The Best Cat Ever

Compleat Cat #3

by Cleveland Amory

Picking up where "The Cat Who Came for Christmas" and "The Cat and the Curmudgeon" left off, this beautiful new paperback edition continues the story of the cat named Polar Bear and his grumpy, lovable owner.

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

272 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

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

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book but found the title misleading because I thought it was about Polar Bear, the author's cat. Instead, the author repeated the same stories from his two previous books in the series. The only new stories he included about Polar Bear were about his struggles with arthritis and how he died from kidney failure. The only reason I gave this book a high rating was because I enjoyed the chapters on the author's Harvard years, his experience with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor & the Hepburn family, and his job as a television show critic for TV Guide.

[Evelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the third and final book of Cleveland Amory's about his life with Polar Bear, a white cat with green eyes that he rescued as a young cat. I liked it almost as much as the original "The Cat Who Came for Christmas" My only comment is that is some repetition in it. My favorite parts were when Polar Bear came to visit him in the hospital and "accidentally" did not get picked up later that day. What followed was an overnight stay with Mr. Amory trying hard to conceal his nighttime companion. I also liked the story of how he was commissioned to write the biography of Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor. Finally, after weeks of work, he gave up, saying later, "I couldn't make the Duchess of Windsor into Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm." The last chapter was very sad, about the end of their long friendship.

[Sheila Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't like this book as well as the others about Mr Amory and his cat Polar Bear, but it was just a well written and interesting. I would've enjoyed it more if there was more about Polar Bear in some of the chapters, but I didn't decrease my rating because I base my review on the writing and not my personal preferences.

[LibraryCin · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 stars

This is the final book about Cleveland Amory's rescued cat, Polar Bear.

I chose this early in the month to read this month, before my own cat was diagnosed with kidney failure. It hadn't occurred to be until I picked up the book that Polar Bear would not live beyond this book. I don't think it changed how I read the book or what I thought of it, however.

I like Polar Bear and I like the stories about him. I also like the other animal stories that Amory shares; he is an animal activist and runs an animal sanctuary. However, I don't like that so much of the book is not about Polar Bear or the other animals. Some of it was, but over half of it was just Amory's own stories. Polar Bear might get a mention or two amongst those stories. So, for that, I can't quite give the book a “good” (3.5 stars) rating, but because I did enjoy the chapters that did focus on Polar Bear, I have to give it more than “ok” (3 stars).

[Stephanie Barko · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best part was perhaps Amory's
foray into his relationship with the Windsors, and the toughest
part for me was what happens to Polar Bear at the end.

If a story can be both light and emotionally wrenching then this one is that

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

All cat lovers must read this! This is a real story of a man loosing his well-loved cat. I read this book years ago after my cat died. This book was a very good companion at that time. Lost of loved-one is one of the most tragic things that can happen to a person, same as losing a pet.

[G · Rating 5 out of 5]

If anyone can read this book without crying their eyes out, they don't have a soul. Truly.

[Catsalive · Rating 3 out of 5]

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/1...

And so we bid goodbye to Polar Bear. Tears sprang to my eyes as I read about him being unable to jump & falling on his face - it is so hard to see such a dignified animal failing. I agree with Ingrid Newkirk: "Damn them for dying so young!", but I wouldn't be without the joy they bring in life.

Except for the final chapter, this book is more about Amory than Polar Bear & as such I found it a bit tedious in parts, but I'm glad to have read the final book in Polar Bear's trilogy.

Book 1 - The Cat Who Came for Christmas
Book 2 - The Cat and the Curmudgeon

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It's a bit of a tearjerker near the end, but it's a good read. My only complaint is that from the title and the cover, you'd expect the book to center around his cat. Well, some of it does, but another large part concerns his life long before the cat came along. It's very interesting (I especially liked his stories of his friendship with Katharine Hepburn and her family and his brief writing association with Wallis Simpson) but it has nothing to do with any cat, best or not. I enjoyed the whole book, but I think it would have been better to save the part about Polar Bear his cat for one book and the rest for another book.

[Amelia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't even want to finish it. I'm a hundred pages in, and all the author does is spend pages and pages reminiscing about a person only to then state in half a paragraph whether his cat approved of this person. Instead of reminiscing about his cat, as he states the book is supposed to be, he's essentially making this a glorified auto-biography... I don't care about his Harvard shenanigans, sorry. I don't think I'm going to read any farther.

[Mary Quire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book from a family member that knew I loved cats. Since I write about my own cats, I was very interested in reading it just to see what kind of take the author had on feline characters. I'd never read anything by Cleveland Armory before and believe me when I say I was not disappointed. The story puts Mr. Armory as the central character and uses his cat, Polar Bear as a supporting one. The book is well written and very entertaining.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first 2/3 of this is a three- or four-star book. I gave it five stars because Amory wrote the last pages so skillfully that they made me cry, literally. A book has never before or since made me cry.

[Carfig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too many Cleveland Amory anecdotes, not enough Polar Bear, and a lot of it is rehashed from Book 1. Best quote is from his friend Ingrid Newkirk, after PB is gone: "Damn them for dying so young." Very sad at the end because he goes into too much detail about putting PB down.

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

He had me laughing and then crying. He obviously loved and knew his cat very well. Now I'll have go back and read "The Cat Who Came to Christmas", his best seller.

[Debbie Whetstone Collinge · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very well written but I did not like it as well as I had hoped. I thought there was very little about Polar Bear and I chose the book based on it being about the cat.

[Gary Brecht · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title suggests this will be a simple memoir about the favorite pet of a literary celebrity and well-known animal rights activist, but it is a bit more than that. Using his cat “Polar Bear” as an intermittent touchstone in this narrative, Amory reveals how he progresses from being editor of the Harvard newspaper to literary critic, author, and eventually an outspoken advocate of animal rights.

One of the more interesting chapters concerned the offer he received to ghost-write the memoirs of the Duchess of Windsor. The job required him to live in France near one of the Windsor’s two lavish homes. Of course young Amory set himself up in a plush hotel room where he personally directed the Windsor’s servants to provide comfortable furnishings for his “office”…with a view of Paris, no less. Why not, I’m sure he wondered? After all his employers, the Duke and Duchess, had 30 servants at their beck and call. After a year’s exposure to the Windsor’s, Amory decided to “abdicate” from this assignment; his assessment was that England should erect a memorial to the Duchess for saving the country from her husband ruling as king.

The author’s disdain for puffery, faux pride and snobbery in general is well known to those who have read his other books. His role as literary and T.V. critic is often remembered for his curmudgeonly comments. But all of the biographical tidbits recede to the background when the author refocuses on his cat and the difficulty of parting with a pet that has become an integral part of his life. All lovers of creatures great and small should find this book enriching.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read these 3 books out of order, happening upon #2 first, which I read a while ago, & then recently getting #1 & #3 at the same time from my library. So while I can’t remember the degree to which what I’m about to say was true of the first 2 books, it was very true of this one & at least somewhat true of the others, too. What I think people need to know is they are a memoir of the AUTHOR—which happens to have some parts about the cat, Polar Bear. There are large blocks of this book that don’t have anything to do with the cat—that in fact happened before the cat came to live with him, & just have an occasional statement to the effect of “Even Polar Bear wouldn’t do/agree with/whatever that”—as if just occasionally sprinkling his name into the chapter makes the book about him. It doesn’t & I found this annoying. It’s a matter of expectations. If I thought I was getting a memoir of the author, & it would include dome stuff about his cat, I would probably have been fine with it. But the title & cover image led me to believe I was getting a whole book about a cat. And that it definitely is not. This so annoyed me that I couldn’t always appreciate & enjoy his subtle humor. I found Amory’s writing style slowed me down, too. He often creates rather complex sentence structure, sometimes with so many negatives and/or so many asides that I lost track of where the sentence was going & had to reread it—sometimes a couple of times. There is humor in there, tho, if you can follow it!

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cleveland Amory certainly loved his cat. He also loved himself, his own opinions, his writing, his career choices, his wit, his candor, his chess game, his collegiate escapades, his acquired fame… in short, there was not a humble bone in his “not deeply religious” body while he walked this earth. And it seemed to me that the two sequels to “The Cat Who Came For Christmas” were simply written so Amory could talk about HIMSELF.

I couldn’t even bring myself to finish the second book (“The Cat and the Curmudgeon”) as it was difficult to find compelling stories on ANY topic, but especially The Cat listed in the title.

This installment was only mildly more tolerable, in that there was some sentimentality surrounding Polar Bear’s aging process and eventual demise. Even so, the majority of the middle chapters of the book barely mentioned The Cat, and I grew quite tired of Amory’s judgmental and deprecating “humor.”

He’s a good enough writer, if one is merely judging the craft, but there’s nothing endearing about the latter two books in this “series.” I’m sure he wrote them expecting them to sell well, which no doubt they did, thanks to the popularity of the first installment. But people pick up books with cats on the cover because they love cats and they’re hoping to read about CATS. Only the first book in the series (“The Cat Who Came For Christmas”) fits that description. After that, in my opinion, he should’ve left well enough alone.

[JSK · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the final installment in Cleveland Amory's "Cat" trilogy, detailing the time he spent with a cat he rescued in NYC in the mid 1970s. He wrote the book shortly after the cat, named "Polar Bear," died, so readers beware that Amory discusses that in this book. There is also a surprising amount of material in here that has nothing at all to do with his cat. He writes about various jobs he's had, including being hired to write a biography of the then-Duke and Duchess of Windsor. It almost feels like Amory didn't have a heck of a lot of material left about Polar Bear (he had already written two books about him) and so he told several unrelated stories to fill out this book. Even so, these parts of his life, as he told them, were entertaining, I thought. The last couple of chapters get back to the titular character, Polar Bear, and they are very sad and may bring you to tears, as they did me. If you are not at least moved by the end, you must be dead inside. Incidentally - and this is not in the book - Amory died just a few years after he published Best Cat Ever, in 1998. His ashes were scattered but there is a monument to him at the Black Beauty Ranch he founded - right next to Polar Bear's grave, where it belongs.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

The third and final book about Polar Bear, Cleveland Amory's most cherished cat from "The Cat Who Came for Christmas". As with the two previous books, this book doesn't focus solely on Polar Bear; Amory reflects on his past. I particularly like the chapter called "My Last Duchess" especially the insightful comment about Wallace Simpson doing Britain (and the Commonwealth) a favour when she married Edward VIII. This led to his abdication and as a Nazi sympathizer, had he chosen the Crown over love and remained on the throne, the world today may have been a very different place. This is why I love reading (especially non-fiction) - it can make you think.

[Shane Fritz · Rating 1 out of 5]

In deciding whether to give the book one star or two, I took into consideration how long it took me to read it. I considered parts of it quite boring, as the author talked mainly about himself. The two or three chapters which did focus on the cat were pretty good. I did not realize that it was the third in a series. Perhaps I would have liked those two better. I bought the book at a used book sale, thinking it would make a good read for my mom, but abandoned the notion of giving it to her, both because of her declining health and the lack of cat-centered chapters.

[Hayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

I do so enjoy Amory’s humorous written voice and how he does not give a single fuck if you disagree with him. As evidenced when he wrote about reviewing a hunting show and bluntly stating that he never rooted for the hunter and actively rooted against them.
Unfortunately, this is my least favorite of his works that I’ve read; primarily because it seems to lack focus and for supposing to be about “the best cat ever” he spends over half the book talking about the Windsors, his college reunion, and past jobs he did - none of which tied back to his cat.

[Amber Morton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Despite the title, the book is mostly about the authors tales from when he was in college to his first job and celebrities he knew. The only chapters really dedicated to cats were "Miracles of Modern Medicine" and "L'envoi". His tales are interesting enough, but not enough to keep you fully engrossed in the book.

[Vidinė vėjo pusė · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ši knyga- viena iš dvylikos, kurias man išrinko dukra, idant perskaityčiau šiemet, tokią gražią iniciatyvą sugalvojo bookstagramerė @1sakiniu , kad visi apsimažintume savo namų bibliotekose neskaitytas knygas. Pirmąją perskaičiau jau daugiau nei prieš savaitę ir nors labai nemėgstu taip atidėlioti aprašymo, knyga dar vis gyva manyje. Autorius ją įvardijo kaip romaną, bet galvoju jog tai tikrai memuarai apie jį patį ir jo geriausią pasaulyje katiną Baltąjį Lokį. Katinas čia labiau lyg patarėjas ir kritikas, kurio nuomone Clevelandas pasitiki neabejodamas. Autorius aprašo savo mokyklos, universiteto, jaunystės, pirmų darbų laikus. Dar pasakoja apie tai, kaip vos nepadėjo Vinzorams parašyti knygos apie juos pačius, kritikuoja ir pašiepia televizijos projektus. Gedulas netekus artimiausio namų katino. Čia yra tokia komedija išrašyta kuo rimčiausiu tonu, man tai buvo snobizmo viršūnė gerąją prasme. Priminsiu, jog Clevelendas buvo, pirmiausia, gyvūnų globėjas ir gelbėtojas ir dar mėgdavo viską aprašinėti ir kritikuoti. "Žmonėms, kurie priklauso, arba kada nors yra priklausę katėms, vienintelė katė, galinti būti geriausia pasaulyje, yra jų katė." Kadangi jaučiu silpnybę, tiek katėms, tiek tokiems vyrams, su charakteriu, tai man labai patiko.

[Suzi Tripp · Rating 3 out of 5]

My Aunt, who is one of my favorite people, recommended this book. I can see why she loves it, an avid NPR and public television fan, it’s much like reading a Saturday Night Old Time Radio script. It’s a wandering, yet lovely yarn having some to do with a sweet but opinionated cat. I would have liked more about the actual cat.

[Ingrida Lisauskiene · Rating 2 out of 5]

JAV rašytojo Cleveland Amory trečioji knygą apie numylėtąjį katiną Baltąjį Lokį. Supratau, kad įšokau į trečią knygą su liūdna istorijos pabaiga. Suprantu žmones mylinčius augintinius - jie tikri draugai ir šeimos nariai. Suprantu skausmą juos praradus, teko patirti. Ar grįšiu prie pirmųjų dalių, kuria netyčia praleidau - ne

[Elly Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although this book was more of a memoir for Mr. Amory, I had already read The Cat Who Came for Christmas (Polar Bear), so I was familiar with his style. Polar Bear had a more significant mention in this book on pages 167-68 and then the last chapter. However, Amory is a humorist and an excellent writer, so you really can't stop reading. I just wanted to hear more about Polar Bear.

[Carole · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew what was coming at the end of this book and expected it to be depressing, but surprisingly, that wasn't the case. I love Amory's writing style, and admire him for the wonderful contribution he made to animal welfare.

[Therese Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like all of Mr. Amory's books on cats.

[Mirrhya · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you would like to read a boring memoir written by a misogynistic old man that has actually very little to do with his cat, this is the book for you. I can't believe I actually finished it.