Whole Health for Happy Cats

A Guide to Keeping Your Cat Naturally Healthy, Happy and Well-Fed
by Sandy Arora

I have to admit I picked this book up from a library sale just because it has such gorgeous photographs. Whole Health for Happy Cats describes in simple, easy-to understand language how to care for your cat "naturally": feed a raw food diet, use herbs and home remedies for simple ailments, how to monitor your cat's health and even deal with some behavior issues. The part that interested me most was the section on raw foods- the book claims that having a nutritionally correct, raw food diet will prevent many problems cats have- it got me to thinking that if I could grind up chicken carcasses and add all the strange-named additive powders (I'm unfamiliar with most of them) for my kitties, one would stop loosing his facial fur, the other quit having upset stomachs and fleas will find them both unattractive!

I really skimmed over the pages about herbs and flower essences, because I can't imagine myself mixing up remedies at home. But if that's something you're interested in, this book is full of information and charts to help you get started. I've never used things like aromatherapy or acupuncture for myself, much less my cats, so I was kind of skeptical about some of the content. If I did decide to introduce a raw food diet, or try herbal remedies, I'd do more reading first. But this attractive, reader-friendly book (I went through the entire volume in one day) was a great introduction for me to the ideas.

And it answered one question for me: why does my cat like to chew on plastic grocery bags? and the other one lick photographs? Apparently these behaviors aren't as strange as I thought: the plastic and photo chemical coatings are made with animal fat or fish oils, and the residue has a smell that attracts kitties. I had no idea.

Rating: 3/5               184 pages, 2006