Books Blog : cats

What do you get the person who has everything?

bookchick@evpl — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 18:46:00 GMT

What do you get the person who has everything?

These days of instant gratification ensure that when shopping for your loved ones you will be certain to get them something that they went out and bought for themselves on Black Friday or Cyber Monday because the sales were just too good to pass up. Then there are the post Christmas long return lines to wait in if you can even find the receipt that you carefully stored somewhere you would be sure not to forget.

No longer! I can guarantee that they won't have this! The solution is right in your own home, sleeping on your pillow, sitting on a windowsill or possibly coughing up a hairball for you to find later, in the dark, in your bare feet.

Your cat!

Crafting with Cat Hair: Cute Handicrafts to Make with Your Cat by Kaori Tsutaya is no joke and they don’t use hairball hair. These crafts are made by first brushing your feline friend and storing the hair until you have enough to felt. Then you use the felt as you would any other felted animal hair such as sheep’s wool, alpaca, and etc. It’s very clever and very eco-friendly.

The projects are small gift type things because, well, cats are small so you don’t get as much fur. There are finger puppets and scarf embellishments, pins, and a little felted cat to cover that hole in your favorite sweater because you didn’t want it to smell like moth balls. (Really, who could blame you?)

In between projects are tidbits of information such as suggestions for grooming a reluctant cat, keeping cats happy and healthy, and the origin of the author’s using cat hair in the first place. If you are a true cat lover your favorite part will undoubtedly be the bios or all the “contributors.”

If you want more check out her blog, http://nekoke.com/ (The Cat Hair Craft Room) but remember that unless you can read Japanese you’ll simply have to enjoy the pictures but there are some really cute projects in those pictures.

Making Rounds with Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat by David Dosa, MD

HRevvdon@evpl — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 22:44:00 GMT

Making Rounds with Oscar: The Extraordinary Gift of an Ordinary Cat (2010) by David Dosa, M.D. is not what I expected. I expected a heart-warming story, maybe with a little humor, about a cat on the floor that is devoted to Alzheimer’s disease within a nursing home. One summary of the book states “the story of a unique nursing-home cat whose uncanny, apparently precognitive vigils at the sides of residents who are about to die has enabled staffers to administer patient care and notice to loved ones.” So I expected the author, Dr. Dosa – a gerontologist – to write about the cat, you know, concentrate on its behavior. The book really doesn’t do that. It does start out that way.

Dr. Dosa has a hard time believing what the nurses and aides tell him about Oscar’s ability to know when a patient is dying and to then stand vigil at the side of the patient. So he starts interviewing the family members of the patients that have died. What he hears are the heartbreaking stories of the families living with and surviving this terrible disease, and they are survivors even if the loved one afflicted does not survive; and, the families do express how Oscar’s behavior comforts them. Dosa gains a better understanding of the disease and how a family member learns to deal with it. Oscar is written with a physician’s perspective on the disease, death, and dying; and, Dr. Dosa believes he is a better doctor and a more empathetic doctor as a result of the talks with the family members.

I have been blessed not to have a family member fall victim to this form of dementia, so I have no firsthand knowledge. I don’t believe I would recommend this book to someone who has experienced the death of a loved one with dementia, but those who may first be dealing with it or are concerned they will be, may have a different perspective after reading Oscar.

Boo , Boo Who, and Boo Hiss -- don't let the titles scare you.

this.is.not.here@evpl — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:06:00 GMT

We are always encouraged to read outside our comfort zone so I chose this little series of books by Rene Gutteridge The Boo Series that are tagged as Christian Fiction. The first book is called Boo and you have to read them in order. I've never read a Christian Fiction book but I'd run out of romantic suspense books to download to my mp3 player from Overdrive and I was going through withdrawal so I decided to take a chance. I listened to the first book and was pleasantly surprised to find that rather than being all "preachy" it was filled with humorous situations, and a colorful cast of charismatic characters complete with all their little idiosyncracies. They reminded me a little of the townspeople of Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls. The plot of the first book, Boo was cute and simple.

Wolfe Boone (nicknamed Boo) the famous writer of horror books who lives in the small town of Skary, Indiana has decided to quit writing horror because he has found God. This comes as a shock to its residents who have become accustomed to having his many fans come to visit, frequent the local "haunts" and spend lots of money. They have redesigned the town using a horror theme. The restaurant is now The Haunted Palace" with "bloody fingers" - french fries with ketchup. The bookstore is now "Spooky's Bookstore". The plot twists and turns as the residents try to come up with a plan to convince him to change his mind and go back to writing the very profitable horror books.

"Boo" is in love with Ainsley Parker, the lovely daughter of the overprotective widowed Sheriff Parker. Ainsley is over 21 and still lives at home. She takes care of her father, Sheriff Parker and everyone else in the town that needs looking after and everyone loves her. She has never liked Wolfe feeling that his books are the work of a very evil mind. Before the two can get together he must convince her that he is really a nice person but he gets tongue tied every time he sees her. He's trying to get close to her and the townspeople are trying to keep them apart.

Suffice it to say it is a comedy of errors and a happy romp worthy of a Frank Capra movie. The plot twists come unexpectedly and sneak up on you. This includes the little background story of the mysterious overpopulation of cats --- Thief, the sheriffs's cat unbeknownst to the townspeople in Skary, is the victim of a botched neutering operation. These are feel-good stories that give you a warm fuzzy feeling. The theme of the 1st book Boo is cats. The second, Boo Who, is about owls (big surprise). The third is Boo Hiss and is about ----snakes. Not my favorite subject but Rene Gutteridge manages to make it both funny and fascinating. The snake is a boa constrictor with two heads named Bob and Fred. It is on the loose in the town wrecking havoc everywhere.

What do you read when you go outside your comfort zone?

The Underneath by Kathi Appelt

HRevvdon@evpl — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 21:39:00 GMT

I finished The Underneath (2008) by Kathi Appelt over the weekend. I am not sure what to say about it. The first thought I had was "why would anyone write this book?" It is a young readers/juvenile fiction book and a finalist for the National Book Award, and I wonder why? I would not want my child to read it. I stopped reading several times, but I did pick it up again. When I read about the book I knew there would be some cruelty but I was not prepared for how much I received.

A mother cat is dumped off by her owners because she is going to have kittens. The mother cat is befriended by a hound dog that has been chained to the corner of a falling down bayou shack to be an "alarm" because he is not good for anything else in his cruel master's opinion. The dog is starved, beaten, and has not been off the chain for years. The kittens are born under the shack in The Underneath where they are sheltered and protected by the unique alliance between the cat and dog. This is a lesson in diversity and family that is not as well written as it could be and gets loss in a lesson of both the thoughtless and intentional cruelty of people towards animals. The dog's owner is a victim of his mother's desertion and his father's drunken abuse. He is a monster, there is no humanity left in him. He cares nothing for any life. All ends well, well, as well as can be expected. It is a horrific journey. The thoughts of the animals and the conversations between the animals were well written, that and the second story line kept me reading.

The second story line involves a 100 foot alligator, a 1000 year old grandmother snake, her shape-changing daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter. This mythic and mystical story, at times, is better written than the cat/dog story line. The switching back and forth of the story lines sometimes helps to move the story along and sometimes hinders it. I would have enjoyed reading a more developed version of this mystic tale and its prehistoric peoples.

I did not like this book, mostly because of the cruelty to the animals - I could not get past that to appreciate the book as a whole.