At first glance, Leigh W. Rutledge’s Diary of a Cat appears to be just another overly cute, overly sentimental animal story, and to a certain degree the book lives up to that initial impression. As you might expect, the story is filled with the requisite endearing house pet high jinks, and between the surprisingly articulate feline narrator, the mischievous kitten Bobbie Boop, and the skinny stray Zachary, there is plenty of cuteness to go around.

However, Rutledge does inject a dose of harsh reality into his feline fantasy: parents and teenage children argue bitterly, a small boy cowers before his domineering father, a women suffers a debilitating stroke. There is even, as befits a story from the author of The Gay Book of Lists , a neighborhood house peopled by two men who are presumably a couple but who seem to enjoy an open relationship (Mr. Fielding’s upcoming trip is slyly characterized as both business and pleasure by his companion Mr. Butler).

On the other hand, this realism is mitigated by a highly unrealistic plot twist involving an unpleasant elderly woman and a ferocious dog - but then again, the reader is told the story via a narration purportedly written by a cat, so it doesn’t pay to get too picky about just how much disbelief to suspend.

All in all, Diary of a Cat rises just above more run-of-the-mill examples of its genre in celebrating the bond between humans and their animal companions. ( )

A great read. My wish is to come back as a big, fat, well-loved housecat. ( )

Rutledge, along with cartoonist Patrick O'Connell, writes the best about cats. He just nails it. ( )

charming.