A Cat Called Amnesia

by E.W. Hildick, Val Biro

During a fierce mountain thunderstorm at the Bleeker family's vacation farmhouse, there appears a stray cat. Not just an everyday, scraggly old stray, but a magnificently striped, well-fed, green-eyed, mysterious-- very mysterious to the Bleeker kids-- b-i-g c-a-t.
Where did it come from? To whom does it belong? Can Ray, Trina, Angus, and little Kate-- keep it? Always?
Absolutely not, their Father informs them. They may keep it for just two days while they try to locate the owner-- and failing that, it's the A.S.P.C.A. for Amnesia. (For that is what they named the cat, because he'd forgotten where he came from.)
So the kids, working under under the strict two-day deadline, set out to find Amnesia's owner. Gathering clues from his behavior and habits, and faithfully putting everything down on Angus's tape recorder, they scour the neighborhood, bike to distant towns, interview dozens of people-- all without success.
Until the strange behavior of the "trailer lady" convinces Trina that they are on to something at last...and it may be murder!

Genres: Childrens, Animals

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

E.W. (Edmund Wallace) Hildick was a British children's book author. He was born in Bradford, England in 1925. After two years service in the Royal Air Force he became a secondary school teacher, then a writer, later moving to the United States to become editor of a literary magazine. He died in London in 2001.

Reviews

[Stephanie A. · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I'm Angus. Age eleven. They call me The Recording Angus because of my hobby. Like The Recording Angel, get it? I got the tape recorder for my tenth birthday from my Uncle Charles ... I have a strong hunch that this cat business will turn out to be very special, and maybe one day, when the record is complete, it can all be copied down for other people to share. I would like that."

This is the most intense search for a lost cat's owner I have ever seen, lol. How industrious children can be when they don't have screen distractions! (and you let them ride around on their bikes without calling the police to report parental neglect) But it's hard not to root for them because along the way you get very attached to the sweet purry kitty, and you really DO start to get stressed about this being a matter of life and death for him!

Favorite part was actually getting to the author's note, which states that this story is based on fact: "Their own cat, Butter, came to them in exactly the same circumstances five years ago, with the same set of clues. However, the Hildicks still have not discovered who the cat's original owners were." (compared to the story, in which he turns out to belong to a family who lived on a boat and whose girls are thrilled to have him back.)

[Gabriela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting book the end is fast and you know what is going to happen but I really enjoyed the book and didn’t want to stop reading it.”
Says my daughter