Book Review: Ghost Cats

[Guest guest]

Vegetarian Network of Dallas has not published a book review before, but this one caught my eye. I highlighted text in the review that ties it into our mission of extending compassion to all sentient beings. FYI, The Peaceable Table mentioned in the last paragraph of the review is an e-newsletter. Like most of us, I read all sorts of things. I hope you enjoy this review, even if you don't read the book, which is available in the public library. VegNod never suggests our members make a purchase. Margaret Book Review: Ghost Cats Dusty Rainbolt, Ghost

Cats. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2007. xx + 198 pp. $14.95 softcover. Dusty Rainbolt is an animal behavior scientist, an author, and an editor of Catnip, the well-regarded cat publication of the Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. She loves cats and has always had many strays and adoptees around her home. But she took it for granted that ghosts, feline or human, were nonsense. Until Maynard came back. Maynard was an active and loving tuxedo cat, despite being hydrocephalic, when Dusty and her husband took him in. For eight months all went well. But one day, while the couple was out of town, Maynard's disease got the better of him. Dusty was understandably full of remorse. Was she right to have left the cat in the care of a friend? If only she could have said goodbye. Then, about two weeks later, Dusty felt cat-feet walking over her bed, and a heavy cat-body flopping down at Maynard's favorite place across her feet. She could see nothing, but the sensation was unmistakable. This one-time visit was enough to tell Dusty that the animal was happy, and held nothing against her. Eventually Dusty talked about her experience, expecting disinterest or disbelief. But she was overwhelmed by the number of people who had had, or knew someone who had had, a similar visit. News of her interest snowballed; in time there were more than enough cases for a book. Ghost Cats' narratives range from the "Demon Cat" occasionally encountered by watchmen in the lower depths of the U.S. capitol in Washington (the only malevolent figure in the book) to a cat who's always playing with an invisible feline friend. A somber but

non-threatening black cat appeared and disappeared suddenly and mysteriously to two teenage girls attempting to evoke a spirit by magic; they took it he was trying to warn them against the dangers of such sorcery, and immediately gave up the dark arts. A literary cat is occasionally seen in a Tennessee university library. As one might expect, a number of cat-haunted hotels and mansions can be found, including the home, now a museum, of Margaret Brown ("the Unsinkable Molly Brown") in Denver. Altogether the book offers some seventy-five tales, some poignant, some amusing, all delightful to cat-lovers. Rainbolt is a good writer who presents these ghost stories as they might have been told by a friend over dinner or before a fire, neither credulously nor critically. The reader can make of them what s/he will; if she has been around cats long enough, she may not want to foreclose too hastily what these magical creatures are capable

of. How does a book like this relate to the concerns of The Peaceable Table? Fundamentally, in that it greatly expands our awareness that beneath the species labels are depths of love, empathy, and commonality that can exist between humans and animals. Once that is fully grasped, the rest follows naturally, from refraining from eating them to the recognition they are companions, not property. Maynard and the rest of the furry spectres seem to be on a mission to our world, and here is their testament. --Robert Ellwood

Don't let your dream ride pass you by. Make it a reality with Autos.

[Guest guest]

I have three cats. I am trying to picture my excessively intelligent,

and naughty tabby coming back to haunt me. It would be just like him

to do that! An interesting concept whether I believe it or not. Might

check it out when I get free reading time from college. Lori

 

 

 

 

, Margaret Morin

<dogs_good wrote:

>

> Vegetarian Network of Dallas has not published a book review

before, but this one caught my eye. I highlighted text in the review

that ties it into our mission of extending compassion to all sentient

beings. FYI, The Peaceable Table mentioned in the last paragraph of

the review is an e-newsletter. Like most of us, I read all sorts of

things.

>

> I hope you enjoy this review, even if you don't read the book, which

is available in the public library. VegNod never suggests our members

make a purchase.

>

> Margaret

>

>

>

Book Review: Ghost Cats Dusty

Rainbolt, Ghost Cats. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2007. xx + 198 pp.

$14.95 softcover.

>

> Dusty Rainbolt is an animal behavior

scientist, an author, and an editor of Catnip, the well-regarded cat

publication of the Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary

Medicine. She loves cats and has always had many strays and adoptees

around her home. But she took it for granted that ghosts, feline or

human, were nonsense. Until Maynard came back.

>

> Maynard was an active and loving tuxedo cat,

despite being hydrocephalic, when Dusty and her husband took him in.

For eight months all went well. But one day, while the couple was out

of town, Maynard's disease got the better of him. Dusty was

understandably full of remorse. Was she right to have left the cat in

the care of a friend? If only she could have said goodbye.

>

> Then, about two weeks later, Dusty felt

cat-feet walking over her bed, and a heavy cat-body flopping down at

Maynard's favorite place across her feet. She could see nothing, but

the sensation was unmistakable. This one-time visit was enough to tell

Dusty that the animal was happy, and held nothing against her.

>

> Eventually Dusty talked about her experience, expecting disinterest

or disbelief. But she was overwhelmed by the number of people who had

had, or knew someone who had had, a similar visit. News of her

interest snowballed; in time there were more than enough cases for a book.

> Ghost Cats' narratives range from the

" Demon Cat " occasionally encountered by watchmen in the lower depths

of the U.S. capitol in Washington (the only malevolent figure in the

book) to a cat who's always playing with an invisible feline friend. A

somber but non-threatening black cat appeared and disappeared suddenly

and mysteriously to two teenage girls attempting to evoke a spirit by

magic; they took it he was trying to warn them against the dangers of

such sorcery, and immediately gave up the dark arts. A literary cat is

occasionally seen in a Tennessee university library. As one might

expect, a number of cat-haunted hotels and mansions can be found,

including the home, now a museum, of Margaret Brown ( " the Unsinkable

Molly Brown " ) in Denver.

>

> Altogether the book offers some seventy-five tales, some poignant,

some amusing, all delightful to cat-lovers. Rainbolt is a good writer

who presents these ghost stories as they might have been told by a

friend over dinner or before a fire, neither credulously nor

critically. The reader can make of them what s/he will; if she has

been around cats long enough, she may not want to foreclose too

hastily what these magical creatures are capable of.

>

> How does a book like this relate to the

concerns of The Peaceable Table? Fundamentally, in that it greatly

expands our awareness that beneath the species labels are depths of

love, empathy, and commonality that can exist between humans and

animals. Once that is fully grasped, the rest follows naturally, from

refraining from eating them to the recognition they are companions,

not property. Maynard and the rest of the furry spectres seem to be on

a mission to our world, and here is their testament.

> --Robert Ellwood

>

>

 

> Don't let your dream ride pass you by. Make it a reality with

Autos.

>