Rama the Gypsy Cat

by Betsy Byars, Peggy Bacon (Illustrator)

Set in the early 19th century, Rama wanders away from his gypsy mistress, takes an inadvertent trip down the Ohio River, and is nursed back to health by a young boy. Perhaps he will stay but a flood changes the landscape and Rama heads west.

Genres: Fiction, Animals, Cats, Middle Grade

109 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

About the author

Betsy Byars was an American author of children's books. She wrote over sixty books for young people. Her first novel was published in 1962. Her novel Summer of the Swans won the 1971 Newbery Medal. She also received a National Book Award for Young People's Literature for The Night Swimmers and an Edgar Award for Wanted ... Mud Blossom!!

Daughters Betsy Duffey and Laurie Myers are also writers.

Reviews

[Josiah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Among the earliest books of Betsy Byars's career, Rama the Gypsy Cat—published in 1966—feels different from her later works. The keen, amusing observations of her main characters in The Pinballs, The Cybil War, Cracker Jackson, and other novels are mostly absent from this book, but Rama's adventure nonetheless strikes a chord. As a kitten, Rama was adopted by a gypsy woman who found him on a West Virginia roadside. She pierced his ear to insert a gold earring, which Rama wears to this day. He has traveled with the woman and her caravan for some time, content to rove the countryside in their company, but a new chapter of Rama's odyssey begins when he is accidentally left behind by the gypsies en route to their next destination. The gypsy woman and Rama will miss each another, but now he is on his own.

Jonesing for a fight with a certain scarred cat down by the wharf, Rama seeks out his nemesis and is soon sorry he did. The other cat is bigger, stronger, a more experienced brawler, and leaves Rama unconscious on a large raft going downriver, stocked with supplies for delivery. The gypsy cat's throat is badly slashed and he's barely alive, but when the raft stops at a farm, an eleven-year-old boy named Jimmy notices the cat and gingerly carries him inside. Jimmy, Ma, and Pa have faced hard times since their barn burned down, but Jimmy's concern for the gravely injured cat prompts Ma to agree to care for it. Days pass with no improvement, but after teetering on the precipice of death, Rama's will to live tips the scales. Jimmy now has a cat of his own.

Months drift by as Rama convalesces. Pa is standoffish toward the cat, but Jimmy adores Rama and takes good care of him. The feline gypsy could happily live out the remainder of his days with Jimmy, but one day he perches too precariously atop a woodpile next to the swollen river and topples in. The turgid brown waters pull him downstream at frightening speed, trying to drag him into their cold depths. Rama makes it to land in one piece and wanders from there, hoping to reunite with Jimmy, but the river carried him far from home. Days of walking across thistles and stones with no reliable food source bring Rama to the brink of extinction, but again luck is with him. The small vagabond meets a peddler selling goods as he heads west, and the man shares his food with Rama. The peddler has no desire for longterm human company, but an independent animal to sit with beside the fire at night would be nice. He's willing to take Rama on his trip west, but is the gypsy cat ready to settle in as the peddler's permanent companion?

Like any human, Rama has lessons to learn that can only be internalized through experience. You shouldn't pick unnecessary fights, especially not with those capable of hurting you, and exercising caution in the face of nature's fury is important. Rama doesn't grasp the threat the overflowing river can be until he's drowning in it. "(T)he river was the most dangerous enemy he had ever faced and...none of his weapons would be of any use here." Was he not safe on shore just minutes ago, certain that life with Jimmy would continue forever? The shore now seems a place of splendor that he was crazy to ever take for granted. "It seemed to him that there, only yards away, was a different world, a world he had known just this morning and that he feared he would never know again." Such truths are clear after the fact, once we've lost something precious we may never regain. It is a bitter blow to realize the loss in hindsight and be powerless to reverse it. As the river sweeps him along, Rama second-guesses his instincts, knowing that any minor miscalculation could be his last. "The current was unpredictable, and at the very moment he was ready to leap, the log might turn again toward the center of the river and he might fall into the water and be lost. Or the distance might be greater than it seemed and he would fall into the water. The water was a fearful thing and Rama wanted only to feel the earth firm and steady beneath him again." The future may hinge on your immediate response in a crisis, but how are you to act with confidence when your senses are distorted by anxiety? Rama's raw emotional response after surviving the ordeal reflects the feelings of all who have lived through catastrophe. "Rama opened his mouth and mewed loudly...protesting the terrible thing that had happened to him. His voice rose and in his mewing was the unhappiness of riding a log down a flooding river, of finding himself in a strange and unknown forest, of wanting his lost home." Sometimes pain is too profound for words, and it spills out in primitive sounds. There is commonality in those sounds, but what defines our stories is what happens after we're done crying for our loss. That is certainly what defines Rama's story.

I'd rate Rama the Gypsy Cat two and a half stars, and nearly round to three. I probably would if the ending came full circle a bit more. Peggy Bacon's black-and-white illustrations are a delightful window into Rama's travels through a big world full of possibilities for a small animal on his own. Just as the peddler made his own life choices, so must Rama decide what he wants. I love Betsy Byars, and though I don't consider Rama the Gypsy Cat on par with her best books, it's a good story that falls just shy of excellence. I have enjoyed it for most of my life.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book as a kid, and decided to revisit it. To my delight, it held up. Rama is in for some unfortunate adventures when he goes wandering outside of his Gypsy camp and away from his owner. There will be territorial catfights, hunger and danger. Can he survive? A very touching and poignant story. I would recommend this for middle grade children who love cats.

[Beth Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it as a kid. Brings back good memories of when I had time to be a voracious reader!

[Syl-G6 · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Spoiler Alert for the book “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane”. By Kate DiCamillo*

This book is about how a cat named Rama, who used to belong to a gypsy, wanders away into some interesting adventures, which reminds me of “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.”
Like the little porcelain bunny Edward Tulane, Rama the small white cat with minute gold earring, has someone she loves; gets separated, then loves another who takes her in, parted with them again, and this process repeats, each time she switches a name.
A feature of this book “Rama the Gypsy Cat” is that it uses a third-person perspective, so you don’t “read” Rama’s thoughts, that way, it’s lifelike. But, in “The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane”, it is the first-person perspective from Edward the bunny so you can comprehend what he is thinking, which is fictional.
Additionally, Edward Tulane is a more emotional story with feelings of love, death and a miraculous ending that makes you want to read it again and again. But, the story line in “Rama the Gypsy Cat” is rather straight describing a normal cat’s life. At the end, she did not even seem to miss any of her old owners. She just settles in with whatever comes next, adapting quickly to her new life, which shows a cat’s nature. Rama is a cat so she may show affection for the ones she cares for by purring and rubbing her body against them. But Rama has all the freedom she wants. She is a gypsy so she is a natural wanderer, she may show likeness to her temporary owner, then wander off for another exciting small adventure.
This story makes you feel like a bystander viewing a documentary. The author did a wonderful job of thoroughly describing Rama as a free-spirited cat. I would think that this book is for readers, believe it or not, older grades; because the author shows that this story is realistic and a sequence of this cat’s life and if a fourth or third grader reads this they might think that this is bland and not exciting at all. I wouldn’t recommend this to readers who like adventure books or fantasy books; this would be a good book for people who like cats or books that show a series of calm events, with small adventures. For example, “The Little House on the Prairie”. I will rate this book three stars because I like to read books that have a lot of action and suspense in them.

[JLJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

"[...]her grandmother had told her a story about a prince named Rama. The brave and honourable prince had spent fourteen years in wanderings and adventures after being banished from his home. The gypsy woman had remembered the story all these long years, and when she found the cat, she had named him Rama, for he, too, had a heart for wandering and adventure."

A short novel about the sense of wanderlust and the adventurous nature of a cat named Rama.

[Scooter Burch · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book as a kid, and I just found it in a free pile and read it again. I remember what I loved about it-- the main character, Rama the cat, just acts like a cat, doing normal cat things. He doesn't speak, nor is he given human emotions; it's an adventure story from a cat's point of view. 40 some-odd years since I read it last, it was just as riveting!

[Books Kids Like · Rating 4 out of 5]

The gypsy woman puts a gold earring in Rama's left ear to show that he is a gypsy cat. One day, Rama sneaks out of the woman's wagon. The woman leaves camp thinking that Rama is sleeping on his pillows. Instead, Rama is at the river wharf of the nearby town fighting with a wharf cat. Rama's throat is badly torn. He falls on to a flat boat and is knocked out. The boat takes him down river where a young boy finds him and nurses him back to health. Rama learns to love his new master and is content to stay with him forever. Unfortunately, fate has other plans. During the spring flood, a wood pile stacked near the river is swept away. Rama is sleeping on the pile at the time. He clings to a log until he can get to shore. Wet and hungry, Rama wanders through the forest and finds a peddler's wagon. It reminds him of his first home. The peddler is happy to have Rama's companionship, and so they become traveling companions. Only once is Rama's loyalty to the peddler threatened. One night they make camp along the river, and Rama hears a cow lowing across the bank. It sounds so familiar that he remembers mewing outside a cabin door, and the door opening. The memory makes him feel restless, but the next morning, when the peddler calls him, Rama come running and takes his place in the wagon. With eyes on the horizon, Rama watches the road ahead.
©2024 Kathy Maxwell at https://bookskidslike.com

[Clara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cute. I liked all the detail with the cat movements (like the stretching, pouncing, etc). The author evidently observed cats often and knew them and their habits well.
However at the end I wish that the cat would be reunited with the gypsy lady and/or the boy. They’re all probably worrying about Rama :(

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

good and light--amusing

[Jon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun little book. But I like cats, so.