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Urban Tails: Inside the Hidden World of Alley Cats
In cities and towns across the world, feral cats roam unnoticed, with generation after generation making their way through gritty lives filled with disease and hardship. When photographer Knox began noticing the growing colony of cats in the alley behind his Atlanta music studio, he entered a complex world of feline families struggling for survival. In many ways brutal, this world, he discovered, was also filled with strong family bonds, intriguing personalities, and fun. Urban Tails , featuring Knox's striking images and Sara Neeley's lively text, celebrates these survivors at the intersection of nature and industry as they play in the sun one minute and crouch dramatically beneath a semi the next. Urban Tails is a powerful testament to such operations, giving readers a glimpse into a hidden world of lives that, while not ideal, can be filled with beauty and love.
128 pages, Hardcover
First published August 29, 2005
25 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 8, 2024
The small community of street cats photographed here live in a colony and are fed by the authors, who try to catch them, have them neutered and vaccinated, and then either find them homes or release them as part of the catch-spay-release programme that's going on in Atlanta. They're ordinary moggies made special by the ongoing observations of their lives, which Knox captures in a series of mostly pleasant photographs (there's the odd one of a sick or dead animal, which can be distressing, although in fairness they do warn you of this in the introduction).
Some of the cats here are given little profiles of their lives and personalities, but this book is 90% pictures. And honestly, given that the text is white on a black background, which tends to give me headaches, I'm okay with that. It's awful to read about how many of them have terrible deaths, though - especially those attacked by coyotes. I've just read a picture book on coyotes - one of the Smithsonian's Backyard books - and the main character there is hunting for his dinner and readers are clearly expected to sympathise as he goes after mice and quail. I did sympathise - but then I read this and all my sympathies are on the other furry foot. It's a horrible fact that carnivores have to kill to survive, and my vegetarian self may not like it... but it's an inescapably conflicting experience reading these two books in quick succession.
Poor moggies.
Anyway: readers who are interested in a more text-based exploration of the catch-spay-release programme, again in an American context, may appreciate Nina Malkin's memoir, Unlikely Cat Lady which I read a couple of years back and which was quite good.
Some of the cats here are given little profiles of their lives and personalities, but this book is 90% pictures. And honestly, given that the text is white on a black background, which tends to give me headaches, I'm okay with that. It's awful to read about how many of them have terrible deaths, though - especially those attacked by coyotes. I've just read a picture book on coyotes - one of the Smithsonian's Backyard books - and the main character there is hunting for his dinner and readers are clearly expected to sympathise as he goes after mice and quail. I did sympathise - but then I read this and all my sympathies are on the other furry foot. It's a horrible fact that carnivores have to kill to survive, and my vegetarian self may not like it... but it's an inescapably conflicting experience reading these two books in quick succession.
Poor moggies.
Anyway: readers who are interested in a more text-based exploration of the catch-spay-release programme, again in an American context, may appreciate Nina Malkin's memoir, Unlikely Cat Lady which I read a couple of years back and which was quite good.
July 6, 2021
3.5
The introduction of this book discusses the feral cat population and the strategy of TNR. It also talks about the way in which people who feed alley cats unintentionally make the situation worse, as although they make the lives of the individual cats easier, they also make it more likely that they will breed and thus increase the feral cat population.
Two mind blowing statistics are: (1) There are 3,500 kittens born every hour in the US, only around 1,200 of which end up in homes, and (2) In 10 years a stray and her mate can produce as many as 1,000,000 kittens!
The book is full of beautiful photos, designed to make all cat lovers go "ooh and ahhhh" (and they did!). The photos, along with the stories of the cats in the alley next to the office of the author and photographer are designed, I think, with the intention of spurring readers into action to do whatever is in their power to assist with the feral population. K
nox and Neeley TNR all of the cats in the alley, bar one that they can’t trap. The stories they tell about the cats include discussions of the cat's personalities, their family bonds, the way they died (illness, fights, coyote attacks and human cruelty), as well as the cats they found homes for.
The book reminds us that the feral cat problem is not a cat problem but a human one and asks us all to respect living things and to treat them accordingly.
The introduction of this book discusses the feral cat population and the strategy of TNR. It also talks about the way in which people who feed alley cats unintentionally make the situation worse, as although they make the lives of the individual cats easier, they also make it more likely that they will breed and thus increase the feral cat population.
Two mind blowing statistics are: (1) There are 3,500 kittens born every hour in the US, only around 1,200 of which end up in homes, and (2) In 10 years a stray and her mate can produce as many as 1,000,000 kittens!
The book is full of beautiful photos, designed to make all cat lovers go "ooh and ahhhh" (and they did!). The photos, along with the stories of the cats in the alley next to the office of the author and photographer are designed, I think, with the intention of spurring readers into action to do whatever is in their power to assist with the feral population. K
nox and Neeley TNR all of the cats in the alley, bar one that they can’t trap. The stories they tell about the cats include discussions of the cat's personalities, their family bonds, the way they died (illness, fights, coyote attacks and human cruelty), as well as the cats they found homes for.
The book reminds us that the feral cat problem is not a cat problem but a human one and asks us all to respect living things and to treat them accordingly.
December 26, 2022
A terribly sad photojournal on the plight of the alley cat. Glad there are people out there educating people to spay and neuter their animals, as well as doing catch and release to gradually reduce feral cat populations. Hopefully we’ll live in a world where no animals are suffering because of neglect someday.
February 5, 2012
Photographers of elephants, wolves, and other charismatic species abound, but what about our very own urban wildlife--the feral cats with whom we share our urban centers? Knox turns his camera to these oft-overlooked offspring of lost and abandoned pets. Like the animals' lives, the resulting images are ones of both harshness and beauty. Many of the cats were photographed in a tractor-trailer parking lot. The sight of these fragile little beings in contrast with the hulking machinery that so often is the cause of their deaths is disconcerting. Text in the book tells the story of the cats. There are a few happy endings, but not many.
Surely we can do better for the animals we have chosen to domesticate as our companions. It is my hope that those looking at the book will become sensitized to the lost, stray, and feral cats in their neighborhoods, and will want to end the cycle of homeless cats through spaying and neutering.
I purchased this book for my library.
Surely we can do better for the animals we have chosen to domesticate as our companions. It is my hope that those looking at the book will become sensitized to the lost, stray, and feral cats in their neighborhoods, and will want to end the cycle of homeless cats through spaying and neutering.
I purchased this book for my library.
June 16, 2007
This book was slightly depressing. The pictures of the cats were cute, but there was a melancholy overtone to the whole book. The lives of alley cats are hard, and most of the time short. Reading the stories about the different cats and cat families was heartbreaking due to the tragic ends of most of the furry friends. It sort of made me want to become the crazy cat lady who takes in every stray I come across. I truly admire the people in the book who take the cats to get fixed to prevent more kitties being born into such a harsh environment. Definitely wasn't the "Awww kittens are cute" light hearted read I thought it would be.
April 3, 2015
What's more beautiful than a book with photos of cats? A book with their story, too! An understated touching (and heart-wrenching) account of a person takning on the role of guardian to a group of alley cats, every one of them with their own distinct felinality.
The last sentence in the book sums up my own experience with people and cats: "...we have come to view as supreme arrogance the human view that we are the only species worth the struggle to protect and aid."
The last sentence in the book sums up my own experience with people and cats: "...we have come to view as supreme arrogance the human view that we are the only species worth the struggle to protect and aid."
May 16, 2009
Yes, it is very sad but we all need to be exposed to the awful world of animal neglect. We need to realise just how important it is to desex our pets so that they don't live lonely, scary lives such as these cats do. A beautiful book, heartfelt, honest is matched by stunning photography. A treasured gift from my husband and one that makes me realise how lucky my two wee cats are.
June 5, 2008
This book shows you in pictures and text the beauty of feral cats and at the end when they update you on what happened to the cats I was just in tears for the ones that didn't make it. I take care of two cat colonies and I think of every cat like one of my own.
January 3, 2009
Beautiful images. Made me sad for all of these innocent felines. Raises awareness of the problem of ferel cats, and what we can do to help with the TNR program.
April 9, 2011
Lovely photographs, moving words. Was still hoping for a little more stories, tho.
December 3, 2011
These photos, as well as the descriptions of the lives of the cats who are pictured, made me cry several times. Very moving, very beautiful, but very sad.
October 4, 2013
A beautiful and moving book about stray cats and feral cats. Beautiful pictures. A must read for all cat lovers.
July 20, 2014
Sad stories and a serious problem - only 1 in 3 cats have a loving home.
October 11, 2015
Touching stories and photography
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews