unneutered males, followed by females that haven't been spayed, spayed females and at the bottom are the neutered males.
Her book would have been better suited for the fiction, not non-fiction classification.
I find it ironic that the author doesn't even own a cat, yet somehow she feels she has the knowledge and expertise to write a book about them.
Summary of How to Talk to Your Cat
Find out what your cat is really saying -- and talk back!
Jean Craighead George, Newbery Medal-winning author of over 80 books about nature and animals, demonstrates in words and photos how to communicate with that ever-mysterious, ever-lovable animal -- the cat.
Perhaps no one is better equipped to help us understand our cats than Jean Craighead George, award-winning author of over 80 books about nature and animals. This delightful picture book for cat lovers of all ages makes it perfectly clear who has the power in a human-cat relationship: the cat. But you already knew that. What you may not have known is that cats meow as many as 19 different meows (all interpreted here), that cats never purr when they are alone, that no one knows what part of the cat a purr really comes from, and what cats' various tail positions mean. Illustrator Paul Meisel's charming, cartoonish cats prance through the pages with photos of the author herself in a clever, endearing display of the human-feline relationship. Dog lovers will want to sniff out the companion title, How to Talk to Your Dog. (Ages 7 to 107) --Karin Snelson
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