What cats want: An illustrated guide for truly understanding your cat by Dr. Yuki Hattori

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Bloomsbury, 2020. ISBN: 9781526623065.
(Ages: 10+) Written by Japan's leading cat doctor, Dr. Yuki Hattori, this illustrated guide to what cats want is a wonderfully light and informative book. Starting with 10 rules for understanding cats, the book has six main chapters broken up into short segments. After the 10 rules, it moves to cat biology (primarily covering cat senses) and wellbeing (including diet and home environment). The next chapter covers cat behaviour and how to 'speak cat'. Next up is the chapter focusing on everyday care, ranging from sharing your home with a cat to health care. The fourth chapter covers cat happiness and how owners can best treat their cats to ensure they are content. The following chapter details how to make your home cat friendly, while the final chapter describes how to work towards a long and happy life for your cat.
The topics are covered in such a succinct manner, with illustrations and 3 main points for each topic. These also have illustrations and text in two different colours - black indicating facts, history and useful tidbits; orange indicating suggestions, causes or explanations. Having had pets throughout my whole life, many of those being cats (including my girls I rescued when they were kittens: 16 year old, Mindy, and 12 year old, Persnickety), I found this book delightful. I could easily associate behaviours exhibited by my two fur babies, as well as cats I've known over the years. A few things I learnt include that Mindy is considered a geriatric as she is 16 (!), and that essential oils are essentially poison (thank goodness I never use them!). I highly recommend this book to those who are considering getting a cat, those who have a kitten and those who have had cats for years. Also ideal for those interested in animal psychology and wellbeing.
Themes: Pets, Cats, Pet care, Cat biology, Pet wellbeing.
Melanie Phillips

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