My Cat Spit McGee

by Willie Morris

Book Overview

With endearing humor and unabashed compassion, Willie Morris--a self-declared dog man and author of the classic paean to canine kind, My Dog Skip --reveals the irresistible story of his unlikely friendship with a cat. Forced to confront a lifetime of kitty-phobia when he marries a cat woman, Willie discovers that Spit McGee, a feisty kitten with one blue and one gold eye, is nothing like the foul felines that lurk in his nightmares. For when Spit...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375706933
• ISBN13: 9780375706936
• Release Date: November 2000
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.43 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

great writer

Will be looking for more of Willie Morris. He is likeable & human loving Spit McGee. Morris writes his way into your heart inserting delightful Spit McGee.

The cat revealed as the Thinking Man's best friend

Accomplished writer Willie Morris was a lifelong dog-lover and cat-hater, an ailurophobe. Growing up in Mississippi, that was only way a Manly Man could be. In "My Cat Spit McGee", the author describes his conversion to an ailurophile, or cat-lover, an epiphany apparently of the same magnitude as that experienced by Saul of Tarsus (a.k.a. St. Paul) on the road to Damascus. Through association with his second wife, JoAnne, and after a series of response-modifying events, the author finds a boon companion in Spit McGee, a shorthaired, all-white male cat with one blue and one gold eye. It's in this short book's - 141 pages, hardcover - second half that Willie describes both the understanding that develops between himself and his new feline pal, as well as the personalities of Spit and several other family cats that won him over.If you're not an ailurophile, or not someone confronted by fickle circumstance with a forced conversion, there's no reason to even crack this book open. For myself, a cat-lover of long standing, this gentle and heartwarming story made me appreciate more than ever my calico buddy, Trouble. Willie died in 1999, leaving Spit behind. Since I'm 51 and Trouble is approaching 9, there is a good chance that my furry friend will predecease me. I will rue the coming of that day. I shall miss her terribly.

I laughed, I cried....

This is one of those rare books that makes me joyful simply because of its existence in the world. God bless Willie Morris, his widow "Cat Woman", and of course, Spit McGee. I hesitate to admit I've lain awake nights worrying how Spit is taking the death of his delightful and loving companion, Willie. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

Lots of heart in a few short pages

This book affected me more than any book I have read for a very long time. I laughed and cried several times while reading it. I could not put it down and finished it in two days. Some of the most profound and poignant pleasures in life are encapsulated in just 141 pages. Skip, Pete, and Spit are fascinating creatures, but it is Morris's keen observation and appreciation that renders them extraordinary. If you want to know how to find more meaning in your life, read this book and learn what can be gained from the simple and deeply abiding joy present in the change of seasons, in hometowns and baseball games, and the in companionship of a special animal. Wherever you went when you left this world Mr. Morris, I hope Skip and Pete were there to meet you at the gate.

My Friend Willie....

I say that because after reading this book I feel like I've come to know both Willie and Spit, as well as a few of his other great characters. As the author said, his loving, personal sketch of Spit is really much more, a drawing together of so many meaningful threads in his own eventful life. His travels with the large white cat are his way of sharing his family and social history with his best friend, and its a time for remebering too. Perhaps the most poignant moment in the story is Willie's image of his, and for a longer period, Spit's, waiting for the return of their beloved companion Harper, who never comes back. Now Spit is waiting again, peering out the door for Willie. Yet maybe its like Willie promised, if ever he gets to heaven, he's going to find Skip and all those relatives who went before him waiting to welcome him. Someday Spit with be united with him again, Willie believed that and I want to believe it too, for Willie and Spit and for all of us. On the last page of the book, Willie is holding the big cat on his lap and says to him, "Spitty, I love you." We chould all do that more often with the ones we care most about...this is a book about a cat and a special friendship, its a book of laughter and tears, its a book for everybody. I'm lucky to have known Willie Morris for just a moment, for far too short a time.

A Must Read

I just finished reading "My Cat Spit McGee" and read it in almost one sitting! I could not put it down. Willie Morris conveys the emotional roller coaster every pet owner feels - from elation to uncertainty as he explores the almost mystical bond between pets and their owners. This is the story of a cat-hater turned cat-lover being transformed by an unlikely hero -Spit McGee. Willie's transformation doesn't happen overnight however. Willie's journey from a cat-hater to a cat-lover happens as a series of events - (some funny and some sad) unfold in this tale of two unlikely souls colliding. Brilliantly and beautifully written.