My Cat Saved My Life
by Phillip Schreibman
Our Price: $12.95
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Phillip SchreibmanEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1998-04-01
ISBN: 0968327303
Number of pages: 128
Publisher: Dogs Bark Publishing
Book Reviews of My Cat Saved My Life
Book Review: Sometimes Animals Are Our Best Friends
Summary: 5 Stars
I have always been of the belief that animals can be enormously beneficial to the emotional well-being of humans, and have always loved animals, cats in particular. This book is small, but don't be fooled: it is a true emotional roller coaster that gets to the essence of the human-animal emotional bond better than any other book I have read.
Phillip Schreibman was grieving over the loss of both of his parents after long, tortuous illnesses. He had found himself inconsolable and depressed. Much to his surprise the one who finally led him out of his depression was a tiny little orphaned kitten he took in and named Alice. Over her lifetime she managed to teach him important lessons he had never understood before, and ultimately even prepared him for her own passing. There is no question that there is great sadness in this book, but it is ultimately uplifting, as the lessons Phillip learned from "Cat School", as he called it, let him regain a firm foothold on his own life.
This book was particularly touching to me as it paralleled an encounter with a kitten, "Ghost Blimp" (a.k.a. "Gloovis") who I took in when she was a tiny ball of fur, and who graced my life for seven years, like Alice. Although those seven years were far too short, in that time her presence helped me recover from the loss of my father. My point here in telling you this is that the lessons Schreibman learns from Alice are universally applicable to other lives as well. I believe that whatever animal you choose to keep company with has lessons to teach you.
My only critique of the book would be a disagreement with a couple of the specific conclusions that Schreibman draws about "Creation" versus "Culture." Having said that, it is his book, and the conclusions he draws are important for him to tell. Everyone would have slightly different conclusions after going through events like those relayed here, but that does not diminish the power of this little book.
I highly recommend this book for anyone who is grieving for any reason, particularly after the loss of a loved one, and also to any animal lover. Thank you Phillip, and thank you, Alice, even more for this beautiful book.
Summary of My Cat Saved My Life
The true story of the friendship of a man and a cat named Alice who led him from despair to a new understanding of time, space and existence."This is a small story in the stories of the world," announces author Phillip Schreibman in his introduction to My Cat Saved My Life. "It's about a man and a cat and what the cat showed the man before it was too late."
Schreibman was a composer for theater and television in Toronto when both of his parents died, six years apart, after long illnesses. The losses hit him hard, and he plunged into despair. He found himself "confused among people, angry at trifles, depressed and distracted in all my endeavours." At 39 years old, he felt that his life had "ground to a halt."
Enter Alice, a tiny, abandoned kitten in desperate need of rescue. Schreibman, whose own cat had been killed two weeks earlier in an act of monstrous cruelty, could see that if he didn't save the kitten, it would die. What he didn't yet know was that the 6-week-old life he was saving would in turn revive his own.
As he and the cat began living together, Alice insisted that Schreibman pay attention to her. She'd wake him up early, sometimes by knocking the alarm clock on the floor if he didn't respond to gentler urgings. "C'mon, let's have breakfast," she was telling him. When he was stuck indoors fretting over bills at his desk, she would pull him away to show him something in her world. "Usually it was a bird in a branch or a sudden summer downpour; maybe a burst of midwinter sunshine was flooding the yard. I had ceased paying attention to these things." And that may have been Alice's greatest gift to Schreibman (and to us): teaching him to notice and appreciate the small wonders of everyday life.
My Cat is a book of rare emotional candor. Its beauty lies in the author's willingness to expose his rawest nerve, describe his own pettiness and fears, and recognize the fallacy of human superiority over other life. "My cat woke me up," Schreibman concludes. If we're willing to pay respectful attention, perhaps our cats will do the same for us. --Charles Smyth
Motivational Books
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Appetite: Neural and Behavioural Bases (Oxford Science Publications)Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1995-01-19; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $72.20
Price in other shops:
Neuroeconomics: A Guide to the New Science of Making Choicesby Peter Politser
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2008-03-12; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $31.41
Price in other shops:
The Law of Successby Napoleon Hill
Penguin Audio; Published: 2008-12-26; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $16.04
Price in other shops:
Russell Simmons' Do You!: 12 Laws to Access the Power in You to Achieve Happiness and Successby Russell Simmons, Chris Morrow
Penguin Audio; Published: 2007-04-24; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $11.30
Price in other shops:
The Comfort Trap or, What If You're Riding a Dead Horse?by Judith Sills
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2005-05-31; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.52
Price in other shops:
Golf in the Kingdom (An Esalen Book)by Michael Murphy
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1992-03-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.18
Price in other shops:
Single Case Experimental Designs: Strategies for Studying Behaviour Change (General Psychology)by Michel Hersen, David Barlow
Elsevier; Published: 1976-09; Hardcover; Book
All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergartenby Robert Fulghum
Ballantine Books; Published: 2004-05-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.10
Price in other shops:
The Purpose-Driven Lifeby Rick Warren
Zondervan; Published: 2002-11-01; Audio Cassette; Book
Best price: $2.90
Price in other shops:
The Right Questions: Ten Essential Questions To Guide You To An Extraordinary Lifeby Debbie Ford
HarperOne; Published: 2003-04-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.45
Price in other shops:
The Fur Personby May Sarton
W. W. Norton & Company; Published: 1983-11-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.17
Price in other shops:
The Rainbow Bridge: Pet Loss Is Heaven's Gainby Niki Behrikis Shanahan
Pete Publishing; Published: 2007-05-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.67
Price in other shops:
The Craggy Hole in My Heart and the Cat Who Fixed It: Over the Edge and Back with My Dad, My Cat, and Meby Geneen Roth
Three Rivers Press; Published: 2005-06-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.74
Price in other shops:
There is Eternal Life for Animalsby Niki Behrikis Shanahan
Pete Publishing; Published: 2002-06-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.50
Price in other shops:
All My Patients Are under the Bedby Dr. Louis J. Camuti
Touchstone; Published: 1985-03-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.39
Price in other shops: