Cleveland Amory - The Cat who Came for Christmas

review by Ro Bennett on recorded show dec 2011

I found this book whilst looking for titles with the word Christmas in. I thought it would be a lightweight, probably twee read, partly because of the cover. How wrong I was! It’s an excellent book but is currently not available on KIndle or i books.

This is from the Book Description and the back cover :

This is the heart-warming and often hilarious story of Polar Bear, an abandoned white cat - and the man he owned.

Cleveland Amory was an unsentimental, middle-aged journalist who preferred dogs. But then, one snowy Christmas Eve, he found himself in a deserted New York alley trying to rescue a starving, hurt and not-too-friendly white cat. And of course, he had no idea that this encounter would change his life forever.

This is the story of their first year together, the story of a stray cat with a mind of his own, and the curmudgeonly man who grew to love him.

If you have ever owned a cat, or been owned by one, you will recognize and delight in the journey that followed this Christmas Eve encounter.

In this extract the author is described as curmudgeonly - well I had to look that word up and several others as I read the book - for instance ailurophile, peroration, discombobulate. It’s not a light weight, quick read. However don’t be put off by this as it doesn’t detract from the enjoyment of the book which maintained the number 1 spot in the New York Times best seller list for 12 weeks when it was first published in 1988 and has been repeatedly re-published since. The copy I bought was printed in October of this year, so that indicates its ongoing popularity.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a delightful, heart-warming story and often very funny but frequently poignant. The little cat needed emergency rescuing as he had several wounds and an injured back where someone had reportedly thrown things at him and hit him. He was consequently terribly frightened, not particularly fond of humans, filthy and thin. Once bathed, which was no mean feat, there emerged a beautiful white cat with exquisite eyes.

So the reader follows the story of how a mutual friendship, trust and understanding develop between a grumpy, set in his ways bachelor and a stubborn, wary little creature with a mind of his own and bubbling with personality.

It’s a witty but also an informative book. I learnt more about cats, but also about the author’s role in the early efforts by The Fund for Animals to protect whales and baby seals being brutally exploited by human beings.

Cleveland Amory was born in 1917. He founded The Fund for Animals in 1967, an organisation which campaigns against all forms of cruelty to animals throughout the world. He was a distinguished American journalist, satirist and novelist. He died aged 81 in 1998, and was buried next to his beloved cat, Polar Bear.

I Googled the Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch which is a sanctuary for animals in Texas and that is a very interesting site to explore.

(fyi: An ailurophile is a person who likes cats, discombobulate means to discomfit, faze and peroration is to speak at great length, often in a grandiloquent manner.)