How to Talk to Your Cat

by Jean Craighead George

Book Overview

A guide for cat owners that shows there's more to cat talk than meow and purr, detailing a cat's intricate body language and expressions. Illustrated. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060006226
• ISBN13: 9780060006228
• Release Date: February 2003
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Length: 40 Pages
• Weight: 0.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 8.0" x 8.1"
• Age Range: 4 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Grades 1 to 3

Customer Reviews

Cute for all ages

This book tells how to interact with your cat. It is a very cute story that I enjoyed along with my family.

Understand house-cat behavior.

"How to talk to your cat," by Jean Craighead George. Formerly published as part of a book called "How to talk to your animals." Not to be confused with: "How to talk to your cat," an earlier book by Patricia Moyes. "How to talk to your cat," by Claire Bessant. "How to talk to your cat," by Lynn Allison. It's a common title! A book about house-cat behavior, body language, and communication by vocalizations and pheromones. It is not about (nor does it mention) telepathic animal communication. The book has three chapters; the first and last are about various other kinds of animals, and the middle chapter is about house cats. It has simple black-and-white line drawings that serve as diagrams of gestures, and illustrations of anecdotes. While the illustrations are good, I would have liked to see more of them. [Note: this refers to the 1985 printing; it appears that the newest printing has more illustrations!] The author used to believe (as science used to dictate) that animals behaved unthinkingly and without emotions, as automatons, and that they should not be thought of as being like humans. However, her stance changed to the opposite. She now sees animals as being intelligently, sensitively, and as being only a little different from humans, if at all. She has a convincing collection of case studies for this argument. The chapter about cats tells of how they were domesticated. It describes and explains their social interactions with one another, including parenting, mating, fighting, hunting, and communicating with pheromones. As the title promises, it gives you advice on how to use body language and vocalizations that your cat will understand. I'm familiar with this subject, but I did learn some new things from this book. There were a few feline behaviors whose reasons were mysterious to me that this book explained. The last chapter brought up several examples of animal tool use that I hadn't heard of before. As the author has raised "173 wild and 50 domestic animals," there were some amusing personal anecdotes about ravens, coyotes, and so on. I didn't spot any mistakes or false factoids. All in all: the book was short enough to finish reading in a morning, I enjoyed reading it, and I learned some new things. Very good!

HOWLING GREAT FUN AND FABULOUS ILLUSTRATIONS!

Let's start simply and honestly, the same way these tomes approach their subject matter, and say these are the cat's meow! Jean Craighead George has penned two ultra-thin volumes on communicating with our best friends and felines, and each is a howling success. The Newberry Medal-winning author does what someone like Elizabeth Masrshall Thomas has tried to do in books tens of thousands words and pages longer and could not. Jean, by George, had found the winning ways to teach pet lovers how to chat with their four-footed pals. Her writing is sparse: "A lick is not a kiss. It is a statement that says you're a wonderful leader." Her advice is refreshing: "Growling is aggressive talk. Don't growl back. Dogs don't like that." As special as her words is the whimiscal use of arkwork: actual color photos of the animated author interacting with illustrations (by Sue Truesdell) of equally animated cartoon cats and dogs. (We just love the one of George on all fours, rubbing heads with a cat!) Four paws up!

Purrr-fect!

I happen to own an earlier version of this book -- a paperback book with only black and white drawings. This book with charming and goofy watercolor cats contains all the useful and entertaining information as the first one but will be so much more accesible to children. It has helped us understand our inscrutable pets and to better meet their needs which is why we are here in the first place. A MUST for the cat lovers library.

Entertaining Read for any age

I really enjoyed this book. I have read many books on cats and this is just about the best one. Informative yet entertaining when reading it. You will understand you cat better and have fun doing it. Very well written on a level for both young and old and not boring anyone.