The Cat Who Came in from the Cold

A gullible cat owner tells how he was won over by the soaking wet kitten he found in his garden and how the pet changed his life, in a captivating true story illustrated with black-and-white line drawings.

Longden was never a cat-lover, but a rain-soaked white kitten in his neighbor's yard changed all that. He and his wife, English novelist Aileen Armitage, adopted the stray and named him Thermal after he nearly froze in their refrigerator. In this heartwarming, genial account, which is flecked with puckish humor and endearingly illustrated with line drawings, the British radio broadcaster recounts the misadventures of a high-energy cat who eats peanut butter, cavorts with dachshunds, shreds envelopes while sitting in a wastebasket and stays away from home for a full month. Longden's cheerfully busy household expands when a second adoptee, Tigger, turns the cellar into a halfway house for roving neighborhood cats. As Thermal changes from an ankle-rubbing sycophant to a toilet-roll-spinning terror, it's touching to watch Longden's affection for and understanding of his furry soulmate continually deepen.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A middle-aged man with a crusty personality who never thought of himself as a cat lover finds himself won over by a stray white kitten. Sound familiar? Like Cleveland Amory in The Cat Who Came for Christmas ( LJ 10/1/87), Longden relates how he rescued a kitten, Thermal, from the cold rain, describing all the joys and trials of raising a kitten. Although Thermal's imaginary conversations and observations with Longden are quite engaging, the British setting and dialog are not as charming as James Herriott's animal stories, and the narrative is not as amusing as Amory's. This is recommended only for libraries whose patrons demand another man-meets-cat book. See also William S. Burroughs's The Cat Inside and Dee Ready's A Cat's Life: Dulcy's Story , reviewed above.--Ed.
- Eva Lautemann, DeKalb Coll. Lib., Clarkston, Ga.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.