The Cat and the Curmudgeon

I think this book can best be described as witty and charming. There is much affection and great attention to detail in Mr. Amory's description of his relationship with his cat. Cleveland Amory has a fabulously funny way of describing his cat Polar Bear's personality.

Amory seems less funny when he describes his own life. However, when he gets to talking about animal advocacy, a role that he took with much seriousness during his life, his writing once again begins to shine.

This book is light reading. Don't miss the part where Amory talks about his experience trying to pill his cat. Polar Bear simply does not take pills!

This a perfect book to read all the way though or simply one chapter at a time when you need a laugh and would show more especially enjoy some laughs about a cat. show less

3.75 stars

This is the second book Amory has written about Polar Bear, the white cat he rescued off the street one Christmas. Polar Bear is older in this one, and according to Amory, both he and Polar Bear are curmudgeons. Each chapter has a slightly different focus, but some themes include fame/celebrity (from the first book), movies, romance, and Amory's animal sanctuary.

I quite liked it, but I find Amory to be very similar to me in my thoughts on animals and how they should be treated, so I'm sure that helped with my enjoyment, as well. I loved the chapter on the ranch (the sanctuary) that described some of the animals there and the things they'd been through. I also loved that he named the ranch after Black Beauty and talked a little show more bit about the book (which I've very recently reread). A lot of the book didn't specifically focus on Polar Bear, but he was always brought into the mix somehow! show less

Cleveland Amory is the the P.J. O'Rourke of the animal world. I can't resist quoting one of my favorite passages in a book filled with humor.

"Hunters have never seemed to understand what I have tried to do for them. As far back as 1963, for example, on the Today show I announced the formation of a new club -- one to be called the "Hunt the Hunters Hunt Club." All the club ever tried to do was to define the word "conservation" for the hunters the way they have always defined it for the animals. We were shooting them, in other words, for their own good. But from the beginning the hunters made no effort to understand this, even though we made clear we never used words like "shooting" or "killing." Instead we used the hunters' own words -- show more words with which they would feel comfortable -- "culling," "trimming," "harvesting," or just "taking." We wanted them to understand that if we didn't take them, in no time at all there would be too many of them. They would be crowding the woods and the fields and the roads, and they would be breeding like flies. All we really asked of the hunter, when you came right down to it, was for him to take the long-term view. In the end we both wanted, after all, the same thing -- we both wanted a stronger herd. We even asked them directly if they had ever seen a hunter out there in the middle of the winter, starving in the woods. It was not a pretty sight. The hardest criticism we had to take was that the "Hunt the Hunters Hunt Club" had no season on hunters. Nothing could have been further from the truth. The club's very second rule forbade members to take hunters -- and I quote: "within city limits, in parked cars or in the dating season." And the third rule clearly stated that, after harvesting their hunter, members were not to -- and l quote again -- "drape him over the automobile or mount him when they got home." Mounting the cap or jacket, we felt, was in better taste." show less

We first met Polar Bear, Amory's rescued white cat, in "The Cat Who Came for Christmas". This is a follow-up to that story, written in much the same style.

This is less of a story, though. It is more a series of anecdotes of life with Polar Bear, ranging from the peripheral to the central role. We explore fame as it relates to a cat, astrology, film, the Black Beauty Ranch, and Polar Bear's effect on Amory's romantic life here. All is written in Amory's signature style, which has a kind of childlike simplicity combined with a curmudgeonly ego.

I am glad that, once again, we are invited into Amory's passion: the Fund for Animals, which he founded and led for many years. His love for animals of all kinds led to the rescue of many, probably show more most notable the hundreds of burros from Nevada lands. At one point in the book Amory heads to the Black Beauty Ranch with Polar Bear, to introduce the cat to the rescued animals. Polar Bear maintains his dignity and self-worth through all of the introductions.

It's an entertaining, light read that I hope has inspired some to think more seriously about the lives of other animals on this planet. show less

If you don't like cats and have no sense of humor, don't waste any time with this book. I gave every book in the series five stars because they're well-written and a lot of fun.

Boring. Amory came up with a few cute turns of phrase, but I found his interpretation of his cat's behavior to be implausible... not that a cat couldn't be & do all that, but it was much more likely that the bachelor was projecting what he wanted & assumed on the cat. And in any case neither critter was one I'd like to spend any time with, irl or even on paper. I managed to get to p. 89 (in part because of the quotes from fan mail that were actually interesting) but finally I said to heck w/it.

I think cats are cool. I'm still looking for a great book from someone who actually respects them for what they are, loves them anyway, and writes interestingly. Do you know any?

January 1, 1991
December 28, 2014

This book is both a look at the business of being a writer and even more about the Fund for Animals and its rather daring efforts to stop the clubbing of baby seals and the illegal killing of whales. So, progress, yay! It is fascinating to see how far animal rights has come, in large part because of the efforts of this one man who cared so much. Sometimes I need the reminder that change is possible.

Personal, signed copy.