Vicky Halls

I'd hoped that this would be a more general guide to interpreting your cat however this book is mainly concerned with cat behavioural problems such as house spraying and/or soiling and aggressive behaviour. Happily, our cat doesn't currently exhibit any of these problems but it was still an informative book to read and I feel that I now have a much better understanding of why cats sometimes behave like that and how to tackle those situations if they did arise.

The author of this book is a show more professional cat behavioural therapist and the book is divided into chapters which clearly describe each problem, explain why a cat may be behaving in this way, sets out guidelines to stop this behaviour and then gives a couple of case studies featuring cats the author has personally dealt with. The case studies are often quite humorous and I was chuckling away to myself whilst I was reading this as well as reading excerpts out loud to my husband but the humour is very gentle and I never felt it was at the expense of the owners or cats featured.

There was also a chapter on the indoor cat which included lots of helpful tips about how to ensure you provide enough simulation for your cat if it can't or won't go outside. Halls has included detailed instructions on how to make the cat toys she takes with her when she visits her clients and I am definitely going to try and make 'The Octopus' which she claims no cat can resist!

Overall, an interesting and informative book.

A note of caution: this book is written by a British author and I have seen a couple of American readers comment that the book didn't discuss declawing or that the author promotes letting your cat go outside. I'd never heard of declawing before (I think it's illegal in the UK) and in the UK I think it is more generally expected that if your cat's been neutered/spayed then you'll let it go outside if it wants to. Otherwise, I would think that cats are probably fairly similar on both sides of the Atlantic. show less

Overall, I thought this was a good book. There are a lot of beautiful photos of cats (if you can read through the book without finding at least one photo to make you go all soppy you're a stronger person than I am).

Vicky Halls takes the reader through a cat's physiology, the different breeds, how cats behave in the wild and then uses all this to explain what domestic cats need to be happy cats. I think it's fair to say she comes down on the side of letting cats go outside if they want to but show more she also gives advice about how to ensure your indoors only cat gets enough stimulation and exercise.

She also has a chapter which deals with how to tackle problem behaviour like weight gain, spraying, bullying etc as well as including a section for settling a new cat into your home and introducing an existing cat to a new cat/kitten/dog/child.

I think this would be a very good book for anyone new to owning cats (sorry, being owned by a cat) or considering getting a cat for the first time. I'm not sure how helpful it would be if you have a lot of cat experience but the photos are very cute. show less

This book had some interesting stories but throughout it basically says "You're a horrible cat owner and this is why." Maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm just consumed with guilt but I found this to be a very unpleasant and unhappy read. If you keeps your cats in the house and don't have an entire room dedicated to them, don't read this. You'll feel terrible afterward.

This was an enlighting and educational read, exploring the underlying causes of problematic cat behaviour. I do hope her clients didn't mind featuring in the book though!