Book review: The Inner Life of Cats – charming tale of a feline friend
Author Thomas McNamee recounts how an abandoned kitten padded through the snow to his remote ranch and for 15 years offered him companionship – and an insight into why cats appear so mysterious
by Thomas McNamee
Hachette
People have theories about cats (and the people who love them). Some think, for example, that cats know their names. But if you went out looking for your cat Fred and called out Elvis, for instance, Fred would come, if so inclined. Cats are laws unto themselves.
Into this murky territory comes Thomas McNamee’s new book, The Inner Life of Cats, which promises to unearth “the science and secrets of our mysterious feline companions”. You may be sceptical of this pretentious subtitle, but will nonetheless be charmed by McNamee’s tale of his cat, Augusta, and his attempts to understand this essentially unknowable (but lovable) animal.
The Inner Life of Cats is Augusta’s life story, an engaging one interspersed with plentiful information about cats. McNamee found Augusta on a snowy November morning in Montana. He welcomed the kitten into his house, concluding from tyre-track evidence that she had been dumped in the middle of the night on a country road and had then made her way to his ranch more than a quarter of a mile away, leaving paw prints smaller than a dime.