Book: Taming Me: Memoir of a Clever Island Cat
Author: Cathy Unruh
Publisher: Collage Books, Inc., Naples, FL
CatTipper Review: We’ve always had a fondness for feral cats and we’ve had the pleasure of getting to know several of them who showed up unannounced at our rural home, eventually becoming part of our family.
There was Kit Kat, a tuxedo male who slept the days away on a large limb of a juniper tree over the garage. When coyotes put outdoor cats at risk in our area, Kit Kat made the transition to being an indoor kitty as effortlessly as he climbed his favorite tree.
Tiny Elaine ate bugs at night in the glow of our outdoor light, appearing each evening at 9 pm, just as we were usually watching reruns of Seinfeld. Because of that and the fact that she had very bushy fur, we named her Elaine, and conspired to include her in our indoor herd. We began feeding her nightly, moving the food closer and closer to the front porch and eventually into the house. Because she had been malnourished as a kitten, she never grew beyond kitten-size and she was mostly silent. Amazingly, she eventually became a contented lap cat, loving us and her cat buddies.
Our current cats include Felix, another tuxedo male who was captured by animal control and taken to a shelter where we found and adopted him. We’ve written about our attempts to socialize him and the time it took him to learn to trust us. Felix still has his wild side which emerges occasionally. He hides from our house guests and sometimes plays too rough, but for the most part, he is a normal, indoor cat who loves his petting and his cans of cat food.
We’ve read somewhere that having cats as pets is rewarding partly because they remind us of and connect us to the natural world, retaining a spark of wildness which is never extinguished, no matter how domesticated they might become. Feral cats have this quality in spades and it is infinitely rewarding when they allow us to become part of their world.
With that in mind, we were immediately interested in the chance to read Cathy Unruh’s upcoming book, Taming Me: Memoir of a Clever Island Cat which will be published by Collage Books, Inc. on October 16, 2012, coinciding with National Feral Cat Day. Unruh is a television journalist who hosts “Up Close with Cathy Unruh” and other programs for WEDU Public Media. She is also a dedicated animal advocate and a spokesperson for cat rescue who promotes TNR (Trap-Neuter-Return) for feral and community cats.
The Florida-based journalist was on a Trap-Neuter-Return initiative in the Bahamas when she found a malnourished feral kitten on Cat Cay. She nursed the kitten back to health and adopted her. Named Lucy Miracle, the kitten eventually became a beloved part of Unruh’s family.
Taming Me is a fictionalized account of Lucy’s journey from unwanted waif to regal house pet, told in her own voice. Mirroring the author’s real experiences, the Bahamian island of Cat Cay is the scene for the story which describes Lucy’s furtive beginnings as she scavenges for food and shelter in an indifferent world. The publisher describes Lucy’s adventures as:
“Narrated by a perceptive and adorable kitten that happens to understand humans, TAMING ME follows this clever cat from a humble and hungry beginning in the wild to the luxurious lifestyle of a housecat, as she slowly opens her heart to the humans that wish to love her. A cat-hating villain provides intrigue and comic relief. This rags-to-riches adventure is suspenseful, sad, joyful and tender, coming to a wonderfully satisfying and dramatic end.”
As well as we think we know our (formerly) feral cats, we’ll never really know what they experienced in their lives. What did they have to do to survive? What experiences did they have with humans? with other animals? Do they miss their wild freedom after they are adopted? Unruh applies her imagination to offer one possible history for Lucy Miracle. As she notes:
“Learning to see the world through Lucy’s eyes while conjuring fictional events around her was a creative and fun adventure.”
And soon, thanks to her book, we can all tag along on Lucy’s adventures.
For More Information:
- visit www.cathyunruh.com
- on Twitter
Disclosure: We received an advance copy of Taming Me: Memoir of a Clever Island Cat for review; we were not paid for our review and all opinions are entirely our own.
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