Diary of a Cat

True Confessions and Lifelong Observations of a Well-Adjusted House Cat
by Leigh W. Rutledge

Another brief read, that was mildly entertaining. Diary of a Cat is just that: a few entries per month in one year of a cat's life. I thought it was going to give inner cat-perspective on why they do things like stare at the wall, go crazy running around, etc. But the cat's voice would just state things like: watched a speck on the wall for almost an hour or I was eating the wrapping paper without any explanation (where are the confessions?). That kind of disappointed me. Nevertheless, it's an interesting little book, mostly in the ongoings of the neighborhood described through what the cat sees: an elderly lady who goes missing, a couple who hordes cats, another who keeps a huge, destructive dog in her backyard, a third who argues constantly with her teenage daughter, a depressed little boy constantly yelled at by his father. Some of these scenarios had surprising outcomes, others a bit more disturbing. None turned out the way I expected. Then there's the doings of our narrator's own household: his elderly owner adopts a new kitten, then an emaciated stray- I was expecting a long, drawn-out adjustment period but the cat just stoically accepted the newcomers after what seemed to be a few days of mild spitting and ignoring each other. (Maybe other people's cats act like this when new cats come into the home, but mine sure didn't! It was outright warfare and jealous wailing rages for weeks on end). Then the cats' owner becomes seriously ill and the caretaker who arrives happens to hate cats. A friendly neighbor tries to interfere when she determines to get rid of them all... One of the funniest things is the expression in the cat's face on the cover- he has little prim smirk, just like you'd expect. And something I found odd, but has nothing to do with the writing: the pages were not numbered. There's a little cat sitting at the bottom of each page, but no numbers. This book came to me via Paperback Swap, and it will go right out again that way; it was nice enough but I don't think I'll read it again.

Rating: 2/5                   176 pages, 1995