Cats are increasingly popular pets. By turns a mysterious, independent hunter and a purring lapful of fur, the cat has fascinated human beings for centuries. But what is it really like to be a cat? In Cat Sense, Akif Pirincci and Rolf Degen take us right inside the feline mind. Did the people of ancient Egypt domesticate the cat - or did the cat domesticate humans first? Can cats see in colour? How exactly do they purr? What does their food taste like to them? What makes a kitten a timid cat or a bold one in adult life? And what about cats who make long journeys to return to their old homes? Do they have a sixth sense to help them? The authors answer these questions and many more. Their book incorporates the findings of the very latest research into cat behaviour and the world of the feline senses. And there's a running commentary to each chapter by Francis, the feline hero and narrator of Akif Pirincci's two best-selling crime novels, Felidae and Felidae on the Road. Francis, of course, knows better than any mere human ... but even he has to admit that there's a lot of good cat sense in what Akif Pirincci and Rolf Degen can tell us about him and his species.
Akif Pirinçci (pronunciation: [piːʁɪntʃi]) is a German writer of Turkish origin who is best known internationally for his novel Felidae.
Pirinçci was born on the 20th October 1959 in Istanbul, Turkey, but emigrated to Germany together with his parents in 1969. He began to write fiction at a young age, and published his first novel Tränen sind immer das Ende (literally, "tears always are the end") in 1980, at the age of 21. His next literary work, published in 1989, was the novel Felidae, a work of crime fiction with cats as the main protagonists. The novel has been translated into 17 languages and became an international bestseller. Due to the enormous success of the novel, Pirinçci expanded his concept of "cat crime fiction" and published several sequels to Felidae, out of which two, namely Francis (Felidae II) and Salve Roma, have been translated into English. An animated movie based on Felidae, the script of which had been co-written by Pirinçci, was produced in Germany in 1994, and was also dubbed in English. Pirinçci has published several other novels which were not set in the fictional reality of the Felidae series. Of these, his novel Die Damalstür -- based on which a movie was produced in Germany as well, and which is currently also under consideration for screen adaptation in Hollywood -- was recently translated and published in English under the title The Back Door.
Pirinçci currently lives in Bonn, the former capital of the Federal Republic of Germany.
What a laugh! Like Francis says, to go all the trouble of writing those pages, just to prove that cats can’t be intimidated, they have their own minds and they are not stupid!
Extensive analysis of cats. Mention of a number of experiments and scientific studies. The later chapters even talk about psychological experiments on cats.