There are so many books exploring dog minds, but I am always in search of one that will help unpack the mysteries of cats. Susanne Schotz is a Swedish phonetician whose expertise is analyzing language based on its sound, and she loves cats. Most of us cat people understand what our cats "say" to us, and she tries to explain it using the tools she knows best: acoustic and phonetic analysis, written for the layperson / cat employee. She followed her own five cats around and recorded them, then broke down cat vocalizations into various types, and suggests the meanings and contexts in which they are used. It's not a large book, but even so, there is quite a bit of repetition, and the phonetic transcriptions can be difficult to follow and "translate" into recognizable sounds. However, she also maintains a link to her research website with a section on cat sounds where you can view video and listen to samples of the different sounds describes, which helps a lot! She and her husband Lars adore their cats (all cats, actually), and adopt, save, rescue and help several others. She describes some behavioral issues they've experienced and how an understanding of the vocalizations helped them figure out what was going on and how to alleviate them. Interesting for hard-core cat people, some skimming is allowed!

Postscript: My cat Smike engages in a strange little squeaking purr that I did not find described in Schotz's book. So I recorded him being adorable and emailed it to her. Two days later I got a lovely reply, with her evaluation of his noises as a "cry embedded in a purr" her notes on how he was producing it. I was quite touched. Thank you, Dr Schotz! ( )

I was expecting a lighthearted book when I opened the cover and started to read. What I found was so much more. The author is a professor of phonetics and she takes that training and applies it to the various sounds that her cats make and uses it to try and decipher what a cat is trying to tell you. But don’t despair – it’s written in an approachable way, no gobbledygook.

I must admit that I did find the science behind both human language and the cat sounds to be very interesting. The author includes many appendices and provides links to youtube videos with the sounds of her own cats so you can go and listen so as to compare to what the science indicates.

This is not going to be a book for everyone for just the reasons I’ve written about above. Some people are going to buy this book and expect a simplistic, almost comic book like approach to the subject and be disappointed by the serious tone. As I noted, that is what I thought it was going to be from the title. BUT I am a very eclectic reader and I found myself quite drawn into the science. The author also cleverly weaves tales of her cats throughout the book so that the reader does not get overwhelmed by all of the phonetics.

An interesting read for anyone looking to further their relationship with their furry family member. ( )

Wow, you can really tell that Ms. Schotz is very passionate about her work in the study of cats and they way they communicate. She is a pure cat lover. I am a dog lover. Yet, when I was younger there was some cats that graced our family. A true cat lover will really appreciate this book. In fact, it would make the perfect gift for the cat lover in your life. Whereas, to be honest, because I am more of a dog lover, I did like this book but maybe not as much as I should have. So, you may ask why did I read this book. It is because I did find the premise of the book intriguing and wanted to check it out.

After reading this book, you can say that I became more educated as well as well versed in all of the different expressions of the vocabulary that cats use. Ms. Schotz explains her research in a very easy and understandable way. As I said previously, I learned a lot about cats that I never knew before. Although, as much as I did like the information in this book; I did find that it seemed to be lengthy and after a while, I found it hard to focus at times. Kind of skimming at times the book. ( )