The Cat Who Stayed for Christmas

Compleat Cat #2

by Cleveland Amory

Previously published in 1990 as The Cat and the Curmudgeon.

Once upon a time, on a cold and frosty Christmas Eve night, a bedraggled white cat called Polar Bear wandered into Cleveland Amory's life and won his heart. This remarkable, much-loved cat went on to become the focus of Cleveland's classic international bestseller, The Cat Who Came for Christmas.

The Cat Who Stayed for Christmas continues the true story of Cleveland and Polar Bear as they embark upon exciting adventures whilst continuing to stubbornly guard their territory and engage in hilarious battles of will. Full of unexpected delights, and written with warmth and humour, The Cat Who Stayed for Christmas recounts the many escapades of Polar Bear and the man he owns.

Genres: Animals, Nonfiction, Cats, Biography, Memoir, Humor, Biography Memoir

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

Cleveland Amory was an American author, journalist, television critic, and prominent animal rights activist. He gained early recognition with The Proper Bostonians (1947), a witty examination of Boston’s elite, and continued to satirize high society with The Last Resorts and Who Killed Society? Over a long career, he contributed to major publications, including The Saturday Evening Post, TV Guide, and Parade, and was a commentator on NBC’s Today show until his outspoken views on animal rights led to his dismissal.
A passionate advocate for animal welfare, Amory founded the Fund for Animals in 1967 and played a key role in several high-profile animal rescues, including the relocation of burros from the Grand Canyon. He also established the Black Beauty Ranch, a sanctuary for abused and abandoned animals. His best-selling Cat trilogy, beginning with The Cat Who Came for Christmas (1987), chronicled his life with a stray cat named Polar Bear and further cemented his legacy as a defender of animals. Recognized as a pioneer of the modern animal rights movement, he influenced legislation and public awareness while enlisting celebrities in his campaigns.

Reviews

[Diane in Australia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wasn't all that impressed with this book. I had heard a lot of good things about Cleveland Amory, and his white cat, Polar Bear, so, I was expecting a more interesting book. In fact, the first part of the book seemed to drag, but it picked up (only a teensy bit) in the latter parts.

Also, this may be unique to my copy, but there was an error in the pages. Page 201 was printed twice, and page 202 was left out.

3 Stars = Just 'okay'. It's definitely not a page-turner.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed The Cat Who Came for Christmas but was disappointed in this book. The pace was slow and I was wasn't that interested in some of the chapters. For example, the chapter entitled First Dog I thought was going to be about Polar Bear's first encounter with a dog but instead the author got sidetracked and described his weird dreams. In addition, the chapter On the Cusp started off with a narrative about the author's relationship with Nancy Davis (i.e Nancy Reagan) then switched over to his attempt to determine Polar Bear's Zodiac sign.

[Cheryl]

Boring. Amory came up with a few cute turns of phrase, but I found his interpretation of his cat's behavior to be implausible... not that a cat couldn't be & do all that, but it was much more likely that the bachelor was projecting what he wanted & assumed on the cat. And in any case neither critter was one I'd like to spend any time with, irl or even on paper. I managed to get to p. 89 (in part because of the quotes from fan mail that were actually interesting) but finally I said to heck w/it.

I think cats are cool. I'm still looking for a great book from someone who actually respects them for what they are, loves them anyway, and writes interestingly. Do you know any?

[Allison Fetch · Rating 2 out of 5]

Many other reviews hated the author's convoluted sentence structure, but I had no trouble reading the writing. In fact, most of the hilarity in this book was due to the very tongue in cheek delivery style associated with this style of writing. However, for the first time in a number of years, I met a book that I didn't want to finish. So I didn't. There was absolutely No. Plot. As in, none. Basically the book was a series of essays, which wasn't what I was looking for at all. This book sat on my shelves for years and now it's time to pass it along. Maybe someone else will find that it holds their interest since it certainly didn't hold mine.

[Kaethe · Rating 4 out of 5]

January 1, 1991
December 28, 2014

This book is both a look at the business of being a writer and even more about the Fund for Animals and its rather daring efforts to stop the clubbing of baby seals and the illegal killing of whales. So, progress, yay! It is fascinating to see how far animal rights has come, in large part because of the efforts of this one man who cared so much. Sometimes I need the reminder that change is possible.

Personal, signed copy.

[Eric_W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cleveland Amory is the the P.J. O'Rourke of the animal world. I can't resist quoting one of my favorite passages in a book filled with humor.

"Hunters have never seemed to understand what I have tried to do for them. As far back as 1963, for example, on the Today show I announced the formation of a new club -- one to be called the "Hunt the Hunters Hunt Club." All the club ever tried to do was to define the word "conservation" for the hunters the way they have always defined it for the animals. We were shooting them, in other words, for their own good. But from the beginning the hunters made no effort to understand this, even though we made clear we never used words like "shooting" or "killing." Instead we used the hunters' own words -- words with which they would feel comfortable -- "culling," "trimming," "harvesting," or just "taking." We wanted them to understand that if we didn't take them, in no time at all there would be too many of them. They would be crowding the woods and the fields and the roads, and they would be breeding like flies. All we really asked of the hunter, when you came right down to it, was for him to take the long-term view. In the end we both wanted, after all, the same thing -- we both wanted a stronger herd. We even asked them directly if they had ever seen a hunter out there in the middle of the winter, starving in the woods. It was not a pretty sight. The hardest criticism we had to take was that the "Hunt the Hunters Hunt Club" had no season on hunters. Nothing could have been further from the truth. The club's very second rule forbade members to take hunters -- and I quote: "within city limits, in parked cars or in the dating season." And the third rule clearly stated that, after harvesting their hunter, members were not to -- and l quote again -- "drape him over the automobile or mount him when they got home." Mounting the cap or jacket, we felt, was in better taste."

[Judith · Rating 4 out of 5]

We first met Polar Bear, Amory's rescued white cat, in "The Cat Who Came for Christmas". This is a follow-up to that story, written in much the same style.

This is less of a story, though. It is more a series of anecdotes of life with Polar Bear, ranging from the peripheral to the central role. We explore fame as it relates to a cat, astrology, film, the Black Beauty Ranch, and Polar Bear's effect on Amory's romantic life here. All is written in Amory's signature style, which has a kind of childlike simplicity combined with a curmudgeonly ego.

I am glad that, once again, we are invited into Amory's passion: the Fund for Animals, which he founded and led for many years. His love for animals of all kinds led to the rescue of many, probably most notable the hundreds of burros from Nevada lands. At one point in the book Amory heads to the Black Beauty Ranch with Polar Bear, to introduce the cat to the rescued animals. Polar Bear maintains his dignity and self-worth through all of the introductions.

It's an entertaining, light read that I hope has inspired some to think more seriously about the lives of other animals on this planet.

[LibraryCin · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars

This is the second book Amory has written about Polar Bear, the white cat he rescued off the street one Christmas. Polar Bear is older in this one, and according to Amory, both he and Polar Bear are curmudgeons. Each chapter has a slightly different focus, but some themes include fame/celebrity (from the first book), movies, romance, and Amory's animal sanctuary.

I quite liked it, but I find Amory to be very similar to me in my thoughts on animals and how they should be treated, so I'm sure that helped with my enjoyment, as well. I loved the chapter on the ranch (the sanctuary) that described some of the animals there and the things they'd been through. I also loved that he named the ranch after Black Beauty and talked a little bit about the book (which I've very recently reread). A lot of the book didn't specifically focus on Polar Bear, but he was always brought into the mix somehow!

[Evelyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Cleveland Amory's second book about his life with Polar Bear, the quirky white cat who adopted him ten years ago. The most interesting part to me was when Polar Bear was introduced to all kinds of animals at Black Beauty Ranch, a rescue farm run by the Fund for Animals. He met all kinds and sizes from rabbits to llamas to elephants. Mr. Amory writes in a tongue-in-cheek style, but you can tell his love for his beloved rescue cat is very real.

[Kirsti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Part of a pretty little hardcover set I found shopping one day. Although I only remember basics on this book as I marked it read in 2011 and didn't leave a review then, I know that I liked it and would definitely read it again. Hopefully one day I can. Four stars.

[SouthWestZippy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one I would reread but a good book.

[Connie Moser · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like books about animals if it is not a sad book. This book was kind of boring in a lot of the parts. I almost did not finish it, but it did get better in the middle. I liked to efforts of the author to save animals.

[Sgtpetsounds · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found most of this book very difficult to read. Not because of the convoluted sentence structure – although that certainly didn't help – but it was just boring. There are some interesting stories in here but they are mixed in with a whole lot of nothing. I found myself essentially forcing myself to push through the boring bits, trying to find some more interesting bits. Generally that's not a sign of a good book.
The title is quite misleading; the cat, Polar Bear, is really more of a framing device for Amory's stories about himself. Polar Bear makes meaningful appearances in less than half of the stories although a token effort is generally made to link the other stories back to him. For example the first chapter basically consists of Amory's musings on fame. This has nothing to do with Polar Bear apart from a brief description of an incident that occurred when a camera crew tried to film him for a TV show, but throughout the chapter Amory talks about Polar Bear's supposed feelings on becoming a celebrity after the previous book was published in an attempt to justify the chapter's inclusion.
I suspect what happened is that Amory used all of his interesting stories about Polar Bear in his first book (which I haven't read, so maybe that's not the case), assuming that he would publish it and it would be done. Then, when the book became a hit, he knew he had to write a sequel but couldn't come up with enough content so he just padded it out by writing about whatever came to mind to and weakly linking it back to the cat.
As an animal lover I do have to admire all of the work the Amory did for animal rights. In fact, I found the chapter in which he discusses the Black Beauty Ranch and the animals there to be the most interesting part of the book, even if it was rage-inducing to read about some of the awful things people had done to the animals before they got there. As for his work as an author, I'm not entirely sold on it. Maybe the previous book would be worth a read, if, as I suspect, he put all of his best Polar Bear stories into it, but I simply can't recommend this one.

[Valerie]

Another book I really need the prequel for. I hadn't read anything else by Amory before, so I can't make comparisons. It took me a bit to get into it, but I may get on with it intermittently.

I have to say that I don't like the author of this book personally, even when I AGREE with what he says--which I occasionally do. He's not a 'curmudgeon' in any sense I would recognize. He has, from his own description, dozens of friends. And he invites (or permits) people into his home, which any truly asocial person would refuse to do, except in emergencies. Being nasty to your friends isn't a sign of a curmudgeon. True curmudgeons aren't nasty toward anyone, because they don't get that involved in their lives.

Furthermore, I find the author bigoted and argumentative, two traits that would assure that I, personally, would cross the street to avoid him. I don't just mean the crude misogyny, either. I also include the bigotry against people with allergies, for example.

Despite all this, I did finish the book, though I had qualms in the middle. I began to fear that the book might end with the cat dying, since cats are short-lived creatures. I can reassure any reader with similar qualms that it does not.

And there are some good elements. I hadn't realized that the signing chimpanzee Nim was retired to a sanctuary rather than (as originally planned) becoming just one more laboratory chimp, and I'm glad to know it. And there are other descriptions of animals being kept in good conditions on a ranch for retired animals as well. It's one of the better parts of the book. I just wish it had been written by somebody who wasn't so obnoxious, is all. But I still might read the prequel if I find a copy around.

[Ethan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amory was a privileged, Harvard-educated New Yorker, animal rights activist, and friend to the stars whose writing is aimed at a reasonably erudite audience, the kind of people who have stacks of partially read issues of The New Yorker or The Atlantic Monthly scattered around their apartments. Think Andy Rooney with a thesaurus. Yes, some of his sentence structures are convoluted, but that just makes them all the more funny when you unravel them. You sometimes have to work to get the joke, but the humor is there.

The real star, of course, is Amory's cat, Polar Bear, who is just as much a curmudgeon as Amory. My fellow cat lovers will approve. He also has amusing anecdotes about another animals --and even some humans!

Amory is definitely a product of a certain corner of 20th century America. They don't make them like this anymore. I'm not entirely sure that's all bad, but -- call me a curmudgeon if you must even though I am a bit too young according to Amory -- it does make me sad that someone like Amory probably wouldn't make it in our comparably vapid world of Twitter and viral videos.

[Patrick Gibson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cleveland Amory writes some the damndest convoluted sentences. There. Now that I have that off my chest I can also say that some of those damn sentences are clever and dare I say it—heart warming. I am in danger of turning into a pillar of salt here, but this is a sweet book. The cat named Polar Bear is now famous because of the first book about him “The Cat Who Came for Christmas” and now this celebrity must be dealt with in all its social ugliness.
The bulk of the book deals with Polar Bears cameo in a movie and the vexations he causes Amory. It’s lighthearted and a Valentine to cat lovers (of which I am one, but still feel like I should be sniffing sulfur or burping Brimstone). Don’t be afraid—sometimes a massive dose of sugar ain’t such a bad thing.

“As anyone who has ever been around a cat for any length of time well knows, cats have enormous patience with the limitations of the human kind.”

[Samaire · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once I was able to get used to Amory's convoluted grammar, I was able to sit back and enjoy the stories. This was the perfect "end of day" book for me, the one you go to right before bed and read a couple pages or a chapter and then go to bed. The stories within the overall story lends themselves well to that scenario. The book itself is mix of old world conservative manners and new world liberalism in terms of humane treatment of animals. Strangely the two polar opposites compliment each other well (cat pun intended). I loved the chapter about Black Beauty Ranch and Polar Bear's misadventures in meeting the burros, mules, and elephants (!) that live there.

[Carfig · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little too much about Amory's thoughts about indoor/outdoor cats, dating (for himself) and astrology for cats, and not enough about Polar Bear, but a few good anecdotes. My favorite is about the animal sanctuary in Texas, Black Beauty Ranch. Amory had mentioned in passing in the first book that he and friends had rescued the wild burros from the Grand Canyon, by air-lifting them out of the canyon. Their new home was the ranch. Among all the famous people littered in the book, George Foreman came to the ranch to adopt four burros. He was told to choose them himself. His response: Get the four that are least likely to be adopted, and I'll take them. What a champ!

[Lilian · Rating 1 out of 5]

The title should have been "The Curmudgeon...and the cat" because that's how it felt to me, that the supposedly continuing stories about Polar Bear were merely an afterthought in this book. The only chapter that held my interest was their visit to the Black Beauty ranch and Polar Bear interacts with the other animals, and we get to learn more about Mr Amory's work with animal rights. Other than that, I was bored with the name dropping and repetitive jokes. It's unbelievable this is a novel supposedly about more of Polar Bear's antics, yet we don't get enough stories about him in it.

[Carla JFCL · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like the first one, this was a fun book...probably much more fun for someone who likes (or at least understands) cats than someone who's clueless in that regard. Amory has a "stuffy" sort of writing style that has grown on me; I found myself smiling quite a bit at the way he expresses certain things, expecially when he's trying really hard not to admit that Polar Bear pretty much runs Amory and his household.

I will read the last book in this triology ("The Best Cat Ever") one of these days and hope it's as enjoyable as this one was.

[Laura Brose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was motivated to read this after having gotten a copy of The Cat Who Came For Christmas as a Christmas present when I was a kid. Both books tell the story of how Amory unexpectedly became the proud owner of a white cat while building a nonprofit organization, traveling for business, attending a Greenpeace protest, and more. Amory initially wasn't a "cat person", but slowly and grudgingly comes to appreciate and understand his new pet, Polar Bear, who matures into an adaptable, personable cat who accompanies his owner on numerous adventures.

[Catsalive · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/1...
He does get a bit wordy but I enjoyed these tales. Amory won't admit it but he is not the power in this relationship; control is an extremely difficult feat when one is owned by cats. I really enjoyed the visits to the Black Beauty Ranch.

Book 1 - The Cat Who Came for Christmas
Book 3 - The Best Cat Ever

[Doris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Add an asterisk to those stars and note this: I'd give 5 stars to Cleveland Amory for his brilliant wit and unique way of telling this memoir of his life with Polar Bear.
I gave it the 3 stars because I found his dense and wordy writing style too dragging for my taste. It's all very clever and someone else who doesn't mind the long, meandering sentences may wholly enjoy this book.

[Jackie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This three book series by Cleveland Amory is some of my favorite reading - I re-read these books every few years. Of course the stories are about a cat that came into the author's life and life was never the same.

[Kristina Forsha · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was a really good book, plus I like cats a lot so that made it so much better. I would suggest reading this book, the Author is awesome and the book is about the cat mostly if you like cats.

[Amelia · Rating 1 out of 5]

The author gets worse about sidetracking from the topic. He spends a whole section talking cat astrology (which I found really boring) and sexist topics about how his romantic interests were seemingly deficient because they didn't think the way he did. The sexist attitude got old fast.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another charming tale of this great writer and his unexpected cat. He did a lot of work with saving animals so he got high marks for that. However, I felt this book had too many fillers like trying to figure out Polar Bear's astrology sign. :)

[Jacqueline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amory is a good storyteller :)

[Firefly · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a sequel to "The Cat Who Came for Christmas" ... equally delightful!

[Keeley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have read it a few times. But each time I amnot really sure if I like it, or what the purpose is. It's cute, but the story has no real plot. It doesn't really go anywhere.