The Character of Cats: The Origins, Intelligence, Behavior, and Stratagems of Felis silvestris catus

This book took a very scientific approach to describing cat behavior. This might indicate how geeky I am, but I loved learning about cats' behavior this way. The author starts by talking a little about how cats evolved and how interesting it is that (unlike dogs, horses, and many other domesticated animals) cats can still breed with their wild counterpart. It is also true that wild cats can survive without us, much better than wolves or the nearly extinct ancestors of today's horses. You can really feel the author's admiration and love of cats he discusses the implication of these facts: first, that cats choose to live with us even though they could survive without us and second that they have done so without changing to please us. He show more also presents a lot of really cool behavioral studies, showing that cats learn by observing other cats; that cats are intelligent, but are most intelligent at tests which make sense with their natural behavior; and showing that cats build mental maps with themselves at the center (not landmark based) - among other interesting tidbits. Together with The Cat Whisperer's description of a cat's sensory input, this description of the way cats think gave me a much better appreciation of my cat. I would highly recommend these books together to anyone who wants a really thorough understanding of how how their cat senses and thinks about the world around them. show less

As a cat lover, I take for a given that any book about "kitties" is going to be a fluffy read. As a scientist, I hope occasionally for a little actual content. This was not a nauseatingly cute book, and I did learn a few things. I was pleasantly surprised that there weren't forty pages on what each of the tail positions and meows mean. Humorously enough, I wanted a bit more of that than was provided here! :) It was a lovely afternoon read on the history of that not-quite-domesticated creature.