Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul by Amy D. Shojai, Carol Kline, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Marty Becker (2005, Paperback)

I have four cats sharing my space -- I recently lost one to a series of strokes and the final gentleness of modern veterinary medicine. I love cats and have shared most of my life with them, but never written stories about mine ... I find myself enjoying reading about other people's cats, then comparing them to my own. This joy has been savored time and again over many years.

That's why I snatched up this book the moment I saw it on the shelf. I have all the other 'Chicken Soup' books about pets -- but this is the first one that is dedicated to cats alone. With great anticipation I swallowed it in one long night -- and came away downhearted. Tearful, no less.

Y'see, most of the stories in the last section were about death and dying cats. Some heroic, some suffering, some going peacefully -- but all heart-rending to read for someone who had recently euthanized a dear friend of seven years. I, too, had to take a loving character from my own life to the vet -- then held her in my arms as she died from the shot they gave her.

Not 'slipped away', but made to sleep, then sleep some more, so deeply as to never wake. To relive that momement in every one of that chapter's short stories
had me in tears. I couldn't understand how these loving people could even write about such a traumatic experience, much less publish it. How they could relive it in print...

The next day I reviewed again this book of stories of people's cats and the profound effect they had on their human keepers' lives. I had laughed at some, and cried at some, and smiled through all the rest -- just like real life with a cat or two -- or four. I realized I saw a lot of my own experiences in this book, no matter how different were the cats or the people, there was one thing that stayed the same throughout:

They loved each other. Simple, straightforward and true. The human-cat bond in real life.

You may want to read it over several nights, though. And keep a box of tissues handy.

This review is dedicated to Hobbes, and all the other pets who wait for us on the other side, over the Rainbow Bridge ...