How to Argue with a Cat: A Human's Guide to the Art of Persuasion

Learn how to persuade cats—the world’s most skeptical and cautious negotiators—with this primer on rhetoric and argument from the New York Times bestselling author of Thank You for Arguing!

Cats are skilled manipulators who can talk you into just about anything without a single word (or maybe a meow or two). They can get you to drop whatever you’re doing and play with them. They can make you serve their dinner way ahead of schedule. They can get you to sit down right this instant and provide a lap. On the other hand, try getting a cat to do what you want....

While it’s hard, persuading a cat is possible. And after that, persuading humans becomes a breeze, and that is what you will learn in this book. How to Argue with a Cat will teach you how to:

· Hold an intelligent conversation—one of the few things easier to do with a cat than a human.
· Argue logically, even if your opponent is furry and irrational.
· Hack up a fallacy (the hairball of logic).
· Make your body do the talking (cats are very good at this).
· Master decorum: the art of fitting in with cats, venture capitalists, or humans.
· Learn the wisdom of predator timing to pounce at the right moment.
· Get someone to do something or stop doing it.
· Earn any creature’s respect and loyalty.

JAY HEINRICHS is the New York Times bestselling author of Thank You for Arguing who spent 26 years as a writer, editor, and magazine publishing executive before becoming a full-time advocate for the lost art of rhetoric. He now lectures widely on the subject, to audiences ranging from Ivy League students and NASA scientists to Southwest Airlines executives, and runs the language blog figarospeech. He lives with his wife and their cats in New Hampshire.

NATALIE PALMER-SUTTON is an art director, illustrator, editor, animator, artist, designer and sometimes writer who lives with her lovely husband and lovely children in Buckhurst Hill, England.