Rating: 
Summary: The Cat Who Came for Christmas
Review: If you have ever been owned by a cat and/or enjoy cat stories, I highly recommend this audio book. I am referring to the abridged audio book version of the Cat Who Came for Christmas read by the author Cleveland Armory. The author's voice is deep and pleasant and he easily captivates you so that you are part of the story. It is perrrrrfect to put you in the mood for Christmas. I listened to the whole story (one cassette) while driving around town doing holiday shopping.
Rating:
Summary: The Cat Who Came for Christmas
Review: If you have ever been owned by a cat and/or enjoy cat stories, I highly recommend this audio book. I am referring to the abridged audio book version of the Cat Who Came for Christmas read by the author Cleveland Armory. The author's voice is deep and pleasant and he easily captivates you so that you are part of the story. It is perrrrrfect to put you in the mood for Christmas. I listened to the whole story (one cassette) while driving around town doing holiday shopping.
Rating:
Summary: A perfectly delightful book on the joys of feline felicity
Review: 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 exploited by human beings (e.g., whales and baby seals); I must say I don't approve of some of the techniques the group employs, but certainly the group's heart was in the right place. Amidst all of the cat-related humor, Amory is wont to slip in some wonderfully subtle little jokes and literary references, and I would argue one learns as much about human nature as feline nature over the course of the book.
You might notice I have refrained from giving the cat's name; this is intentional on my part. A cat's name is very important, and the author devotes many pages to the naming process of this cat in particular, so I would be remiss to simply blurt the name out here.
Rating:
Summary: Heartwarming book
Review: On Christmas Eve, Cleveland Amory and Ruth Dwork try their hardest to rescue a shabby and very dirty cat. After a few cuts and scratches, Amory manages to get the cat, who isn't overly happy about being rescued. Once the cat was brought back to the apartment, he takes off running to see if he could find an escape route. Altough he did manage to get himself stuck under the diswasher, on his own time, he came out from hiding. After a bath, which the cat was quite happy to have, he turned out to be a beautiful white cat with sparkling green eyes. Amory then had decided that he wasn't giving his new companion up, even though this was supposed to be a temporary arrangement.
So begins the story of Mr. Amory and his new companion Polar Bear. One afternoon, Amory gave the cat a toy ball, something he had obviously never had before. After batting it around a few times, he lost it. Amory attempted to train his cat to fetch the ball, since he was getting tired of playing Golden Retriever. The cat looked at him and thumped his tail a few times, trying to get into his head that cats do not fetch or retrieve. Amory figured that cats simply did not like games. When in fact, cats do like games, but only on their terms. These games must be games that they wanted to play, and must be initiated by them.
This is such a wonderful story of how a crusty cat changed the life of a former "dog person". This book is a must for cat people.
Rating:
Summary: Heartwarming book
Review: On Christmas Eve, Cleveland Amory and Ruth Dwork try their hardest to rescue a shabby and very dirty cat. After a few cuts and scratches, Amory manages to get the cat, who isn't overly happy about being rescued. Once the cat was brought back to the apartment, he takes off running to see if he could find an escape route. Altough he did manage to get himself stuck under the diswasher, on his own time, he came out from hiding. After a bath, which the cat was quite happy to have, he turned out to be a beautiful white cat with sparkling green eyes. Amory then had decided that he wasn't giving his new companion up, even though this was supposed to be a temporary arrangement.
So begins the story of Mr. Amory and his new companion Polar Bear. One afternoon, Amory gave the cat a toy ball, something he had obviously never had before. After batting it around a few times, he lost it. Amory attempted to train his cat to fetch the ball, since he was getting tired of playing Golden Retriever. The cat looked at him and thumped his tail a few times, trying to get into his head that cats do not fetch or retrieve. Amory figured that cats simply did not like games. When in fact, cats do like games, but only on their terms. These games must be games that they wanted to play, and must be initiated by them.
This is such a wonderful story of how a crusty cat changed the life of a former "dog person". This book is a must for cat people.
Rating:
Summary: It will warm your heart and make you laugh
Review: Speaking as a writer of humor/satire/parody (most recently, Scratching the'Net: Web Sites for Cats - a book answering the question, "What would the internet look like if it were run by cats?"), I'm always impressed by those who can write so movingly of cats, yet make you laugh as well. This is a touching tale of cat and man that will ring true to any true lover of cats.
Rating:
Summary: A Must for All Cat Lovers to Read
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A Must for All Cat Lovers to Read
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Aprecious classic
Review: THE CAT WHO CAME FOR CHRISTMAS is a reprint of one year in the life of Polar Bear the cat who adopted his biographer as his human pet. It was the night before Christmas when "Sergeant" reluctantly drafted Cleveland Amory (everyone else went home for the holidays so she was stuck with Cleveland as her assistant) to rescue a New York alley cat. They succeed, but Cleveland is forced to take the mangy creature into his Manhattan residence for the Yuletide season. Though an animal lover and activist, Cleveland hopes to quickly find a home for his temporary lodger, but soon Snow Bear's lure hooks Cleveland into keeping the feline as his roommate. This book tells their first year adventures in living together.
Though over fifteen year old and reprinted after the death of Mr. Amory, this nonfiction novel remains one of the best Christmas stories around. The book is clearly for feline lovers, but other pet owners and even the bah humbug I hate cat lovers will relish this delightful ageless story of the love and bond between a cat and his Homo sapiens significant other. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Aprecious classic
Review: THE CAT WHO CAME FOR CHRISTMAS is a reprint of one year in the life of Polar Bear the cat who adopted his biographer as his human pet. It was the night before Christmas when "Sergeant" reluctantly drafted Cleveland Amory (everyone else went home for the holidays so she was stuck with Cleveland as her assistant) to rescue a New York alley cat. They succeed, but Cleveland is forced to take the mangy creature into his Manhattan residence for the Yuletide season. Though an animal lover and activist, Cleveland hopes to quickly find a home for his temporary lodger, but soon Snow Bear's lure hooks Cleveland into keeping the feline as his roommate. This book tells their first year adventures in living together.
Though over fifteen year old and reprinted after the death of Mr. Amory, this nonfiction novel remains one of the best Christmas stories around. The book is clearly for feline lovers, but other pet owners and even the bah humbug I hate cat lovers will relish this delightful ageless story of the love and bond between a cat and his Homo sapiens significant other. Harriet Klausner
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