Super Cats: True Stories of Felines That Made History

Much has been written about dogs and the various jobs they perform, but this unique book celebrates cats, mostly the domestic variety, and provides stories, brief anecdotes and little-known feline facts that will educate, amuse, and sometimes, even amaze cat lovers. Each of the nine chapters begins with a fictional narrative related to the chapter’s topic. Starting with cat worship in ancient Egypt, the topics include black cats as harbingers of bad luck, good luck cats, such as the waving maneki-neko ceramic cats popular in some Asian cultures, cats that have inspired inventions (an example of which is the invention of reflective road studs which act like cats’ eyes that reflect light in the dark), working cats, such as those employed by the British army in World War II to kill rats and detect poison gas, spy cats, and therapy cats whose many jobs include putting surgery patients (both human and animal) at ease, detecting seizures about to happen in epileptics, and helping stroke victims to lower their blood pressure and ward off depression. There is also mention of some famous cat owners (Churchill, Tesla, Einstein, Chopin, Picasso and Twain, to name a few), as well as a little information about the physical adaptations of cats. It is interesting to note that cats have gone into outer space, saved lives, and have even predicted earthquakes. One famous cat, Dr. Oscar, has the uncanny ability to sense a person’s imminent death.

Though the text is lively and well researched, its flow is interrupted by the book’s busy layout and the proliferation of text boxes and “Meow!” factoids. The narrative at the beginning of each chapter does not always match the nonfiction genre, and, though there are plenty of drawings and black and white and colour photographs, sometimes the photos do not match the text (for instance, some cats mentioned in the text are not pictured while some cats pictured are not mentioned). Lastly, there is no conclusion, resulting in a rather abrupt ending to the book.

A table of contents, a timeline (from 34 million years ago to 2017), a list of cat-related places to visit, such as cat museums and cat cafés (who knew?), an index and a list of books for further reading are provided.

Despite the minor flaws in Super Cats: True Stories of Felines That Made History, pet cat aficionados- of which there are 600 million worldwide- will find this tribute to felines most informative and enjoyable.