What Faust the Dancing Cat Taught Me

When a skeletal, wheezy, parasite-ridden, vampire-toothed cat confronts Signe Dayhoff, this gray, amber-eyed Mephistopheles hypnotizes her into selling her animal-patsy soul to him. However, he rewards her royally with demonstrations of his increasingly intricate two-legged Gene Kelly dance steps, Willie Mays Wiffle ball catches, and film noir reviews. What follows is how he involves her in his feline deviltry and wild, humorous, and sometimes scary adventures. As they travel around together, by bicycle, car, and plane, Faust gathers admiring audiences and photographers when he is seated on a chair at a Rockport, MA, restaurant eating daintily from his place setting, wrapped around Dayhoff's neck at an art gallery in Richmond, VA, dancing to Celtic music at an outdoor hammered dulcimer festival in Binghamton, NY, or encountering a redneck cop in Tampa, FL. Human cat-companions will identify with Dayhoff and Faust’s endearing, and occasionally frustrating, feline idiosyncracies. This true-to-life feline version of "Travels With Charley" covering their first two years together will tickle your funny bone and warm your heart.

Dr. Signe A. Dayhoff, PhD, is a social psychologist, social effectiveness coach, applied feline behaviorist, and author of 17 books. She lives in Placitas, NM, where she volunteers to socialize cats for adoption to loving homes for the non-profit, no-kill Companion Animal Rescue and Medical Assistance (CARMA) in Corrales. She is also kitty-mom to 20-plus senior and disabled cats.