A Celebration of Cats

by Roger A. Caras

In this, the ultimate book for cat lovers. Roger Caras celebrates a lifelong passion with personal anecdotes, charming tales and rich historical fact and fancy.

Written with loving detail and accuracy, this delight- ful book provides a fund of knowledge for every cat lover, covering the topics Of evolution, domestication, breeding, history, cats in art, magic and folklore. A unique compendium, it is illustrated throughout with charming black and white drawings from various cultures, making it an enchanting and amusing addition to every ailurophile's bookshelf.

Genres: Cats, Animals, Nonfiction

238 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1986

About the author

Roger A. Caras was an American wildlife photographer, writer, wildlife preservationist and television personality.

Known as the host of the annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, Caras was a veteran of network television programs including "Nightline," "ABC News Tonight" and "20/20" before devoting himself to work as president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and to becoming an author.

Reviews

[Shanna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Caras lays out a boatload of trivia about cats, from historical to cultural to biological. He tends to ramble a bit and go on tangents, and his tone gets condescending on occasion. I am adamantly opposed to cat declawing, and I found Caras's justification of it hypocritical, selfish, and idiotic.

The illustrations were lovely.

[Shelley Alongi · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Tradition has it that Hitler hated cats. He probably did. Everything else was wrong with him. “I love the way this book starts and it is worth the read simply for the historical information on cats. I knew a good deal of it but I found the chapter on mythology and lower surrounding cats quite interesting. The only chapter that I really found went on to long was the chapter about his own cats. I understand wanting to tell our cat stories because we all have them and they were interesting it was just probably the longest chapter in the book. I think Roger Kerris has written books about cats and I will definitely be reading them. The first chapter by the way where this quote comes from is about people and situations that show a dislike for it or encourage a dislike of cats and how to remedy those reactions. It’s a great book.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took a while to read this book not because I didn’t like it… It was just so very dense with information. I wanted to be able to adequately digest it one or two chapters at a time. The final chapter of coarse was much more of a narrative and was easier to sit down with. I really like the authors style and his knowledge of animals. He had a lot of really great stories to share. I know this book is a little older then perhaps some others but it was just as enjoyable and had a lot of charm to it.

[Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

O king of beasts! The last 70 pages of personal cat stories are the part worth reading.

[xylatra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Elitist, shamelessly, unbearably pompous author. Calls a few of his cats "retarded" and supports declawing.

"...when you have just had a Victorian couch recovered in an authentic fabric for fifteen hundred dollars and you would like it to stay intact at least until the dinner party on Sunday, declawing is an option that is both humane and rational."

Oh do fuck off. A billion times.
It's stunning that an adult can draw such a conclusion when it's obviously completely and utterly selfish. He also mocks people who campaign against declawing, so he didn't even have ignorance as an excuse at the time. He was just so precious about his rich person shit that he decided he must just be right about declawing.

Otherwise, it's still pretty informative about feline history, contains some nice pictures, and it's about cats. I'm still more annoyed than informed after reading this though really. What an arse.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kind of embarrassing how long it took me to finish this book, but I enjoyed it. It was written by Roger Caras who I had never heard of but someone who seems to really loves cats. His book takes you through history of cat lore including how some cultures revered them and others despised them.
He talks about various breeds, their lineage as well as information about cat shows. He spends the last chapter on all the cats he has known and had in his life.
Some of the information was a tad boring to me but it was an interesting book nonetheless.