The Cat Who Came for Christmas

by Cleveland Amory

Book Overview

'Twas the night before Christmas when a bedraggled white feline enters the heart--and home--of Cleveland Amory. To say it is a friendly takeover is an understatement. For the cat who came for Christmas is clearly of the Independent Type, and Cleveland Amory, curmudgeon or not, is, where animals are concerned, a pushover.Toe to toe they stand--Amory at six feet three, the cat at six inches--and eyeball to eyeball with each other on every issue: whether...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0316037370
• ISBN13: 9780316037372
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: Little Brown and Company
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 1.04 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.8" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Why?

I ordered this in hardcover. It came with no book cover. It says online that I may not return it. I don't know why.

A Warm, Funny Story to Read and Read Again.

If you are a cat person, this book is a must for you. If you are not, it may give you insight on why we cat people love cats so much. One Christmas Eve, Cleveland Amory rescued a dirty, injured cat from a New York City alley. He took it to his apartment and concluded that the cat had never known human affection before. The cat tried frantically to escape, but Amory left out food, water and litter box, and went to bed. The next morning, he awoke to find the cat by his bed, staring at him. "Aeiou," the cat said. "Ow, yourself," Amory replied. "Merry Christmas." This began a touching friendship between cat and curmudgeon. Amory will entertain you with the many traits that he discovers about this big, white cat. Cats like routine and security. Cats do not like to travel, especially on airplanes. Cats do not like new objects or new people. Cats do not like dogs, other cats, or snakes. Above all, cats do not like vacuum sweepers. My cat, Duchess, feels exactly the same. The thing that she does like is to cuddle up close and purr until she goes to sleep. Amory talks to his cat throughout the book. Don't conclude that this is silly. I talk to my cat, and from her reactions I get the creepy feeling that she understands more than I would have imagined. Cats are among the most intelligent of mammals, but they did not evolve speech, so they will devise surprising charades to communicate with you. Amory not only entertains us in this book, he also shows the cat as a creature with feelings, expecially the feeling of affection.

A perfectly delightful book on the joys of feline felicity

Let's clear up any possible confusion from the very beginning: while The Cat Who Came for Christmas did indeed come for Christmas, this is in no way a Christmas book. That's important because this book is completely delightful, and I don't want anyone who comes across it in July to think he needs to wait five months before he can read it. Animal lovers, especially cat lovers, will find this book absolutely delightful, and those readers who are so unfortunate as to have never had the privilege of being owned by an animal will get a moving picture of the kind of human-animal bond the rest of us are always going on about. Indeed, the book closes with the suggestion that pet-less owners would do well to go down to their local animal shelter and find a faithful friend for themselves. We first meet the aforementioned cat on a snowy Christmas Eve in New York. Cleveland Amory, the founder of The Fund for Animals, helps rescue a poor feline from the streets of the city and takes him home - temporarily - to care for him until a suitable home is found. Amory is, by his own admission, a dog person, but he quickly falls in love with this poor young cat who has obviously suffered much in his young life: he is terribly thin, his body bears several wounds, his back is obviously injured, he is filthy, and he may well have never known the affection of another soul. Someone has reportedly thrown things at him and hit him in an effort to run him off, so his emergency rescue is a necessity. Underneath all of the dirt, Amory finds a beautiful white cat with magical eyes and a spirit that wins Amory over from the start. He is so beguiled by the little guy that he talks a prospective new owner out of adopting him the very next morning. The book, as it unfolds, is the story of this special cat and the human he owns over the course of their first year together. Amory describes many of the conversations he has with his lovable but stubborn new friend, expounds greatly upon matters of cat psychology that all cat lovers will immediately recognize, and basically delivers a truly heart-warming story about two curmudgeons, one human and one feline, who magically find each other and develop a deep and lasting friendship. You'll read about the cat's behavior toward new people (including the likes of celebrities such as Walter Cronkite and Cary Grant), other animals, travel, veterinarians, and basically life in general. The stories of Amory's behavioral modification techniques and feline communication skills are as insightful as they are funny and do nothing to dispel the notion that cats are very stubborn little creatures. The chapters on the cat's domestic and foreign policies are especially instructive and endearing. Amory is a wonderfully witty storyteller. Some may complain that he sometimes goes off on tangents, but these are most instructive as they invariably relate to early efforts by The Fund for Animals to protect those creatures being brutally explo

~very, very funny book~

i found this book in the back of my closet when i was about 10 years old and when i first read it, i thought some parts were funny but i didn't understand most of the humor or vocabulary. i just picked it up again this past year and its now my favourite book. it goes through some history about animals,(not just cats) some literature, lots of quotes and some of Amory's own history. the humor is cynical and hilarious, ranging from pill-ing cats to california to diets to relations between him, his cat and his friends (pobre Oso Polar)this book is one of my all time favourites and even though i have reread it many times, excerpts i have memorized still make me laugh.

A Must for All Cat Lovers to Read

The Cat Who Came for Christmas is a book that any cat lover will enjoy. It is about a white cat named Polar Bear. This is a true story about author Cleveland Amory, who is also an avid and prominent animal activist. Amory rescues Polar Bear, a stray cat, on Christmas Eve night and agrees to keep the cat with him until they find someone else to keep him. In the meantime, Amory gets attached to Polar Bear and decides to keep him. This book is a story of the antics of the first year that Amory had Polar Bear. Anyone who has ever owned a cat can identify with the way that Polar Bear always has the final say and wins out, but yet he captures Amory's heart and remains his best friend. If you love cats, you must read this book.

A book that will warm your heart and make you laugh out loud

This book is for the most fanatic of feline fanciers as well as those who are less than enthusiastic about the species. It is the story of how one self proclaimed grump and one cat with an attitude found each other quite by accident and how they came to the conclusion that cats can also be man's best friend. Save this one for a time you need some cheering up and an escape from reality, it won't disappoint you