About the Author
Thomas McNamee is the recipient of a 2016 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship for this book and is the author of The Grizzly Bear, and The Return of the Wolf to Yellowstone, among many other books. He lives in San Francisco.
Image credit: Thomas McNamee
Works by Thomas McNamee
Alice Waters and Chez Panisse: The Romantic, Impractical, Often Eccentric, Ultimately Brilliant Making of a Food… (2007) 440 copies
The Inner Life of Cats: The Science and Secrets of Our Mysterious Feline Companions (2017) 93 copies
The Man Who Changed the Way We Eat: Craig Claiborne and the American Food Renaissance (2012) 83 copies
Wolves of the World 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1947
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Places of residence
- San Francisco, California, USA
- Education
- Yale University
- Occupations
- Author and Essayist
Members
Reviews
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 10
- Also by
- 2
- Members
- 781
- Popularity
- #32,597
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 21
- ISBNs
- 39
I learned a lot from this book. I never knew that the sticking out of the tongue was a sign of friendship and acceptance; I always thought Easter-cat just left her tongue sticking out sometimes. The front leg stretch isn't really a stretch, so much as it's a gesture of acceptance and friendship. McNamee has me a little stressed out about Easter-cat's insistence on only eating dry food. Small things like that, as well as much bigger issues like separation anxiety have given me much to think about.
McNamee also talks about a lot of very sticky issues, especially regarding breeding, the cat's need to hunt, and the feral population problem that plagues communities around the world. His overview of how Italy - specifically Rome - is tackling the issue is an inspiration, if not a complete solution. I think he does a phenomenal job bringing home the basic idea that cats (and any pet for that matter) are not merely personal possessions or accessories; they are living creatures with as much right to quality of life and dignity as we might and arrogant humans so.
This book is a weaving of science and personal anecdotes about the author's cat, Augusta. Those personal parts are brilliant, and sometimes nail-biting. Full disclosure: I flat-out skipped chapter 7 on sickness and death. I'm a sissy, and the first 6 chapters convinced me that McNamee was going to write chapter 7 with at least as much passion and heartfelt sincerity and there aren't enough tissues in the world to get me through that chapter.
I knocked off half a star because some figures at the start seemed to fantastical to be true, and though there is a notes section at the back, those figures weren't cited, leaving me and others feeling distrustful of the data. Otherwise, I thought this was a brilliantly written, fantastic resource for anybody who wants to be a better cat slave.… (more)